Rice Lake Speedway Hopes For April 20 Opener
By Ed Reichert
Rice Lake WI – The new ownership team for the Rice Lake Speedway, Kolby and Dean Kiehl along with Dick Kalow have been working overtime to get the Rice Lake Speedway open under their new leadership. Many projects have been completed while work continues at a breakneck pace, hoping to get even more things accomplished before they present the track to the racers and fans for the first time under their stewardship.
And that date has arrived. The Rice Lake Speedway LLC is scheduled to hold two practice sessions this year, on Tuesday night, April 16thand Wednesday night, April 17th. All cars in all classes are invited to use the track and tune up their racers for the new season, along with getting valuable laps for the new and younger drivers. The practice sessions are scheduled to be held from 6-9 pm on those two evenings. The grandstands will be open free of charge so fans can come out and look over the track and watch the drivers as they take practice laps. Keep checking the track’s social media outlets for any updates and other information.
And then for the biggie. The seventy second consecutive season of dirt track racing in Rice Lake, all at the same location, is slated to begin on Saturday night, April 20th as a five division program of WISSOTA auto racing will be held. The new owners are most anxious to present their new facility to the competitors and fans and let them see all the great improvements that have already been made to the track while making them also aware of much more that is yet to come.
The pit gate will open at 3 pm on April 20th and the grandstands will open one hour later. Cut off for the drivers is 5:30 pm and teams should note the new starting times which have been moved up one hour for 2024. Teams are asked to arrive early to get the necessary opening night paperwork completed and get their racers through tech inspection.
Among the many good news items is that gate admission for the spectators and pit fees for the competitors have not been raised for 2024, despite the increased purse that the drivers will be racing for.
By now, most everyone has checked their weather apps and have seen that the forecast for both the practice sessions and opening night is not the best. The best advise from the track management is to keep checking the sources that will provide the most up to the date information on just exactly what is happening and what the plan is, and that would be the track website and the track face book page. Calls may be made to the track also at 715-236-2002.
The Rice Lake Speedway is located one mile North of Rice Lake Wisconsin midway between state highway 48 and Barron County highway SS.
