Mahder 55 Late Model Event Moves to Rice Lake Speedway August 1st

By Ed Reichert

Rice Lake WI – Details have been finalized by event promoter and fundraiser Scott “Bulldog” Andersen and Mitch Hansen and Dave Adams, the owners of the Rice Lake Speedway, to move the fourth annual Mahder 55 Late Model event to the Rice Lake Speedway. This event, which honors the champion Late Model driver Duane Mahder, who was killed in November 2016 in a work place accident, has been held for the previous three years at the Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie WI.

Last week Red Cedar officials officially announced that the 2020 racing season at the Red Cedar Speedway has been canceled due to county restrictions relative to the Covid 19 pandemic.

With that in mind, Andersen went looking for a different track to host the fourth annual event and the Rice Lake Speedway was a logical choice. Mahder was also a Late Model champion at the Rice Lake track and was inducted into the speedway's Hall of Fame in 2017, the Summer following his death.

Negotiations were completed this week so that the official announcement could be made and the race will be held Saturday night, August 1st. WISSOTA Late Models will be the highlighted division on that night and will run a fifty five lap main event, the number of Mahder's Late Model, with the winner to receive $5,555 for the win. This date had been reserved for a Structural Buildings Challenge Series event at the track but when that series was also canceled due to pandemic concerns by WISSOTA, this opened up the date perfectly for the Mahder 55.

Andersen has been the chief organizer and fund raiser for this event since he started it four years ago with permission from the Mahder family. Andersen has been a long time friend of the family and did serve as a crew member from time to time on Mahder's pit crew.

He will now be working tirelessly in the short amount of time before the race to raise funds to secure the purse and add additional monies and product sponsorships to other finishing positions in the race.

Along with the Late Models, WISSOTA sanctioned Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds and Pure Stocks will be also racing that night. All classes will use the draw/redraw format for qualifying and there will be no track points awarded on that night. The cut off time on race night for competitors is 6:30 pm with warm ups and racing to follow.

With the announcement of this race, the result is a very impressive weekend of racing for Late Models in northern Wisconsin as this event follows by one day the Twin Ports Twin 25 Late Model event scheduled at the Gondik Law Speedway, just a short drive to the North of Rice Lake.

Special event pricing for this event will prevail and more information will be posted on the Rice Lake Speedway face book page and to other media sources soon.

Since this race will be upcoming soon, all race fans and businesses that are interested in helping out this event, which honors a racing champion and family man, are encouraged to contact Andersen soon as all contributions will go directly into the purse for the drivers, as has been the case since this race first started four years ago.

Scott “Bulldog” Andersen can be reached at 863-604-1245 or at bulldogracing95@yahoo.com.

Other questions about the race can be directed to either Adams at 715-205-2861 or Hansen at 715-205-1122.