Cimfl, Rahn And Chaplin Win First Rice Lake Speedway Features
By Ed Reichert
Rice Lake WI, July 27 – Along with the Solution Heating and Cooling 30 for WISSOTA Late Models won by Chad Mahder, four other WISSOTA classes were also in action on Saturday night. Winning their first feature wins of the season at the speedway were Cody Cimfl in the Midwest Modifieds, Joe Chaplin Jr in the Modified class and James Rahn in the Pure Stocks. For Cimfl, it was his first ever win in the class while for the other two it was their first wins here this season. Simon Wahlstrom became a repeat winner as he took his second Super Stock feature win to round out the program.
For Cody Cimfl, his first win was one that at least partially helped to ease the bad feelings that were left over from a feature race earlier this year when he believed he had won his first main, only to come up light on the scales and be disqualified from the win. There were no such problems on Saturday although the win was not decided until the last few feet of the race as he edged out Blake Adams by the narrowest of margins in a wild three car battle right to the finish.
Although Cimfl was scored the race leader for all fifteen laps, it was a much more difficult win than that statistic might indicate. While Cody took the immediate lead from the outside pole, he was challenged by both Mark Thomas and Dave Baxter in the early going. Those two traded the second spot back and forth between them in the first three laps before a spin slowed the action.
The drivers then got stuck on that lap mark with three more yellows for spins before another lap could be scored, with Thomas getting turned around to trigger the final one. He was restored to his position and the race then would go to the checkers.
Following that last yellow, Adams was the driver on the move as he went to the cushion, found it to be fast and began picking off drivers as he moved up from his fifth running spot. Despite the front end of his car being bashed up from the first yellow of which he was a part of, he was flying as he moved to the front.
Baxter and Adams had a great battle for second before Blake prevailed and in the closing laps he pulled in on Cimfl and they went side by side for the lead. The final tour found them side by side exiting the fourth turn and in the rush to the finish, marking by steam pouring from the Adams car, Cimfl edged out his young challenger by .039 seconds for his first ever Midwest Modified feature win at Rice Lake driving the Herrman Farms #19H. Adams settled for a very close second with Baxter, Mike Schnider and Thomas completing the top five.
The Super Stock feature had all the makings of a great race early, with the lead being swapped four times among three different drivers before things went downhill in a grinding and crashing manner.
Kori Richter got the jump on pole sitter Simon Wahstrom and led the opening lap, only to see Wahlstrom return the favor and jump into the lead on lap two. Alex Myers was flying from the second row and he came up, passed both those in front of him and took the lead on lap three. Wahlstrom would fight back and lead lap four and it looked like a real dandy was brewing.
But then it happened. Myers got sideways on the back chute in very heavy traffic and before he could get straigthened out, he was impacted in the rear, cars started spinning and as the pack bore down on them, more and more cars crashed into each other, producing the biggest wreck of the season to date. At least ten cars were a part of the grinding wreck with seven of then being hauled from the track by wrecker and done for the night.
But the crashes still weren’t done either. The attempted restart saw another driver spin in turn one with three more cars impacting and all four of these drivers would also be done for the race. The biggest field of the night at nineteen drivers was suddenly reduced to seven.
After all this, there was plenty of room to race and Wahlstrom would take advantage, pulling away from Eric Olson who had continued despite a beat up car of his own. Wahlstrom opened up a big lead and was not challenged as he drove on for his second win of 2024 at the track. Olson finished second while Randy Graham had a consistent run to finish third.
The Modifieds were a late addition to the racing program for this night but there were enough of them to produce a pair of heat races, leading to their twenty lap main event. Their first attempt to complete a lap went no better than the Super Stocks had done, as leader Aiden Hoffman was turned around in turn four and the resulting impact eliminated him and two other drivers from the race before a lap could be scored.
The second attempt at a start saw Kyle Helling take the lead and hold that spot for the next three laps before Kevin Adams, flying up from the fourth row, would blow past Helling to take over the top spot.
Adams pulled out to a big advantage when he suddenly slowed on the front stretch dramatically with all but the final car running managing to avoid him. However, he got clipped by that car and received a flat tire along with the other damage. Adams would go to the work area and return to the track but would later be asked to leave as the repairs took longer than that allowed time limit.
Chaplin Jr inherited the lead following Adams’ problems and he would not squander the opportunity, leading the final twelve laps to take the win, his first of the year at the track. Austin Ellis got past Helling for second and ran the rest of the race in that position while Brent Prochnow had another solid run to finish in third.
In a very balanced Modified division this year, Chaplin Jr becomes the seventh different feature winner already in 2024.
Rahn had perhaps the easiest route to his feature win. He started on the pole of the Pure Stock feature and was scored the leader for all twelve laps of the race. The yellow flag fever that plagued the night also affected this race which was slowed five times for spins. George Richards gave Rahn a great battle for the lead, pushing hard to try and get past until he tried too hard and spun at the halfway mark while running second.
This gave Bob Wahlstrom the second spot and he would trail Rahn the rest of the event but couldn’t challenge for the lead. Rahn’s win was his first of the year and he became the fifth different Pure Stock winner of the season while earning his tenth overall feature win in the class. Richards drove the wheels off his car as he came from the back of the pack to get back up to third, ahead of Bob Thompson and Charlie Pitcavage.
Following the Street Stock Little Dream race, scheduled for Tuesday night, July 30 with a July 31 raindate, the speedway will be off until August 10th. On that night, it will be Jam The Stands night with spectator admission tickets being just $5. All five WISSOTA divisions will be in action that night for one of the season’s best bargains. Race time will be 6 pm.
7/27/2024
Rice Lake Speedway
Results
10 entries
WISSOTA Modifieds
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 5-Joe Chaplin Jr[6]; 2. 20-Austin Ellis[4]; 3. 78-Brent Prochnow[7]; 4. 3JR-Shane Halopka[5]; 5. 20C-Denny Cutsforth[9]; 6. (DNF) 10-Kyle Helling[2]; 7. (DNF) 40-Kevin Adams[8]; 8. (DNF) 204-David Mayala[10]; 9. (DNF) 37-Travis Anderson[3]; 10. (DNF) 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[1]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 40-Kevin Adams[2]; 2. 78-Brent Prochnow[1]; 3. 20-Austin Ellis[5]; 4. 10-Kyle Helling[3]; 5. 20C-Denny Cutsforth[4]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Joe Chaplin Jr[4]; 2. 3JR-Shane Halopka[2]; 3. 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[3]; 4. 37-Travis Anderson[5]; 5. 204-David Mayala[1]
19 entries
WISSOTA Super Stock
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[1]; 2. 1E-Eric Olson[12]; 3. 57-Randy Graham[10]; 4. 1M-Alex Myers[4]; 5. 1776-Wayne Dean[6]; 6. 22AT-Austin Tilton[18]; 7. (DNF) 14-Kori Richter[2]; 8. (DNF) 01-Michael Anderson[15]; 9. (DNF) 22-Clay Albrecht[11]; 10. (DNF) 71X-William Fisher[17]; 11. (DNF) 33-Curt Myers[8]; 12. (DNF) 14X-Leslie Leu[3]; 13. (DNF) 1-Ryan Olson[5]; 14. (DNF) 20-Cory Davis[7]; 15. (DNF) 90-Adam Pratt[9]; 16. (DNF) 20*-Andrew Davis[13]; 17. (DNF) 21-Mike Siewert[16]; 18. (DNF) 02-Travis Anderson[19]; 19. (DNF) 28-Josh Cappo[14]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1M-Alex Myers[2]; 2. 33-Curt Myers[6]; 3. 14X-Leslie Leu[1]; 4. 57-Randy Graham[5]; 5. 20*-Andrew Davis[3]; 6. 21-Mike Siewert[4]; 7. (DNF) 02-Travis Anderson[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[6]; 2. 20-Cory Davis[3]; 3. 1776-Wayne Dean[4]; 4. 22-Clay Albrecht[1]; 5. 28-Josh Cappo[2]; 6. 71X-William Fisher[5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Ryan Olson[3]; 2. 14-Kori Richter[4]; 3. 90-Adam Pratt[1]; 4. 1E-Eric Olson[6]; 5. 01-Michael Anderson[2]; 6. 22AT-Austin Tilton[5]
14 entries
WISSOTA Midwest Mods
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 19H-Cody Cimfl[2]; 2. 40D-Blake Adams[6]; 3. 35B-David Baxter[5]; 4. 7-Mike Schnider[8]; 5. T25-Mark Thomas[3]; 6. 1-Jake Stai[7]; 7. 48-Cole Kelley[4]; 8. 23DD-George Dalbeck[9]; 9. 101-Michael Grover[14]; 10. 78-Bently Prochnow[12]; 11. 39-Rusty Taber[1]; 12. (DNF) 88K-Donavan Knutson[10]; 13. (DNF) 09-Skylar Findley[11]; 14. (DNF) 1848-Matthew Findley[13]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Mike Schnider[1]; 2. 1-Jake Stai[2]; 3. 48-Cole Kelley[4]; 4. T25-Mark Thomas[6]; 5. 23DD-George Dalbeck[7]; 6. 09-Skylar Findley[3]; 7. 1848-Matthew Findley[5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[1]; 2. 19H-Cody Cimfl[4]; 3. 35B-David Baxter[3]; 4. 39-Rusty Taber[5]; 5. 101-Michael Grover[2]; 6. 88K-Donavan Knutson[6]; 7. 78-Bently Prochnow[7]
15 entries
WISSOTA Pure Stock
A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 23R-James Rahn[1]; 2. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[8]; 3. 5R-George Richards[6]; 4. 7D-Trevor Phillips[14]; 5. 81-Charlie Pitcavage[11]; 6. 70-Bob Thompson[9]; 7. 12-Aaron Holmberg[5]; 8. 24H-Devon Holub[3]; 9. (DNF) 18M-Leo Moos[4]; 10. (DNF) 4K-Terry Kemp[15]; 11. (DNF) 8-Dylan Salzgeber[10]; 12. (DNF) 55-Caleb Duffie[13]; 13. (DNF) 17-Brian DeNucci[2]; 14. (DNF) 15H-Dusten Holub[12]; 15. (DQ) 52W-Austin Fencl[7]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5R-George Richards[1]; 2. 18M-Leo Moos[3]; 3. 23R-James Rahn[4]; 4. 12-Aaron Holmberg[5]; 5. 70-Bob Thompson[7]; 6. 8-Dylan Salzgeber[8]; 7. (DNF) 55-Caleb Duffie[6]; 8. (DNF) 4K-Terry Kemp[2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[6]; 2. 52W-Austin Fencl[4]; 3. 17-Brian DeNucci[7]; 4. 24H-Devon Holub[1]; 5. (DNF) 81-Charlie Pitcavage[3]; 6. (DNF) 15H-Dusten Holub[5]; 7. (DNF) 7D-Trevor Phillips[2]
