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Saurer looked the fastest I have seen him in quite some time, as he works in his new MB Customs. It was a big win, as Peterson very seldom gets passed like he did in this race. Sabraski was third but the top two were long gone. Landon Atkinson and Joseph Thomas completed the top five.

Way back in December, Zach Johnson told me at the Dome race in St. Louis that he was moving back to the Late Model class in 2025. He said a surprise, mystery driver was set to replace him in the seat of the potent No. 6X Modified. The answer to the question of who it was came on Friday, as former Late Model driver and dynamic young talent Bryce Sward returned to racing. I think it might be his first time behind the wheel of a Modified. His first outing resulted in top-10 finish and I'm sure that with a few more runs, he will be battling with the leaders. There are certainly quite a few strong drivers from this area.

There was big drama in one of the Midwest Mod heats, when defending track champion Nate Reinke hammered the turn three wall and he was done for the night.

This opened the door for a new winner and that was Tyler Bitzan, one of three Bitzans racing in this class. He got the early lead and then fought off veteran Ron Saurer for the 20 laps of the main event. Things were slow in the first half of the race, with three yellows bogging down things. During the last half there was just a single slow down. Bitzan had Saurer breathing down his neck for the whole race and Tanner Bitzan made it a three-car battle from time to time.

Tyler never faltered and maintained a smooth line in the upper groove, which was the place to be. He drove home for the win with several car lengths to spare ahead of Saurer and Tanner. Onyx Johnson made a late rush up to fourth ahead of Scott Oeltjen.

More late drama changed the complexion of the Street Stock feature dramatically. Cory Dykhoff led the first 12 laps of the feature race, with Eric Riley all over him. Riley tried high and low, but Dykhoff foiled all his attempts to make a winning pass.

Meanwhile Kyle Dykhoff, who had to start in the back of the pack following a flat tire in his heat, was marching to the front. As the laps ran down, it became a three-car battle for the win. However, while Riley was all over Cory Dykhoff, he continued to maintain his advantage. That is, until turn four with just three laps to go; he jumped the cushion and Riley slipped under him. In his attempt to make an all-out charge down the front chute to get the lead back, Cory hit turn one too hot, spun and was done.

Riley kept Kyle Dykhoff in his rearview mirror for the final two laps to take the win, as Nick Shumansky, Braedyn Fleck and Greg Platzer completed the top five.

Hornets rounded out the long evening of racing and Jeff Rohner led from start to finish in this race. He was never challenged throughout. Christian Kast held off Hunter Goulet for runner-up honors in a good battle for second.

It was an interesting night of racing and certainly one for the Challenge Series to build upon.

Saturday, May 10

Saturday night was the third week of racing at Rice Lake Speedway. As it has been all week, the weather was excellent, and a good crowd was on hand. The good weather also allowed the track prep crew to make a lot of progress on the racing surface. The crew was able to open up the surface all week and allow the inside of the track to finally dry. They were also able to remove those annoying humps that had developed. With a smooth track, they had the chance to begin widening out the racing groove and opening up new lanes to race on.

There were 104 drivers signed in to race, just about the right number of racers to put on the best show. This allowed three full heat races in all five classes, no dreaded B Features, and made for a perfect night.

Twenty-four drivers made their first appearances of the year at the track, before more weekly tracks start to open up north.

For those who haven't been to the track this year yet, there is something new just past the new ticket entrance to see. The No. 29 Modified of Jack Shimon was pulled out of the weeds at his house and now sits on display at the track. This is one of the original Modifieds from 1980, the first year the class raced at Rice Lake. They were only the second track in the country to start the class, which now races weekly at literally hundreds of tracks across the country. It's a great chance to compare then against now.

Saturday was the first special event of the season for the track, with the Modifieds racing for $1,200. This produced a nice field of drivers and some strong competition. It was a good main event with lots of passing and jockeying for position. Henry Repeating Arms, which has always had a strong presence here at the track as a driver and track sponsor, was the event’s presenting sponsor.

I continue to be in awe of the level of maturity and driving savvy that Blake Adams shows. He was and is still good in the Mid Mods, and the car control he has shown in the Mods has been very impressive as well. Saturday he picked exactly the right time to move to the cushion, as he labored back in the pack until he made that move. He would have likely been a top-five finisher, but no better until that decision. With most of the field along the low side, he drove by a whole row of cars right at the drop of the green, continued to work that high side, and then drove into the lead. He was then smart enough to run high on one end and low on the other, where the best speed was. There are many drivers who have been racing for years that can't figure that out, but he is already good at it, at 16 years old.

He was not the only young driver to shine on Saturday. Modified runner-up Jack Rivord is still in college, Aiden Hoffman is barely out of high school, and Brady Uotinen is still relatively new in the sport. Dave Cain was the only veteran in the top five.

Cain, by the way, got up on the cushion in the late going, really made a charge and probably wished for about five more laps.

The Mods lined up their races by using passing points, the fairest way of qualifying when the fields are larger. However, for this reason no track points could be offered, just national points. Draw/redraw must be used to give track points.

I talked to Steve Rivord, Jack's father, before the races and he said they were struggling with their new car on consistency. It works well on the slick, but not so good on the tacky. Tonight they found that slick inside line and he was very fast.

Jesse Glenz made a surprise visit in the Mitch Anderson No. 44x Modified, shaking down a sparkling new car. Glenz was quite the Modified driver before he moved up to the Late Models and he drove to a top-10 finish.

Calvin Iverson also made his first visit in quite a few years on Saturday. After a feature win on Friday at Red Cedar, he looked for big success again on Saturday. A spin in his heat after looking fast early on buried him in the field for the A-main.

Cody Carlson was also on hand on Saturday, making his first laps in his new car. Carlson is excited to be back in the Modified class, having sold his Mid Mod to C.J. Hedges. Hedges raced the car for the first time also on Saturday. Cody's ride in the former Austin Chyba car with few shows and laps on it.

Donny Lofdahl was racing for the first time Saturday. He said they just rolled the car out of the garage, washed off the Ogilvie dust and fired it up. No new body for the car, as he would rather spend money on something that will make the car faster, not prettier. Donny and his family will be very busy karting this year, likely racing karts three nights per week. He will be helping Paul Wrazidlo with track prep on the kart track that Paul is reopening south of Superior. Donny will be helping as he can at Proctor as well, but reports that Terry Lillo has the track looking very good. They have hope they can get their insurance issues straightened out so they can start their season soon.

Shane Kisling was on hand watching again Saturday and reports that he has both a Super Stock and a Modified, though neither are done at this point. He does plan on racing the Super as his primary car and does have the Mod for sale, if anyone is looking. Between work and his private business doing shocks, he has little time to be working on race cars. Hopefully he can get the Super Stock ready for the Fastlane Super Stock Tour. I believe he said that this week alone he had rebuilt 33 shocks.

It is unheard of at Rice Lake for someone to win three straight Street Stock feature races here. The field has historically been both large and strong. However, that is what Nick Traynor has done during the opening three weeks of 2025. He has had nice redraws and has not been afraid to move up the track and make the top side work; this has led to a lot of his success.

And, let's be honest here, the draw/redraw has helped that out some, too. If he had to start eighth or so in the point invert, it would have been much harder to drive through the field.

Nick Koehler got his start racing at Rice Lake Speedway quite a few years ago, though in recent years he has not raced much at the track for a number of reasons. To begin this season, however, he has found himself at the track for the opening three weeks and has already won twice. Saturday night's victory was a real dandy, as he and Mike Schnider raced it out to the finish with the margin being .022 seconds in favor of Koehler. Defending track champion Schnider has struggled the first few weeks, but seemed to have things sorted out better Saturday and likely will be in victory lane soon.

Eric Olson has had one of the most remarkable records of any driver who has raced in the long history of Rice Lake Speedway. Saturday night he won the Super Stock feature, adding to his totals. He has the third-most feature wins in track history. His record of longevity is just as impressive. He won his first Super Stock feature here back in 1998 and has won feature races in 19 of the 27 years he has raced here in that class! The Super Stock class, by the way, is the only one not to have a repeat winner so far this year.

The track is starting to regain some traction in its claim to be one of the hot beds of Pure Stock racing in WISSOTA. Last year the numbers slumped and some were worried about the future of the class at the track.

However, the numbers have made a nice rebound so far this year, with 19 of them on hand on Saturday. That’s likely as many as will be seen at any track, except perhaps Bemidji, this year. And so far, at least five of the drivers in the class are first-year drivers.

It was good to have both Nick Gima and Jerry O'Brien on hand watching the racing action on Saturday. Nick reports that ABC should be ready to go next week, which is good news for the drivers and fans from that area. Jerry was looking good and it was good to see him up and around. I understand he also made the trip to Red Cedar on Friday.

One of the biggest points of emphasis at the track this year is to provide the fans and out-of-town drivers with a quick program. Saturday they ran off 20 races, including an extra distance Modified feature. They started right at 6 p.m. and were done by 10 p.m., even with considerable but necessary track prep thrown in. Hopefully that won’t be needed all summer.

As they work for a more efficient program, they are trying to cut down on yellow flags, particularly those for one-car spins in the heat races. They must have been yelling on the Raceceivers Saturday, because I saw several instances of what appeared to be yellows in the making until drivers suddenly put their cars in gear and rejoined the racing fields. That's the way it should be. It’s one of the secrets to Iowa racing that makes it so popular down there. When drivers spin, they must move or be sent to the pits. There is nothing worse than an abundance of yellow flags that bore the fans and ruin many a good racing battle.

In other Saturday-related news, there was an excellent article on the first page of the sports section of the Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin newspaper last week about Kennedy Swan and her multi-sport accomplishments. She plays softball in addition to racing Modifieds. I thought the comment from her coach was priceless. He said he hasn't had many centerfielders who also drive race cars. I imagine if you wanted to read it, it is posted online or perhaps can be seen at an area library.

Congrats to Devin Fries on his first-ever feature win at Rice Lake. I could have sworn he was already a winner there but my records say no, so I hope that is correct. In any event, he makes a long pull with a Pure Stock, so he was more than due.

That was quite a trophy that Blake Adams won for winning the Henry Repeating Arms Mod special Saturday night. I think he is probably too young to actually accept the trophy himself, but I would guess that it will go in the trophy case along with grandpa Dave's other prized firearms.

Most folks assume when a company or business sponsors a race or night, they are just handing over money to the promoter or track owner for the naming rights. However, I know that Henry actually put money in envelopes to add to the payoff for a number of the back-in-the-pack finishers. Of course, the folks involved with Henry are familiar with racing and they know that not every driver can be a winner. However, it costs just as much for the last place car to get into the track and to drive there, and Lord knows, we need every car we can get these days. It was great for them to acknowledge drivers throughout the field.

Sunday, May 11

The Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series wrapped up its first weekend of racing on Sunday, May 11 at Granite City Motor Park in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. The first weekend of the series was a tough opening act for the series and drivers. They raced at three totally different kinds of tracks and also had to withstand some unfortunate grinding crashes, too.

The series rolled into Sauk Rapids minus a few drivers. Ryan Mikkelson, Don Shaw, and Chris Mensen were all out with badly damaged or perhaps totaled race cars from wrecks this weekend. Others like Kevin Burdick, Tyler Peterson, Adam Ayotte and Jack Koranda may have been dinged up too, but that is unclear. After starting the weekend strong, the troops were a bit weakened by Sunday, with 19 drivers signing in to race.

While the number of drivers on hand might have been smaller, the racing itself was just as hard.

James Trantina also had three other WISSOTA classes racing with the Late Models on Sunday, including the Mid Mods, Super Stocks and Hornets.

Everyone was shocked when they woke up on Sunday to find that a record setting heat wave had hit central Minnesota. With temperatures in the low 90s, a hurricane wind blowing out of the southeast and very low humidity, it was a nightmare to try and keep any moisture in the racing surface. Many years we have no days like this all summer and now, surprisingly, we are hit with one before mid May.

Overall they did as good of a job as was possible and the track actually raced pretty well all evening. They had to spend some time doing track prep several times, but that was understandable given the extreme conditions.

Among the entries on Sunday were two drivers who have hit just about every race since the tracks in our area started to open. Northern Minnesota Hornet driver Brady Fosso and Mid Mod driver Cade Johnson have been racing three nights a week since the first opener and have been going just about everywhere racing was held. Johnson is a rookie in the Mid Mods, having moved up from the Hornet class, while Fosso is in what I believe to be his second or third year racing Hornets. Johnson is getting in his laps and improving during each outing, while Fosso later would had one of his best runs, finishing a strong third. Fosso ran into real bad luck on Saturday night, as the Hornet feature at Viking Speedway was postponed due to their curfew. He certainly won't be able to drive all the way back to Alexandria from Hibbing for the makeup, as there will likely be a race much closer to home — or at least that’s what he’s hoping.

The normal Challenges Series format was in play. Kevin Eder set quick time with a lap at 14.298 seconds. Eder is driving a brand-new MB Customs, having just picked the car up this week and making its first laps ever on Friday at I-94 emr. That was one of the reasons that their crew chased issues all night. The car had zero laps on it before they attempted to race on Friday.

With a short field of drivers, it was not good when two of the competitors clobbered the concrete walls during qualifying attempts. After a lot of work from the crew, Laela Eisenchenk ran the feature race after missing her heat when she knocked the deck off her car during qualifying. Scott Lehn was not so lucky, after he nailed the wall right under the flagstand just as he was done qualifying and he had to park his car for the night.

The 40-lap Late Model feature started 18 drivers. This race produced a butt-kicking effort by Cole Searing, who left the field in his wake. No one had anything for him Sunday.

He started on the outside pole, got the jump on Jeff Provinzino, and then proceeded to motor away from the field. Shane Sabraski was able to drive into second and stay a reasonable distance behind Searing, but everyone else was left in the dust.

A key moment came with the race about halfway over, when Searing caught a batch of slower cars with about five racing in a group for position. He was cleverly able to maneuver through them without losing much momentum, while Sabraski found it much tougher and that lead then ballooned. Searing had a half lap on Sabraski near the end and Eder, who finished seventh, was the last car on the lead lap.

Dave Mass and Josh Zimpel did some nice moving in the later half of the race, with them driving up to third and fourth, respectively, by the finish. Only two drivers didn't finish the race but there were a bunch who were not on the lead lap by the end. It was reported that Searing's feature win was the 229th of his career.

Credit should go out to all the drivers as this race, as they ran off green to checkered for 40 laps, with the drivers running hard but clean.

The three support classes featured two dominating wins and a third that was decided by a razor-thin margin right at the finish line.

The close race was the Super Stock feature. If Sabraski is in the house, you can assume that he is probably going to take home at least one feature win in the multiple classes he races. That proved to be the case Sunday night, too, but the finish was so close I actually called it incorrectly.

Denis Czech led all but the last 10 feet or so as he started on the pole and motored away under the green, building a large lead. Sabraski started eighth and had his difficulties working his way to the front. He was hung up for a number of laps before he finally cleared himself to second after a tough battle with Dexton Koch.

I felt at the pace Czech was setting Sabraski would never catch him in the laps remaining, and I don't think he would have except for a nicely timed yellow. The caution was called for a spinning car with just four laps to go, the first slowdown of the race.

Czech chose the low line where he had been running and Sabraski rolled behind him, staying very close. However, on the last lap, Sabraski stepped into the second lane and got a good run down the back chute. He was able to stay beside Czech off the final corner and in the race to the line, Sabraski edged out Czech by .229 seconds to get the win. It was certainly bad luck for Czech and another case of Sabraski taking advantage of the opportunities presented. Koch finished third.

An impressive performance was put on by Blake Adams, as he took the nonstop MidMod feature. With Landyn Randt on the pole and as well as he has been running, it seemed like the win was headed back to Wisconsin. Well, it actually did — but to Adams instead. He started sixth and from the drop of the green, it was clear he was very quick. He passed a couple cars up on the cushion, and then found the low line to be even better for him and he began to reel in Randt.

Randt fought as hard as he could, but Adams was really fast. He took the lead on lap eight and then drove away from the field. He opened up a large lead but there was a good battle for third as Jake Hagemann, Jake Smith and Joey Jensen raced together for position.

As Adams checked out, Randt held on for second ahead of Hagemann, with Jensen getting past Smith late for fourth.

Hornets wrapped up the night with Bobie Arnes starting on the outside pole and driving away from the field for an easy win. He was not challenged as he led from start to finish. Fosso tried to hold off Austin Jacobson, but the driver who lives just blocks north of the speedway made the pass to finish second. Only the top three finished on the lead lap. It was good to see T.J. Inderieden back in the field and he finished sixth.

Despite having to spend necessary time watering and grooming the track several times, track officials did a good job of pushing along the show. It was a smooth night filled with few yellow flags and the racing was completed by 9 p.m. The Challenge Series will return to Granite City on July 20.