Sabraski Tops Super Stock Opener at Rice Lake; Dalbeck A Winner In MidMods

By Ed Reichert

Rice Lake WI, June 8 – The Fastlane Northland Super Stock Series made its first ever visit to the Rice Lake Speedway on Thursday night, June 8th and defending WISSOTA National Super Stock champion Shane Sabraski from Rice Minnesota would be the resounding winner as he led the main event from start to finish to take top honors. The Midwest Modifieds also raced on Thursday night and George Dalbeck drove down from Wakefield Michigan to join the action, a good choice for him as he would also end up in victory lane.

An impressive field of fifty two Super Stocks from throughout the WISSOTA region would sign in to race on a gorgeous Thursday night in early June with six heat races and three B Features needed to cut the field down to feature racing size. Once all qualifying was done, two provisional starters, one from the track and one from the series, were alled to the field and twenty six drivers would take the green flag for the twenty five lap main event.

The top drivers in qualifying would redraw for their starting spots in the main event and a power house front row would find defending Northland Super Stock Series champioin from 2022, Dylan Nelson, on the pole with Sabraski next to him on the outside. This would be a tough pair for anyone to get by and that proved to be the case as the race commenced.

Sabraski and Nelson would go side by side on the opening lap with Sabraski scored the leader of the opening circuit. Nelson would tuck in close to him with Nick Oreskovich closely following Nelson. There was plenty of side by side racing in the early going but with the green flag remaing displayed, Sabraski would start to open up some distance on Nelson, who was being pressured heavily by Oreskovich for second.

Sabraski was rolling through the middle of the turns on the shiny track and it was working for him as he gradually began to distance himself from the field as the race remained under green. Tim Johnson and Simon Wahlstrom moved into the top five with Wahlstrom coming from the fifth row to do so. Also on the move was Dexton Koch who started way back in the seventh row.

The best battle was for second as Oreskovich continued to pressure Nelson for second and finally made a low side move off turn two to take over the runner up honors. Meanwhile, Sabraski had caught the back of big pack and started lapping cars, and exercise that on this night didn't even slow him down as he naviagated through the slower running cars.

Finally, on lap seventeen, the first yellow of the race was triggered by a spin off turn two which bunched up the field and took away Sabraski's big lead. Another yellow flew before a lap could be completed for yet another spin but following that, the last nine laps of the race would go green to checkered.

Oreskovich had hoped to stay with and perhaps challenge Sabraski following the slowdown, but on this night, that would not be the case as Sabraski had the field “wired.” He would once again pull away, gradually increasing his lead until it was a comfortable one again as lapped traffic would not be an issue in the remaining laps.

The best battle was for the fourth spot and Wahlstrom was finally able to get past Johnson for that position near the end of the race. Koch would continue his impressive charge, cracking the top five before a last lap bobble cost him a couple of hard earned spots.

At the finish, Sabraski had a half straightaway lead over Oreskovich as he took the checkered flag from starter Jim Saul. Nelson would hold on for third and Wahlstrom would lead the local delegation home with his fourth place run and Johnson, in a borrowed car for the weekend, would complete the top five. Twenty one of the twenty six starters would still be on the track at the finish with all on the lead lap.

Sabraski has not been a frequent competitor at Rice Lake in recent years but he certainly remembered how to get the job done on Thursday. His win in the Super Stock was his fourth ever feature win in that division at Rice Lake but first since the 2015 racing season.

The Midwest Modifieds would also be in action on Thursday night and they put on an excellent main event with much passing that saw George Dalbeck move up from the fifth starting spot to eventually take the win after a hard battle to get to the front.

Seventeen cars would take the green flag and it would be the “Cowboy” from Buffalo Minnesota, Shane Howell, that would take the early lead. Only one lap would be completed however, before Landyn Randt suffered a major mechanical breakdown and stalled on the front chute, needing a wrecker to remove him from the track.

As Howell continued to lead, Shadow Kitchner moved up from the second row to challenge him and they raced around the track, side by side for several laps as they fought for the lead. Other drivers were also on the move and that included Dalbeck, Tyler Vernon and Travis Anderson.

Kitchner continued to work on Howell for the lead but he just couldn't make the pass when suddenly Dalbeck really picked up the pace as he split a pair of contenders and moved to the rear bumper of Howell.

On lap six George dove low in turn one and completed the pass, moving to the lead as Howell was now being challenged for second. At the halfway point of the race, Kitchner was still trying to get by Howell, now for second while Vernon has really picked up the pace and was challenging both.

A yellow with ten laps completed bunched the field and Vernon, who now had moved up to second, looked like he might be able to challenge Dalbeck for the lead. Howell was not being challenged by Anderson who was making a nice charge from row five.

The green flew for the last five laps and Dalbeck made sure that his win wasn't going to be taken from him, as he drove away from the pack, including Vernon who found that he couldn't keep up with the Michigan driver. The last few laps would see Dalbeck again increase his lead as he drove on for an impressive win over Vernon and a changing Anderson who got past Howell for third right at the end. James Trantina made his first appearance in the top five late as he edged past Kitchner for that spot.

Sixteen of the seventeen starters were still on the track at the finish with all on the lead lap in what was a very competitive and clean Midwest Modified event. Dalbeck's win was his third ever Midwest Modified feature win at Rice Lake but first since the 2019 racing season.

The next action at the Rice Lake Speedway will be on Saturday night, June 17th. The Super Stocks will be off so they can complete the Northland Super Stock tour that weekend but in their place, the Upper Midwest Sprint Series(UMSS) will make their first appearance at the track since 2019. Both Winged and Traditional Sprints will be on hand for a rare doubleheader program sponsored by Todd's Redi- Mix. Both classes of Sprints will run a full program and they will be joined by the WISSOTA sanctioned Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds, Street Stocks and Pure Stocks. Race time will be 7 pm and more information will be available on the speedway face book page.

6/8/2023

52 entries

WISSOTA SUPER STOCK

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 2. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[3]; 3. 25-Dylan Nelson[1]; 4. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[9]; 5. 81-Tim Johnson[6]; 6. 22T-Terran Spacek[15]; 7. 78K-Dexton Koch[14]; 8. 11-Tucker Quinn[7]; 9. 27-Matt Deragon[11]; 10. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[5]; 11. 24W-Chris Wark[22]; 12. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[25]; 13. 12-Cody Kummer[4]; 14. 57-Randy Graham[16]; 15. 26-Kyle Copp[12]; 16. 1E-Eric Olson[21]; 17. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[18]; 18. 5-Jason Havel[19]; 19. L1-Andrew Johnson[17]; 20. 25X-Chad Johnson[24]; 21. 14X-Leslie Leu[10]; 22. (DNF) 51JR-Shawn McFadden[20]; 23. (DNF) 21J-Joey Jensen[8]; 24. (DNF) 77-Scott Lawrence[23]; 25. (DNF) 21-Mike Siewert[13]; 26. (DNF) 28-Josh Cappo[26]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 5-Jason Havel[3]; 2. 24W-Chris Wark[5]; 3. 24L-Jase Lien[8]; 4. 3B-Austin Blom[1]; 5. XJR-Austin Harris[4]; 6. 32F-Brian Carl[7]; 7. 20*-Andrew Davis[6]; 8. 28-Josh Cappo[9]; 9. 4A-Allan Cleveland[12]; 10. (DNF) 34-Joe Miller[2]; 11. (DNS) 32H-Robert Holmstrom Jr; 12. (DNS) 9K-Kolby Kiehl

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[5]; 2. 77-Scott Lawrence[1]; 3. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[4]; 4. 19X-James Trantina III[2]; 5. 12T-Trent Brutger[3]; 6. 2-Don Livingston[6]; 7. 33-Austin Niemeyer[11]; 8. 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[10]; 9. 20-Chris Johnson[8]; 10. 17D-Lucas Christiansen[7]; 11. 6-Dan Peterson[9]

B Feature 3 (12 Laps): 1. 1E-Eric Olson[2]; 2. 25X-Chad Johnson[1]; 3. 24-Andy Grymala[4]; 4. 28B-Stefan Hogue[10]; 5. 22S-Mike Sirois[5]; 6. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[6]; 7. 82-Paul Gucinski[9]; 8. 214-Tucker Budreau[3]; 9. (DNF) 77L-Andy Ladd[7]; 10. (DNF) 22-Clay Albrecht[8]; 11. (DNS) 01-Michael Anderson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Dylan Nelson[1]; 2. 11-Tucker Quinn[7]; 3. 21-Mike Siewert[2]; 4. 3B-Austin Blom[3]; 5. 5-Jason Havel[5]; 6. 24W-Chris Wark[4]; 7. 2F-Jeffrey Frey[9]; 8. (DNF) 9K-Kolby Kiehl[6]; 9. (DNF) 01-Michael Anderson[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[2]; 2. 21J-Joey Jensen[3]; 3. 78K-Dexton Koch[8]; 4. 77-Scott Lawrence[4]; 5. 12T-Trent Brutger[1]; 6. 51JR-Shawn McFadden[9]; 7. 32F-Brian Carl[7]; 8. 20-Chris Johnson[6]; 9. 82-Paul Gucinski[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Cody Kummer[3]; 2. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[7]; 3. 22T-Terran Spacek[1]; 4. 25X-Chad Johnson[2]; 5. 214-Tucker Budreau[4]; 6. 22S-Mike Sirois[5]; 7. 17D-Lucas Christiansen[9]; 8. 22-Clay Albrecht[8]; 9. 32H-Robert Holmstrom Jr[6]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 81-Tim Johnson[6]; 2. 14X-Leslie Leu[5]; 3. 57-Randy Graham[1]; 4. 34-Joe Miller[2]; 5. XJR-Austin Harris[3]; 6. (DNF) 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[4]; 7. (DNF) 28B-Stefan Hogue[7]; 8. (DNF) 33-Austin Niemeyer[8]; 9. (DNS) 4A-Allan Cleveland

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[1]; 2. 27-Matt Deragon[3]; 3. L1-Andrew Johnson[2]; 4. 19X-James Trantina III[5]; 5. 21C-Patrick Beeksma[6]; 6. 20*-Andrew Davis[7]; 7. 77L-Andy Ladd[8]; 8. 28-Josh Cappo[4]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[1]; 2. 26-Kyle Copp[4]; 3. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[6]; 4. 1E-Eric Olson[3]; 5. 24-Andy Grymala[5]; 6. 2-Don Livingston[8]; 7. 24L-Jase Lien[7]; 8. 6-Dan Peterson[2]

17 entries

WISSOTA MIDWEST MODS

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 23DD-George Dalbeck[5]; 2. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[7]; 3. 119-Travis Anderson[8]; 4. L1-Shane Howell[1]; 5. 19X-James Trantina III[10]; 6. 68-Shadow Kitchner[4]; 7. 63JR-Brady Larson[11]; 8. 13-Nick Koehler[6]; 9. 1-Jake Stai[12]; 10. 40D-Blake Adams[17]; 11. 21-Jimmy Latvala[3]; 12. 410-Jesse Young[15]; 13. 63L-Mitchell Larson[2]; 14. 19H-Kevin Herrman[13]; 15. 18-Tacoma Randall[14]; 16. 88K-Donavan Knutson[16]; 17. (DNF) 11R-Landyn Randt[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Jimmy Latvala[2]; 2. L1-Shane Howell[4]; 3. 68-Shadow Kitchner[3]; 4. 63L-Mitchell Larson[1]; 5. 11R-Landyn Randt[7]; 6. 63JR-Brady Larson[8]; 7. 19H-Kevin Herrman[6]; 8. (DNF) 88K-Donavan Knutson[9]; 9. (DNF) 40D-Blake Adams[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 23DD-George Dalbeck[2]; 2. 13-Nick Koehler[6]; 3. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[8]; 4. 119-Travis Anderson[4]; 5. 19X-James Trantina III[1]; 6. 1-Jake Stai[7]; 7. 18-Tacoma Randall[3]; 8. 410-Jesse Young[5]