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Kyle Dykhoff was the 2025 WISSOTA Street Stock Little Dream Race champion. (Brent Creaser Photo)
Rice Lake announces preliminary 2026 schedule, including Little Dream date
By Ed Reichert
RICE LAKE, WI – Owners of Rice Lake Speedway LLC — Kolby Kiehl, Dean Kiehl and Dick Kalow — have announced the preliminary schedule for the 2026 racing season at Rice Lake Speedway.
“While this is just the preliminary schedule with many other special events and sponsors yet to be named, we wanted to get the word out on some of our special events so fans and race teams can start to plan for the upcoming season,” said track spokesman Kolby Kiehl.
“Our goal is to have something special as a part of nearly every race program, and fans will see a number of new divisions making appearances at the track in 2026, along with our solid five-division program which will run virtually every Saturday night.”
The 2025 racing season begins with a practice session on Thursday night, April 23, with the 74th consecutive season of racing at the speedway slated to go under the green flag on Saturday, April 25 at 6 p.m. The same five classes that raced at the speedway in 2025 — the Modifieds, Super Stocks, Midwest Modifieds, Street Stocks and Pure Stocks — will be racing again under the sanctioning of the WISSOTA Promoters Association.
The season will conclude Saturday and Sunday, September 5-6, with the third annual Dairyland Dash, featuring all five divisions plus the USRA Late Models.
The USRA Late Models will also race during four Saturday nights during the season.
Every division that races at the track will have at least one special event targeted for them during the season. The Springtime Modified Spectacular will take place on May 9, while one week later the Pure Stocks have their night with the second annual “Bomber Bash” taking place.
The crowd-favorite Firecracker special, with one of the best fireworks displays in the area, will take place on Thursday, July 2, and as a part of that event, the K-Runk Memorial Race for Midwest Modifieds will provide a big payoff for those drivers. The Barron County Relay for Life is also a part of that gigantic night.
The Dirt Race Central Street Stock Tour, after a successful first appearance at the track in 2025, will return on Saturday, July 11. This will serve as a tune-up for the nationally famous Street Stock Little Dream race, scheduled for Tuesday night, July 28; the following night serves as a rain date. This race paid more than $31,000 to the winner last year and is again expected to be the largest Street Stock race in the country.
The Fastlane Super Stock Series will again return to the track, this year with a Saturday night date of July 25.
After a disappointing rainout in 2025, the Structural Buildings WISSOTA Late Model Challenge Series will be at the track on Saturday night, August 8, with the top prize raised to $4,000 for this year's event.
The Legend Cars and the Outlaw Mini Mods will also make an appearance at the track during the season and fun events like a Mechanics Race and Powder Puff event will also be held. Other events such as an appearance by the Sprint Cars and a Demolition Derby are tentative at this point, but the hope is they will be finalized soon.
The goal is to get at least 20 events completed during the racing season. If weather were to hinder that effort, such as it has for the last two years, a consideration will be made to attempt Monday night raindates as a possibility, if the track loses too many shows.
The owners are anxious to get cars on the track in the spring. During the fall of 2025, new clay was added to the track with the corners reshaped, promising racing action from the inside line right up to the outside concrete walls.
While there are many more exciting announcements to come regarding the 2026 racing season, track officials are already in the planning stages for the 2027 racing season, which will be historic as it marks the 75th anniversary of the track. Rice Lake Speedway LLC has already promised to make that season memorable.
For the speedway website and face book page for more announcements about the upcoming season.