More New Winners at Rice Lake Speedway Firecracker

By Ed Reichert

Rice Lake WI, July 3 – Continuing a pattern of young drivers winning their first ever feature races at the Rice Lake Speedway in 2021, another youngster too young to hold a valid Wisconsin driver's license won his first ever Street Stock feature here to top the action during the holiday Firecracker special Saturday night at the Rice Lake Speedway
.
In front of a big holiday crowd on hand to enjoy the races and the annual fireworks display, fifteen year old Ty Agen, following the lead set by twelve year old Caden Blaeser earlier this year, led his feature race from start to finish to earn his first ever feature win here at the Rice Lake Speedway. Another driver also earned a significant achievement when C.J. Wagner won his first ever Midwest Modified feature race also on Saturday. Other winners included Ryan Olson, Nick Traynor and Kevin Adams during the holiday special.

Agen's big win came over a strong field of Street Stocks but he dominated the race, leading from start to finish. While Agen got a great start, showing big speed as he pulled away from the early race pack, a big battle took place for second as Joe Ott fought to hold off Jeff Nowak and Shawn Amundson. While the race remained under the green, Agen continued to stretch his lead, motoring out to nearly a full straightaway lead while the pack battling for second numbered around six.

Finally, Nowak was able to slip past Ott for second and he took off after the leader while Amundson, Jason Havel and Hunter VanGilder fought hard for position behind the top two. Nowak began to pare into the lead held by Agen but it looked like Ty's margin would hold up as the laps ran down. However, with only three laps to go, a tangle between a couple of cars slowed the action in the race for the first time and set up a pressure packed conclusion.

The single file restart had hardly taken the green before the yellow flew for a second spin and the final three laps would have to be started once again. However, Agen proved worthy of this win as on the final green he would get a strong restart and put distance between himself and Nowak as the pack raced to the checkered flag. Nowak tried to close up the distance on the final lap but Agen was smooth and fast and the win was his in front of a appreciative crowd. Nowak got another strong finish with his runner up honors and the three way slug fest for third went to Amundson over Havel and VanGilder.

The Street Stock division continues to be the most hotly contested division at the track as Agen's win marked the seventh different victor in eight nights of racing.

The other most noteworthy achievement of the night was recorded by Wagner when he won his first ever Midwest Modified feature race. Wagner, who has grown up at the track as a driver and has raced Pure Stocks, Street Stocks and Super Stocks in recent years, is now in a Midwest Modified but Saturday was the first time for him to visit victory lane in that division. Early on though, it looked like veteran driver Fran Hanson was also going to visit victory lane here for the first time as he led the first half of the main event. Hanson had started on the pole and got a great early run as he opened up some distance on the field. However, as this race also remained under the green for an extended period of time, gradually a pack of four drivers would start to close in on the leader with Wagner leading that group.

On lap nine, Wagner dropped to the inside line and was able to drive past Hanson and take over the lead. However, Fran would not give up easily and he crossed Wagner over, taking the lead again for one lap before Wagner again took over the top spot. These two were joined by Austin Ellis and Simon Wahlstrom in a four car battle.

Unfortunately, Hanson's great run would end on lap thirteen when he would spin and trigger the only yellow of the race. This set up a three car, three lap battle for the win. Wagner would take the lead while Ellis would dive low and try to slip under him on each corner. As Ellis continued to try that, Wahlstrom would complicate the situation by challenging Ellis for second. As Wagner maintained his lead, the other two challengers would swap positions twice in the final two laps and while Wagner would fight them both off to earn his significant win, Ellis would make a last corner move to ensure second was his over Wahlstrom. Shadow Kitchner would run a strong race also to finish fourth ahead of Josh Wahlstrom.

Except for one small error on a restart, fans were in line to see a third driver get his first ever win at Rice Lake in his division as Tucker Quinn led the first thirteen laps of the Super Stock feature race and was doing a great job until a yellow flag proved to be his downfall. Quinn had started in the second row but quickly moved past Josh Saunders and Mike Siewert to take the early lead and once in front, he started to put significant distance on the field. As he continued to lead, again a battle developed for the second spot with Andrew Davis driving a great race as he held off Nick Traynor, Eric Olson and Simon Wahlstrom, again doing double duty.

Davis maintained that second position for a number of laps until first Traynor and then Olson was able to slip past him. The race remained under the green and Quinn continued to lead but Traynor was starting to slice into his margin. If the race had remained under the green, it would have been close as to who the winner would be but with thirteen laps complete, Rob Holmstrom Jr lost the driveshaft in his car and the yellow was required.

And on the green flag, Quinn made his only mistake of the race as he got about one groove too high in turn one and gave Traynor just enough room to slip past him and take over the lead. Once in front, Traynor was able to extend his advantage over the field in the final laps that remained under the green. Quinn got rolling after his error though, and fought off a severe challenge from Olson to finish a strong second with Wahlstrom and Bart Steffen completing the top five. For Traynor, he now leads the division as this win was his third of the season at Rice Lake.

Adams would break the logjam at the top of the winner's board in the Modified class as he would record his third victory of the season at Rice Lake. He came from the fourth row to take the win and wasted little time as he made a spectacular pass, splitting early leaders Steve Hallquist and Ross Prochnow as the three raced into turn three and he came out of the corner with the lead which he would then expand over the rest of the race.

While Adams moved away from the field, the battle for second became a good one and Devin Fouquette came from the fifth row to slip under Hallquist in the late going and get the second place. His run would be one of the best of the night as he worked the low line on the track to his advantage with some other new names in the top five with Tony Schill and Prochnow both finishing out top five runs.

The Pure Stocks would wrap up the night with a closely contested main event that saw Ryan Olson lead from start to finish to get the win. While he led every lap, he was pressured by a large pack of cars directly behind him that were swapping positions numerous times. A yellow flag at mid race proved significant as second place runner Randy Graham pulled up lame on the green and limped into the infield which left the battle for that position to Nicholas Hazelton and Travis Hazelton as the drivers, who share a trailer to the track, would settle the runner up honors themselves. Right behind them, Max Prusak and Tristan Scheuermann would also be going side by side for position after having started in the fifth and fourth rows respectively.

Olson would retain his edge, small at it was and would not allow the battling Hazelton's to close on him as he drove home for his second win of the year after winning his first ever at the track earlier this year. The battle for second was a nail biter with Travis edging out Nicholas by inches. However, Nicholas was judged for having jumped the final restart and was set back two positions for doing so, which meant that the battle behind them, won by inches by Scheuermann, would be for third. Prusak would settle for fourth with Nicholas behind him.

Next Saturday night, July 10th, will be the night for the Super Stocks to race for extra money. The No Mystery feature race for the Super Stocks will pay the winner $1,000 for their efforts while the other four classes will run a regular program of heats and features. The Super Stock portion of the show will be a draw/redraw event while the other four classes will be on point average as per usual. Race time is 7 pm. Next week's Super Stock No Mystery event is being presented by DCS Netlink.

On July 17th there will be no racing at the track in deference to the Barron County Fair which will be in full swing at that time and then racers will return on July 24th which will be Hall of Fame night when Rich Bishop, Jason Hensel, Loren Miller and the late Woody Kurtzhals will be added to the Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Fame.

In a scheduling note, the Kid's Night activities, which were rained out on June 26th, will be rescheduled for August 14th which will include Bike races and the No Mystery $1,000 to win Midwest Modified feature. The rescheduled date for the Street Stock No Mystery race which was also rained out on June 26th, will be announced in the coming days. Watch the speedway face book page for that announcement.

Media Results
Results formatted for use in newspapers, magazines, and online publications.

12 entries

WISSOTA MODIFIEDS

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 40-Kevin Adams[8]; 2. 15F-Devin Fouquette[9]; 3. 27H-Steve Hallquist[2]; 4. 8S-Tony Schill[7]; 5. 78R-Ross Prochnow[6]; 6. 10-Kyle Helling[10]; 7. 20-Denny Cutsforth[11]; 8. (DNF) 18H-Mark Hanson[5]; 9. (DNF) 11-Sam Fankhauser[3]; 10. (DNF) 204-David Mayala[1]; 11. (DNF) 0-Zack Drews[4]; 12. (DQ) 33-Cooper Berlin[12]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 8S-Tony Schill[2]; 2. 27H-Steve Hallquist[1]; 3. 0-Zack Drews[3]; 4. 204-David Mayala[4]; 5. 15F-Devin Fouquette[6]; 6. 20-Denny Cutsforth[5]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 78R-Ross Prochnow[2]; 2. 40-Kevin Adams[3]; 3. 11-Sam Fankhauser[6]; 4. 18H-Mark Hanson[5]; 5. 10-Kyle Helling[1]; 6. (DNF) 33-Cooper Berlin[4]

14 entries

WISSOTA SUPER STOCK

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 40-Nick Traynor[7]; 2. 11-Tucker Quinn[4]; 3. 1E-Eric Olson[8]; 4. 46-Simon Wahlstrom[6]; 5. 2-Bart Steffen[5]; 6. 77-Josh Saunders[2]; 7. 20*-Andrew Davis[3]; 8. 67-Josh Bach[14]; 9. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[11]; 10. 01-Michael Anderson[12]; 11. 14L-Dylan Leu[9]; 12. 28-Josh Cappo[10]; 13. 21-Mike Siewert[1]; 14. (DNF) 22-Robert Holmstrom Jr[13]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 1E-Eric Olson[1]; 2. 40-Nick Traynor[5]; 3. 2-Bart Steffen[2]; 4. 11-Tucker Quinn[3]; 5. 14L-Dylan Leu[4]; 6. (DNF) 01-Michael Anderson[7]; 7. (DNF) 22-Robert Holmstrom Jr[6]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 20*-Andrew Davis[4]; 2. 21-Mike Siewert[6]; 3. 46-Simon Wahlstrom[7]; 4. 77-Josh Saunders[3]; 5. 28-Josh Cappo[1]; 6. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[5]; 7. (DNF) 67-Josh Bach[2]

14 entries

WISSOTA MIDWEST MODS

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 93-CJ Wagner[3]; 2. 20-Austin Ellis[6]; 3. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[7]; 4. 68-Shadow Kitchner[10]; 5. 19-Josh Wahlstrom[2]; 6. 4-Kenny Kincaid[4]; 7. 40-Mike Schnider[5]; 8. 63JR-Mitchell Larson[9]; 9. 03X-Bob Carver Jr[11]; 10. 28-Francis Hanson[1]; 11. 19H-Kevin Herrman[12]; 12. (DNS) 21-Jimmy Latvala; 13. (DNS) 65-Rusty Taber; 14. (DNS) 37-Travis Anderson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 93-CJ Wagner[2]; 2. 20-Austin Ellis[3]; 3. 40-Mike Schnider[1]; 4. 28-Francis Hanson[4]; 5. 63JR-Mitchell Larson[6]; 6. 03X-Bob Carver Jr[7]; 7. (DNF) 65-Rusty Taber[5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[4]; 2. 21-Jimmy Latvala[3]; 3. 19-Josh Wahlstrom[2]; 4. 4-Kenny Kincaid[5]; 5. 68-Shadow Kitchner[6]; 6. 19H-Kevin Herrman[7]; 7. (DNF) 37-Travis Anderson[1]

19 entries

WISSOTA STREET STOCK

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 26T-Ty Agen[2]; 2. 79N-Jeff Nowak[3]; 3. 30-Shawn Amundson[4]; 4. 5H-Jason Havel[5]; 5. 84-Hunter VanGilder[8]; 6. 24-James Clausen[6]; 7. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[13]; 8. 79-Joseph Ott[1]; 9. 40-Travis Loew[7]; 10. 12-Cody Kummer[9]; 11. 9-Adam Soltis[10]; 12. 17-Zach Beaulieu[12]; 13. 71X-William Fisher[16]; 14. 16-Warren Bartelt[15]; 15. 66-Eric Haupt[18]; 16. 4-Matt Bray[17]; 17. (DNF) 37-Mike Chaplin[11]; 18. (DNF) 1R-Cole Richards[14]; 19. (DNS) 14-Cole Neisius

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 26T-Ty Agen[2]; 2. 84-Hunter VanGilder[1]; 3. 24-James Clausen[4]; 4. 9-Adam Soltis[3]; 5. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[5]; 6. 71X-William Fisher[6]; 7. (DNF) 14-Cole Neisius[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5H-Jason Havel[3]; 2. 79N-Jeff Nowak[6]; 3. 79-Joseph Ott[1]; 4. 37-Mike Chaplin[4]; 5. 1R-Cole Richards[5]; 6. 4-Matt Bray[2]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 40-Travis Loew[5]; 2. 12-Cody Kummer[6]; 3. 30-Shawn Amundson[4]; 4. 17-Zach Beaulieu[1]; 5. 16-Warren Bartelt[3]; 6. (DNF) 66-Eric Haupt[2]

19 entries

WISSOTA PURE STOCK

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 1-Ryan Olson[2]; 2. 31-Travis Hazelton[7]; 3. 2S-Tristan Scheuermann[9]; 4. 66P-Max Prusak[8]; 5. 2B-Nicholas Hazelton[1]; 6. 15H-Cody Cimfl[6]; 7. 70-Bob Thompson[10]; 8. 63-Ken Larson[12]; 9. 101-Michael Grover[11]; 10. 52F-Austin Fencl[19]; 11. 52-Zachary Folz[13]; 12. 4K-Terry Kemp[17]; 13. 91-Michael Holmstrom[15]; 14. 72-Cully Butterfield[14]; 15. 23-Skylar Findley[18]; 16. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[3]; 17. (DNF) 57-Randy Graham[4]; 18. (DNF) 23R-James Rahn[5]; 19. (DNF) 17G-Chris Gross[16]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Cody Cimfl[2]; 2. 31-Travis Hazelton[5]; 3. 66P-Max Prusak[4]; 4. 70-Bob Thompson[1]; 5. 52-Zachary Folz[3]; 6. 91-Michael Holmstrom[6]; 7. 17G-Chris Gross[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Tristan Scheuermann[2]; 2. 57-Randy Graham[6]; 3. 23R-James Rahn[3]; 4. 101-Michael Grover[4]; 5. 72-Cully Butterfield[5]; 6. (DNF) 23-Skylar Findley[1]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Ryan Olson[2]; 2. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[4]; 3. 2B-Nicholas Hazelton[1]; 4. 63-Ken Larson[5]; 5. (DNF) 4K-Terry Kemp[6]; 6. (DNF) 52F-Austin Fencl[3]