By Ed Reichert

Rice Lake WI, May 29 – Darrell Nelson, the defending Structural Buildinigs WISSOTA Challenge Series champion, earned his first special event victory of the 2022 racing season as he topped the Trackside Collectibles 40 held here Sunday night at the Rice Lake Speedway. Nelson would lead all forty laps of the main event but his lead would shrink from a comfortable one early to only a car length as Pat Doar would challenge over the last half of the race and get very close in the final few laps of the contest. 

Eighteen drivers would take the green flag for the forty lap race with Nelson edging in front of fellow Twin Ports racer Tim McMann to take the early lead. Nelson would pull to a slight lead as McMann had Mike Prochnow all over him in the battle for second. The first yellow flag flew with five laps complete for a Steve Laursen spin and by this time eighth starting Doar would be up to the fourth spot. 

Nelson would continue to show the way with the battle intensifying between McMann and Prochnow for second. On lap ten, Prochnow would get past McMann for second, just one lap before the second yellow would fly for debris on the track. 

Only one lap later, the yellow would be out once again as Chad Mahder, who had just worked his way into the top five, would go for a spin and slow the action once again. 

As Nelson continued to lead, it was Doar that put the pressure on as he looked for a route past Prochnow and on lap sixteen he would make the pass and take over second just before Brad Loveday would tag the front stretch wall and slow the action once again. 

Following this slowdown, the drivers would have their longest stretch under the green flag as the next fifteen laps would be all out racing. Doar started to test the waters for a pass on Nelson as he closed and tried to make both an inside and outside move to take over the lead but Nelson remained firmly in front. Jake Redetzke was also on the move during this time as after starting ninth, he had worked his way up into the top five and was having a great battle for position with Ron Hanestad. 

Mahder would complete a most frustrating night when on lap thirty one, after going to the back and then racing all the way back up to fifth, he would again loop his car, triggering the fifth and final yellow and sending Chad to the pits. 

The last nine laps would see very intense racing as Doar tried to get past Nelson while behind them Redetzke and Hanestad would also be side by side. Doar tried going lower in turns one and two and made immediate inroads on the leader, getting to his rear bumper but just not quite having a good enough run to drop low past the leader. 

Doar backed up for one last run and he made an all out surge on the final two laps. He got the nose of the his car to the rear quarter panel of Nelson’s ride but that would be all the farther he could get and Nelson would maintain his solid line and cross the finish line with a car length lead to take the win. Prochnow would run a strong third in his first outing of 2022 and Redetzke would nip Hanestad for fourth. 

Rookie driver Kevin Burdick would have an impressive run after a slow start. He was the last car to arrive at the track and on the first lap of his heat, a tangle send his car off on the back of a wrecker. Starting eighteenth on the grid for the main, Burdick would make a bee line to the front and would end up in sixth position at the checkered flag, a great drive for him. 

Heat winners were Prochnow, Redetzke and Hanestad. Prochnow was the quickest during the heats, turning a lap of 14.180 seconds with the other two within a tenth or two in winning their heats. The track held up very well on Sunday and Nelson’s quick lap during the feature was right in the same range as the heat race winners. 

Nelson earned two thousand dollars for his win in the event backed by Loren Miller and Trackside Collectibles. For Darrell, it was his sixth all time feature win at Rice Lake in the Late Models but remarkably, his last win here before Sunday night’s triumph was way back in the 2003 racing season, a stretch of nineteen years since he last visited victory lane in a Late Model. 

Sunday night’s race was the first of three appearances for the Late Models at the Rice Lake Speedway this year. They will next be on the card on Saturday night, July 30^th .

Media Results

18 entries

WISSOTA LATE MODEL

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Structural Buildings A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 44-Darrell Nelson[1]; 2. 11-Pat Doar[8]; 3. 68-Mike Prochnow[4]; 4. 27-Jake Redetzke[9]; 5. 71H-Rick Hanestad[5]; 6. 30-Kevin Burdick[18]; 7. 11D-Tim McMann[2]; 8. 24L-Aaron Lillo[10]; 9. 32-Max Nelson[3]; 10. 85-John Kaanta[14]; 11. 31T-Trent Follmer[13]; 12. 73-Larry Fitzsimmons[12]; 13. 89-Scott Meeds[17]; 14. (DNF) 55C-Chad Mahder[6]; 15. (DNF) 1-Lukas Koski[7]; 16. (DNF) 1L-Brad Loveday[15]; 17. (DNF) 29F-Dave Flynn[16]; 18. (DNF) T18-Steve Laursen[11]

Joe Provo Racewear Heat 1 (12 Laps): 1. 68-Mike Prochnow[1]; 2. 11-Pat Doar[5]; 3. 11D-Tim McMann[2]; 4. 24L-Aaron Lillo[4]; 5. 31T-Trent Follmer[6]; 6. (DNF) 89-Scott Meeds[3]

Dirt Track Supply Heat 2 (12 Laps): 1. 27-Jake Redetzke[2]; 2. 32-Max Nelson[1]; 3. 55C-Chad Mahder[3]; 4. T18-Steve Laursen[4]; 5. 85-John Kaanta[6]; 6. 29F-Dave Flynn[5]

Best Western Hotel Resorts Heat 3 (12 Laps): 1. 71H-Rick Hanestad[1]; 2. 1-Lukas Koski[2]; 3. 44-Darrell Nelson[6]; 4. 73-Larry Fitzsimmons[3]; 5. 1L-Brad Loveday[4]; 6. (DNF) 30-Kevin Burdick[5]