Rice Lake Speedway Racers Celebrate

By Ed Reichert

Rice Lake WI, March 11 – Adams-Hanson Inc, the owners of the Rice Lake Speedway, celebrated the completion of the 2022 racing season on Saturday night as they hosted the annual banquet at the Elk's Club in Rice Lake.

Honored were the top ten in points in all five classes that race at the speedway along with the Rookie of the Year winner in all five categories.

Despite the hazardous driving conditions on Saturday and a key high school basketball tournament game involving an area team, a good sized crowd turned out to honor the top drivers from the 2022 racing season.

Honored as the point champion in the Modified class was Elk Mound's Denny Cutsforth who won his first ever Modified point title. The runner up was Rice Lake's Pat Hoffman with Sam Fankhauser also from Rice Lake finishing third. Rounding out the top ten were Dave Mayala from Barron, Kyle Helling from Rice Lake, Austin Ellis also from Rice Lake, Kevin Adams from Cameron, Steve Hallquist from Fall Creek, Wayne Poteet from Spooner and Mike Anderson from Jim Falls.

Ellis was also honored as the Rookie of the Year in the Modified class.

Winning yet another Super Stock point title was Eric Olson from Ladysmith. He was trailed by Leslie Leu from Medford, Terran Spacek from Phillips, Mike Siewert from Rice Lake, Mickey Anderson from Dallas, Josh Cappo from Almena, Austin Tilton from Turtle Lake, Nick Traynor from Barron, Josh Saunders from Spooner and Simon Wahlstrom from Mikana. Tilton was honored as the division Rookie of the Year.

Winning his first ever point title in the Midwest Modifieds was former off road racer Kenny Kincaid from Shell Lake. Finishing a close second was Mike Schnider from Cameron. C.J. Wagner from Chetek finished third while the rest of the top ten included Kevin Herrman from Rice Lake, Fran Hanson from Almena, Tacoma Randall from Rice Lake, Travis Anderson from Colfax, Kennedy Swan from Chippewa Falls, Aric Lindberg from Dallas and Simon Wahlstrom from Mikana. Randall was named the Rookie of the Year.

Another first time point titlist was Shawn Amundson from Rice Lake who took the Street Stock honors. Finishing right behind in second was Hunter VanGilder from Rice Lake. Barron's Travis Loew finished third and the rest of the top ten included Adam Soltis from Ladysmith, Zach Beaulieu from Chetek, Cole Richards from Mondovi, Jenna Herrman from Rice Lake, Eric Haupt from Trego, James Clausen from Barron and Kolby Kiehl from Barron also. Alex Meyers from Cameron was the Rookie of the Year in the Street Stocks.

For the second straight year Ryan Olson from Ladysmith was the point champion in the Pure Stocks. He was followed by Bob Wahlstrom from Chetek and Kevin Bartelt from Chippewa Falls. Aaron Holmberg from Rice Lake and James Rahn from Poskin completed the top five. Others in the top ten included Rob Grabon from Rice Lake, Bryar Zimmerman from Birchwood, Mike Grover from Chetek, Austin Fencl from Bruce and Zach Folz from Rice Lake. For the second straight year the Olson's from Ladysmith, father and son, Eric and Ryan, both won point titles after no two members of the same family won point titles during the same year in the first seventy years of the speedway's existence!

Bartelt was also honored as the Rookie of the Year.

Track co-owner Dave Adams presented the 2023 track schedule to the crowd. Among the highlights of the nineteen race schedule are three appearances for the WISSOTA Late Models including a Structural Buildings Challenge Series race, the first ever appearance for the Fast Lane Super Stock series and a return of the UMSS Winged and Traditional Sprint Cars. The USRA Limited Late Models will make their first ever appearance at the track in 2023 with three dates for them proposed. The annual Street Stock Little Dream race returns to the schedule and a proposed Modified and Midwest Modified special with a date to be determined. The season opener is planned for Saturday night, April 22nd.

The next activity for the racers will be the annual car show to be held at the Cedar Mall in Rice Lake, scheduled for March 30 through April 2.

For a complete schedule, check the speedway website at www.ricelakespeedway.com. The track's face book page will also update with news as the racing season approaches and for more information, feel free to call track co-owners Adams at 715-205-2861 or Mitch Hansen at 715-205-1122.