Little Dream Race Set For Rice Lake Speedway July 30th
By Ed Reichert
Rice Lake WI – The nationally famous Street Stock Little Dream Race is set to be run on Tuesday night, July 30th at the Rice Lake Speedway. This event is one of the most highly anticipated races on the area racing calendar and this year’s edition, set to be run for the thirtieth consecutive time, looks to break a number of records this year.
Famous for its unique concept where fans and area businesses contribute to the purse and primarily to the winner’s earnings, The Dream started way back in 1995 as a modest race where a few fans started throwing extra money into the purse and winner Eric Olson went home with $780, a nice prize back in the day. And what was perhaps most unique about the race was that fans also threw in money for other reasons, such as the first finishing Ford, the first driver to flip or wreck, and for various other crazy and unusual happenings that might occur during the race.
The idea caught on and the race grew. The second year the winner’s share went over a thousand dollars and it has climbed ever since. In 2023, winner Keith Tourville took home twenty nine thousand, four hundred and eleven dollars as an event record was broken once again.
Tourville is one of three multi time winners of this event expected to be in Tuesday night’s field. Tim Johnson, the race’s only three time winner expected to race on Tuesday, has taken home over forty two thousand dollars from race winnings in this race while Nick Traynor, winner of this race in 2020 and 2022, has banked over fifty four thousand dollars in feature race winnings alone. One time winners Jay Kesan, Sam Fankhauser and Danny Richards are also expected to enter the race.
With this being the thirtieth edition of the event, race organizers Chris Stepan and Scott Tiefs, along with FYE Motorsports Promotions and Rice Lake Speedway LLC, the new owners of the track, are all working very hard to ensure that the event record is broken. The goal is to pay thirty for thirty in 2024.
The event record for entries, set at sixty six in 2019, is also expected to be challenged.
The thirtieth edition for the Street Stock Little Dream Race for WISSOTA Street Stocks will see the drivers qualify for the main event using passing points earned in two rounds of heat races. Last Chance races will be held to complete the field before the thirty five lap main event decides the winner. A Non Qualifier race, for those that don’t make the main will also be held paying five hundred dollars to win with the winner having the option of forfeiting that money and starting in the back of the main event.
Only Street Stocks will be racing on that night as they take center stage for this very special event.
As has been the policy for the new owners, there will be no upcharge for this special event with regular Saturday night admission prices in effect. There is also no entry fee for the racers.
The pits will be open all day for early arrivals with the pit gates officially opening at 4 pm. The spectator gates will open one hour later with the cut off for drivers being 6:30 pm with the driver’s meeting and hot laps also scheduled for that time. Race time will be 7 pm sharp.
For additional information on this event or the rest of the racing season at the Rice Lake Speedway, go to the track website at www.ricelakespeedway.net or the speedway face book page. There will be a link on Tuesday for fans that are watching the race on tv to contribute to the purse also.
The Rice Lake Speedway is a third mile dirt track located one mile North of Rice Lake Wisconsin midway between state highway 48 and Barron County highway SS. The track phone number is 715-236-2002.
