Rice Lake Speedway Sets To Open; Doubleheader With Kart Opener Also Scheduled
By Ed Reichert
Rice Lake WI – After losing a month and a half of the season and having lost the first six races on the 2020 racing schedule , the Rice Lake Speedway is pleased to announce that the 2020 racing opener will be Saturday night, May 30th at 6:30 pm. It will be a busy day at the facility as The Speed Pit Kart Track will also open on Saturday too, with the Karts having hot laps at Noon and racing at 1 pm.
The opener will mark the latest season opener in track history as records indicate that the last time the track opened this late was in 1967 when the opener was on May 27th due to a number of early season rain outs. This year’s circumstances were much different although on at least three of the canceled events this year, Saturday rains would have likely canceled the show even if it weren’t for the health pandemic.
All five WISSOTA classes that race at the speedway will be in action including the Pure Stocks, Street Stocks, Midwest Modifieds, Super Stocks and Modifieds. It should be a year that brings some new names to victory lane as three of the five classes will find vacated defending point champions. Pure Stock titlist James Clausen has moved up to the Street Stocks while defending point champion in both the Midwest Modifieds and Modifieds, Kevin Adams, has moved up to the Late Models and will not be running at the track on a regular basis. Street Stock and Super Stock defending champions, Hunter VanGilder and Willie Johnsen Jr are both expected to return to defend their titles.
The race cars will be judged for the Best Appearing awards that will be handed out the second night of action and the Super Stock Bonus Night, scheduled for May 30th on the original schedule, will be rescheduled to a later date this Summer.
A new schedule for the season is expected to be announced within the week with a number of changes to be made, based on trying to reschedule some lost events and trying to avoid conflicts with other race tracks, who are having to deal with the same issues.
The pit gates will open at 3 pm on Saturday and drivers are asked to be as early as possible so that necessary opening night paperwork can be completed in a timely manner and the program can be started as scheduled.
A practice night is also scheduled for Thursday from 6-9 pm but this is tentative, depending on weather conditions over the next several days. Drivers and crews should be checked the speedway face book page for updates on that practice.
Dirt Race Central will be on hand to broadcast the races, both at the Kart Track and then swinging over to the Speedway for the evening event.
The speedway phone number is 715-236-2002 and Dave Adams can be reached at 715-205-2861 while Mitch Hansen’s number is 715-205-1122. Please check the speedway website at www.ricelakespeedway.net and face book page for updates and announcements as the week progresses.
