Parker Anderson Tops Rice Lake Speedway Modifieds; First Win For Former Street Stock Champion
By Ed Reichert
Rice Lake WI, May 14 – Upsets and surprise winners continue to be the trend in the early season racing at the Rice Lake Speedway. Saturday night, during the second show of the 2022 racing season, two drivers won their first ever feature wins in the class they were running in, including 2021 WISSOTA Street Stock National Champion Parker Anderson. Anderson, who moved up in division from the Street Stocks to the Modifieds, took less than a month of racing in the new class to get his first ever Modified feature win as he led from start to finish to take the first place prize.
Second year Pure Stock driver Bryar Zimmerman also was a first time feature winner while last year’s Midwest Modified runnerup Simon Wahlstrom took his first win of 2022. Other winners on a nice May night for racing included Nick Traynor and Kolby Kiehl.
Anderson started on the pole for the twenty lap Modified main event and got the jump on Sam Fankhauser to lead in the early going. As Fankhauser slipped back in the field, another Phillips driver, Cole Spacek, would move up quickly and race into the second spot after starting in the third row.
Anderson had built up an early race lead and Spacek set about trying to catch him as the race remained under the green flag. By the halfway point of the race, Anderson continued to maintain his lead over Spacek while a great battle for third saw Cole Anderson working to hold off last week’s feature winner Jack Rivord.
As the race remained under the green and Parker Anderson caught the back of the field, his lead started to shrink as Spacek pushed hard in the corners. Anderson, however, in the face of dealing with lapped traffic remained smooth on the track and didn’t let the pressure from Spacek drive him off course. In the final few laps, he had to deal with two lapped cars but he made the proper moves and didn’t lose any time. Spacek made one last all out charge on the final lap but Anderson had his line and there was no room for Spacek to attempt a pass and Parker Anderson would drive under the finish line to record the historic first win on his Modified career. After doing a victory celebration spin in turn three, Anderson would head to victory lane to celebrate. It was the second straight week that a rookie driver has won the Modified feature at Rice Lake and that first winner, Jack Rivord, made a last corner pass to finish third ahead of Cole Anderson with Kyle Helling having a good run to round out the top five in what turned out to be a nonstop main event.
The other driver to earn his first ever feature win on this night was Pure Stock driver Bryar Zimmerman. The second year driver would take the early lead from Bob Wahlstrom and would pace the field for twelve laps. The first attempt at a start was stopped quickly by a spin but the second attempt worked and Zimmerman would once again take a lead that he would not relinquish for the rest of the race, which would go nonstop after the first spin.
Zimmerman was very strong and he pulled away from the field, leaving Bob Thompson and Wahlstrom to battle for second after Bob took the spot away early in the contest. Zimmerman would continue to pace the field as no one could get close to him and he would drive on for a very impressive win. The last lap saw Thompson and Wahlstrom in a pitched battle for second with some contact going on but Thompson would hold on to the second spot with Wahlstrom close behind him. Defending track champion Ryan Olson would finish fourth while Cory Jorgensen would complete the top five after starting in the fifth row.
Nick Traynor would complete a lap fourteen pass on Nick Oreskovich and then hold off the challenges of Steve Stuart in the late going to win his first Super Stock feature race of the year. Oreskovich would start on the outside pole and ride the cushion to the early lead with with Traynor getting past track champion Eric Olson, who started on the pole to take over second.
Their battle would be a good one as Traynor would challenge Oreskovich on every corner but Nick was making the high line work, one of the few all night that could master that groove. Traynor would put a nose under Oreskovich on lap after lap but each time Nick would edge away to hold on to the lead.
Just past the halfway point, Traynor seemed to pick up the pace and his challenge of Oreskovich grew even more intense. On lap fourteen he was able to edge under Oreskovich and take over the lead, a position he would then hold on to for the last six laps.
A late yellow with four laps to go would give Stuart a chance to make his move and he would pass Oreskovich and take over the second spot. Stuart would give it his all but Traynor would hold off all challenges and take the Super Stock win, his eighth career feature win in the class. Eric Olson would run a consistent race to finish fourth while last week’s winner Terran Spacek would move up from the fifth row to round out the top five.
The Street Stock feature would be another clean one on this night with the field able to click off fifteen laps without a single yellow flag. Joe Ott would take the early lead from last year’s champion Travis Loew and lead the way for the first two laps. But on the move from the second row was Kolby Kiehl and he would drive past Ott to take over the point. Ott was having one of his firest runs ever and he would hold the second place for many laps, repelling challenges from a bunch of around at least a half dozen drivers that were changing positions on the track in every turn. Finally Shawn Amundson would get past Ott for second and try to track down the leader but Kiehl had too large of an advantage and would not be caught.
The laps clicked off quickly and Kiehl never slacked off on his lead as he drove home for a dominating win. Amundson would settle for second while Ty Agen made another impressive run, this week coming from eighth to finish a strong third. Hunter VanGilder also made a charge to get up to fourth with Loew rounding out the top five. The win for Kiehl was his first Street Stock win since the 2019 racing season.
The Midwest Modified feature would be the only one of the mains that saw a number of cars eliminated by collisions. However, all this was behind Simon Wahlstrom who would lead from start to finish to earn his first win of the year. He would get the jump on William Moelter early and put some distance on the field. However, behind him there was a swarm of cars battling closely for position with at least six in a clump. Unfortunately, a spin by a car while running second would collect three other drivers in the worst wreck of the night with all four eliminated from the contest. Then, Mike Schnider, running with the leaders, was forced off the track with suspension problems under yellow.
This really shook up the restart lineup and elevated Cody Carlson to second after he started ninth. The last half of the race ran off nonstop and Carlson made a concerted charge, catching up to Wahlstrom in the closing laps and making several strong attempts to take over the lead.
In fact, the two battling for the lead made solid contact in turn two on the final lap but both straightened out and kept going with Wahlstrom holding off Carlson by a car length at the finish. Their battle was so intense that they actually got locked together after crossing the finish line and they had to be pried apart before Wahlstrom could drive to victory lane. Brady Uotinen ran a consistent race to finish third with Dalton Mains and Kenny Kincaid advancing from the sixth and fifth rows respectively to complete the top five.
The Best Appearing Car awards were announced for all five divisions. Named as Best Appearing were Ryan Olson-Pure Stocks; James Clausen-Street Stocks; Kennedy Swam-Midwest Modifieds; Steve Stuart-Super Stocks and Austin Ellis-Modifieds. All but Ellis were on to collect their awards. Ellis had another important committment that took presidence over receiving his award, his graduation on Saturday from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The next two weeks will feature a lot of racing action at the speedway. On Saturday, May 21st, a five class program will be featured with racing beginning at 7 pm. Then on the following weekend, there will be a huge racing doubleheader. On Saturday, May 28th, the winged IRA Sprint Cars will be racing for the first time in a number of years at the track, featuring the fastest race cars on dirt. Then on Sunday, May 29th, The Trackside Collectibles 40 will be presented featuring the WISSOTA Late Models in their first appearance of the year at the track. Event sponsor Loren Miller has gone all out this year on the event which will offer $300 just for the drivers to start the forty lap feature. Both nights, WISSOTA sanctioned Pure Stocks, Street Stocks and Super Stocks will also be racing in full programs.
For more information on these events, check the speedway website at www.ricelakespeedway.net and the speedway face book page.
Media Results
16 entries
WISSOTA MODIFIEDS
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 27P-Parker Anderson[1]; 2. 22S-Cole Spacek[5]; 3. 19J-Jack Rivord[4]; 4. 97-Cole Anderson[3]; 5. 10-Kyle Helling[7]; 6. 43K-Kaden Blaeser[8]; 7. 20-Denny Cutsforth[11]; 8. 5-Joe Chaplin Jr[12]; 9. 621-Colin Chaschuk[6]; 10. 308-Pat Hoffman[14]; 11. 11-Sam Fankhauser[2]; 12. 18W-Wayne Poteet[10]; 13. 55-Taylor Olson[13]; 14. 204-David Mayala[15]; 15. 4A-Hunter Anderson[16]; 16. (DNF) 27H-Steve Hallquist[9]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 97-Cole Anderson[1]; 2. 10-Kyle Helling[2]; 3. 11-Sam Fankhauser[7]; 4. 27P-Parker Anderson[6]; 5. 27H-Steve Hallquist[4]; 6. 20-Denny Cutsforth[8]; 7. 55-Taylor Olson[3]; 8. 204-David Mayala[5]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 19J-Jack Rivord[4]; 2. 22S-Cole Spacek[6]; 3. 43K-Kaden Blaeser[8]; 4. 621-Colin Chaschuk[5]; 5. 18W-Wayne Poteet[2]; 6. 5-Joe Chaplin Jr[3]; 7. 308-Pat Hoffman[7]; 8. 4A-Hunter Anderson[1]
21 entries
WISSOTA SUPER STOCK
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 40-Nick Traynor[3]; 2. 80-Steve Stuart[4]; 3. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[2]; 4. 1E-Eric Olson[1]; 5. 22T-Terran Spacek[9]; 6. 26-Kyle Copp[7]; 7. 11-Tucker Quinn[8]; 8. 20*-Andrew Davis[6]; 9. 22N-Dan Nissalke[5]; 10. 75-Scott Geiger[11]; 11. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[12]; 12. 21-Mike Siewert[10]; 13. 77-Josh Saunders[14]; 14. 1776-Wayne Dean[13]; 15. 01-Michael Anderson[18]; 16. 29M-Michael Miller[15]; 17. 37-John Garrity[16]; 18. 28-Josh Cappo[17]; 19. (DNF) 22AT-Austin Tilton[21]; 20. (DNS) 57-Randy Graham; 21. (DNS) 24-Jase Lien
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 22N-Dan Nissalke[2]; 2. 11-Tucker Quinn[5]; 3. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[7]; 4. 21-Mike Siewert[1]; 5. (DNF) 01-Michael Anderson[6]; 6. (DNF) 57-Randy Graham[4]; 7. (DNF) 24-Jase Lien[3]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[1]; 2. 40-Nick Traynor[3]; 3. 20*-Andrew Davis[2]; 4. 75-Scott Geiger[4]; 5. 1776-Wayne Dean[5]; 6. 29M-Michael Miller[6]; 7. 28-Josh Cappo[7]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 22T-Terran Spacek[2]; 2. 26-Kyle Copp[3]; 3. 1E-Eric Olson[6]; 4. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[4]; 5. 77-Josh Saunders[1]; 6. 37-John Garrity[5]; 7. (DNF) 22AT-Austin Tilton[7]
21 entries
WISSOTA MIDWEST MODS
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[2]; 2. 32III-Cody Carlson[9]; 3. 9-Brady Uotinen[6]; 4. 7M-Dalton Mains[11]; 5. 4K-Kenny Kincaid[10]; 6. 64-Evan Checkalski[13]; 7. 28-Paul Ripley[12]; 8. 46-Zach Slayton[4]; 9. 28H-Francis Hanson[15]; 10. 3B-Austin Blom[18]; 11. 410-Jesse Young[17]; 12. 31-Jason Vokovan[16]; 13. 19H-Kevin Herrman[14]; 14. 18-Tacoma Randall[21]; 15. (DNF) 40S-Mike Schnider[3]; 16. (DNF) 89-Kolby Reed[20]; 17. (DNF) 87-William Moelter[1]; 18. (DNF) 33C-Cole Chernosky[7]; 19. (DNF) 18S-Kennedy Swan[8]; 20. (DNF) 93-CJ Wagner[5]; 21. (DNS) 88K-Donavan Knutson
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[1]; 2. 40S-Mike Schnider[2]; 3. 87-William Moelter[3]; 4. 4K-Kenny Kincaid[5]; 5. 64-Evan Checkalski[4]; 6. 31-Jason Vokovan[6]; 7. 88K-Donavan Knutson[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 18S-Kennedy Swan[2]; 2. 93-CJ Wagner[1]; 3. 33C-Cole Chernosky[4]; 4. 7M-Dalton Mains[3]; 5. 19H-Kevin Herrman[5]; 6. 410-Jesse Young[6]; 7. 89-Kolby Reed[7]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Brady Uotinen[3]; 2. 32III-Cody Carlson[5]; 3. 46-Zach Slayton[2]; 4. 28-Paul Ripley[1]; 5. 28H-Francis Hanson[6]; 6. 3B-Austin Blom[4]; 7. 18-Tacoma Randall[7]
16 entries
WISSOTA STREET STOCK
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[3]; 2. 30-Shawn Amundson[6]; 3. 26T-Ty Agen[8]; 4. 84-Hunter VanGilder[7]; 5. 40-Travis Loew[2]; 6. 79-Joseph Ott[1]; 7. 1R-Cole Richards[9]; 8. 9-Adam Soltis[4]; 9. 17-Zach Beaulieu[5]; 10. 24-James Clausen[11]; 11. 1M-Alex Myers[10]; 12. 71X-William Fisher[12]; 13. 12-Kammron Rose[14]; 14. 66-Eric Haupt[13]; 15. 22-James Taylor[16]; 16. 19H-Jenna Herrman[15]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 40-Travis Loew[1]; 2. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[4]; 3. 84-Hunter VanGilder[2]; 4. 9-Adam Soltis[3]; 5. 1R-Cole Richards[6]; 6. 24-James Clausen[5]; 7. 66-Eric Haupt[7]; 8. 19H-Jenna Herrman[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 26T-Ty Agen[2]; 2. 17-Zach Beaulieu[6]; 3. 79-Joseph Ott[1]; 4. 30-Shawn Amundson[3]; 5. 1M-Alex Myers[7]; 6. 71X-William Fisher[4]; 7. 12-Kammron Rose[5]; 8. (DNF) 22-James Taylor[8]
18 entries
WISSOTA PURE STOCK
A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 00Z-Bryar Zimmerman[1]; 2. 70-Bob Thompson[3]; 3. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[2]; 4. 1-Ryan Olson[4]; 5. 16-Cory Jorgensen[9]; 6. 23R-James Rahn[8]; 7. 17B-Aaron Bernick[6]; 8. 15H-Dusten Holub[7]; 9. 101-Michael Grover[5]; 10. 52-Zachary Folz[12]; 11. 81-Charlie Pitcavage[13]; 12. 52F-Austin Fencl[10]; 13. 12-Aaron Holmberg[11]; 14. 18M-Leo Moos[14]; 15. 26-Kevin Bartelt[15]; 16. (DNF) 17-Chris Gross[16]; 17. (DNF) 4K-Terry Kemp[17]; 18. (DNS) 29M-Rob Grabon
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 00Z-Bryar Zimmerman[1]; 2. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[2]; 3. 23R-James Rahn[6]; 4. 52F-Austin Fencl[4]; 5. 81-Charlie Pitcavage[3]; 6. (DNF) 17-Chris Gross[5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 16-Cory Jorgensen[2]; 2. 17B-Aaron Bernick[3]; 3. 15H-Dusten Holub[4]; 4. 12-Aaron Holmberg[1]; 5. 18M-Leo Moos[6]; 6. (DNF) 4K-Terry Kemp[5]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Ryan Olson[1]; 2. 70-Bob Thompson[6]; 3. 101-Michael Grover[5]; 4. 52-Zachary Folz[2]; 5. 26-Kevin Bartelt[4]; 6. (DNF) 29M-Rob Grabon[3]
