Rice Lake Speedway Racers Gather
By Ed Reichert
Rice Lake WI, Feb 15 – The Rice Lake Speedway held their annual awards banquet on Saturday night, February 15th at the Rice Lake Elks Lodge. For the first time, with the new kart track up and running on the speedway grounds, a combined banquet crowned champions from both tracks and the crowd was reported to be the largest ever turnout for a track banquet. Honored were the top ten drivers in track points in each of the track’s five divisions along with the six champions in the kart classes. Special awards were also given out and the 2019 season was reviewed along with the announcing of the 2020 track schedules for both the speedway and kart track.
Track co-owner Dave Adams spoke briefly about the 2019 season and then gave a preview of what the 2020 racing schedule will look like. The annual Cedar Mall car show will be held on April 2-4 with the on track activity starting with a practice session on Wednesday night, April 15th. The season opener will be on Saturday night, April 18th and will conclude with a doubleheader race program over Labor Day weekend.
Among the highlights of the 2020 schedule are four Late Model visits to the track this year with two Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series races scheduled. The Rice Lake Speedway will be one of two tracks in all of WISSOTA to feature two Challenge Series races with the August 1st race to be joined by one on the opening weekend of the series on Saturday, May 23rd. The annual Firecracker special will be held on Thursday night, July 2nd and the nationally famous Street Stock Little Dream race will be held on Tuesday night, August 4th with a rain date of August 5th. Special events for all classes that race at the track will be held over the course of the Summer with the season to conclude on Sept 5-6. The complete schedule is available at www.ricelakespeedway.net or on the speedway face book page.
Kevin Adams also spoke about the first year of the kart track which was built in the Spring of 2019 with racing commencing last Summer. He also released the schedule for that track and that will also be available on the speedway website.
The highly prized “Thanks a lot” award, that is given to someone involved with the speedway who’s efforts on behalf of the track merit special thanks this year went to Vance Birno of Fry Pan Productions for his help publicizing the track. This award was presented by track owners Dave Adams and Mitch Hansen.
Honored as the Pure Stock point champion was Ryan Clausen from Barron. Following him were Aaron Bernick, Bob Thompson, Ken Oftedahl, Jay Folz, George Richards, Mike Huebner Sr, Devin Fries, Austin Fencl and Cory Jorgensen.
The Street Stock point champion was Hunter Van Gilder from Rice Lake. Also honored were Andrew Hanson, C.J. Wagner, Kolby Kiehl, Will Fisher, Zach Beaulieu, Cody Kummer, Parker Anderson, Alex Minks and Jay Kesan.
The Midwest Modified champion was Kevin Adams from Cameron. He was chased in the points by Jamie Bisonette, Shane Halopka, Denny Cutsforth, Kenny Kincaid, Travis Anderson, Aric Lindberg, Austin Ellis, Craig Elliott and Fran Hanson.
The Super Stock point champion was Willie Johnsen Jr from Superior. He was followed by Adam Soltis, Curt Myers, Josh Bach, Eric Olson, Mickey Anderson, Luke Schultz, Simon Wahlstrom, Terran Spacek and Nick Traynor.
Kevin Adams won his second title in 2019 as he was also the Modified point champion. He was followed in the Modifieds by Pat Hoffman, Mike Anderson, Kyle Helling, Sam Fankhauser, Steve Hallquist, Dan Kingsley, Wayne Poteet, Cole Varsho and Dave Mayala.
Honored as Rookies of the Year at the track were Devin Fries-Pure Stock, Andrew Hanson-Street Stock, Duane Halverson-Midwest Modified, Josh Bach-Super Stock and Dan Kingsley-Modified. Hanson and Kingsley were also the national rookies of the year in their classes.
The kart divisions saw six drivers honored. Point champions were Carter Zimmerman-Rookie Cage; Tylar Alton-Jr. 1 And Jr. Wing; Riley Johnson-Jr. 2; Dylan Alton-Adult Grassroots and Kenny Porter-250 Wing.
Racing action in 2020 at the Rice Lake Speedway will continue under the WISSOTA sanctioning body with the Pure Stocks, Street Stocks, Midwest Modifieds, Super Stocks and Modifieds all being WISSOTA sanctioned.
For information on the Rice Lake Speedway, check out the latest news at www.ricelakespeedway.net or the speedway face book page. Call either Dave Adams at 715-205-2861 or Mitch Hansen at 715-205-1122 for track information or Kevin Adams at 715-642-0700 for information on the kart track.
