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Barta “bashes” Pure Stocks while Adams, Leu and Kummer claim other classes Saturday at Rice Lake, WI

By Ed Reichert

RICE LAKE, WI (May 16) - Mark Barta topped the second annual “Bomber Bash” for Pure Stocks Saturday night, highlighting the fourth racing program of the year at Rice Lake Speedway.

Joining Barta in the headlines on a summer-like night were Blake Adams with a double win, Leslie Leu and Cody Kummer - both of whom visited victory lane for the first time this season.

Racing fans and local businesses came through for the racers at Rice Lake once again, with the Pure Stocks racing for $1,684 to win, along with boosts to other finishing positions.

In the early going polesitter Trevor Treviranus held the top spot, but he could only hold off George Richards for a pair of laps until Richards ducked under Treviranus to take the lead. With the first 12 laps under green, there was a lot of movement within the pack; several drivers, including Barta, made big advancements during that long green flag period.

Richards continued to lead but by the halfway point of the race, fifth-starter Barta worked his way into second. Last year's winner Austin Fencl was up to third by that point, with Treviranus and James Rahn holding top-five spots.

The first yellow flew with 12 laps complete for a stalled car, and then on the restart a hard crash in turn one eliminated both the Karshbaum cars, as well as Marlene Lannet.

Through all this, Barta continued to lead with Richards right on his rear bumper and looking for a way past. Simon Wahlstrom started at the tail of the field, but the only undefeated driver at the track was gradually working his way to the front. Things got exciting for him on the next restart when he was turned by another driver, triggering yet another yellow. He got his spot back, however, and he was a major player in the race after that point.

Wahlstrom got past both Fencl and Richards to move into second and when the yellow flew one last time with just five laps remaining, the battle for the lead was intense. Barta continued to show the way but Wahlstrom was right on his rear bumper, searching for an opening. Wahlstrom took a shot in turn three during the final lap, but Barta held his ground and drove on for the win by a car length ahead of Wahlstrom, ending the undefeated string for the last driver at the track. Wahlstrom did finish his charge from 20th in second, however.

Fencl was third ahead of Richards and Bob Wahlstrom. For Barta, the 2025 Rookie of the Year at the track, it was his third-ever feature win at Rice Lake.

Adams topped a thrilling WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature Saturday to start his sweep of open-wheel action. Brady Larson started on the pole and he quickly took the initial lead, with Travis Anderson and Jason Vokovan close behind. Anderson was putting heavy pressure on Larson in the early going. Tough luck struck Vokovan with four laps completed when he spun out of the top five and triggered the only yellow flag of the race.

Larson continued to hold the top spot but he was under fire from Anderson and David Simpson. Adams, who started ninth on the grid, wasted little time getting up on the cushion of the track and charging to the front. He picked off drivers lap after lap until he was in contention for the lead. By the halfway point of the race, he was up to second as he drove around both Anderson and Simpson to close on leader Larson.

David Simpson (70) and Blake Adams (Chris Burback Photo)

Two laps later, Adams grabbed the lead with another outside move, but it was far from a sure thing as he continued to battle with both Simpson and Larson. The traffic was heavy and scattered all over the track, and the top three racers were racing one another and the backmarkers as they worked their way around the track.

Simpson battled forward and took over the lead for the first time, but one lap later Adams threw a slider and retook the top spot. Simpson, however, did not quit and he pulled to the inside of Adams on several occasions.

Approaching the final lap Adams had a slight lead but coming out of turn four, a slower car was running right in the middle of the track. Adams was forced to turn right dramatically, while Simpson dove to the inside of the slower car as they split the roadblock and battled for the win.

Adams then held off Simpson during the final tour to take the win and become the first repeat winner in the division. Anderson had a fine drive to finish third with Larson and Cody Cimfl completing the top five.

Adams also had his hands full during the WISSOTA Modified feature. He benefitted early in this contest as he started on the pole and took the initial lead from Steve Hallquist and Nick Oreskovich. Fifth-starter Mike Anderson was on the move, but all eyes were on Matt Leer. He started eighth but immediately went to the cushion and started to quickly pick off drivers as he charged to the front along the track’s rim.

Under a long green-flag stretch, Leer kept his momentum up and after passing Anderson, he moved into second and closed on the leader. Leer may have been a lap or so from making a pass for the lead when the lone yellow of the race, one lap past halfway, was triggered for debris.

The yellow seemed to benefit Adams and hurt Leer; when they went back to racing, Adams picked up the pace and started to pull away from the other front-runners. In fact, Leer slipped back to third and had to fight his way back past Anderson into second.

Meanwhile, Adams found his groove and maintained his advantage of several car lengths over the field, and then drove on to the win. Leer had to settle for an impressive second, ahead of Anderson. Oreskovich and Brady Uotinen completed the top five.

Defending Super Stock point champion Leslie Leu came home the winner in a hard-fought WISSOTA Super Stock feature race that was a display of some of the hardest racing of the year so far, with large groups of drivers slugging it out, lap after lap.

Jakob Bond started on the pole and took the early lead, fighting off challenges from Ryan Olson, Jim Cimfl, Leu and Steve Stuart. Just behind this cluster of drivers, Rick Simpson, Mickey Anderson, Andrew Davis and Alex Myers were going at it and there were several instances of the drivers racing three and four wide coming off the corners in the early going.

All this hard racing led to several yellows but in between the slowdowns, racing was hard and fast. Myers used the momentum to get to the front from his 14th-starting spot.

Leu had success finding the low line and on lap seven he ducked under Bond to take over the top spot, which he maintained the rest of the way. The final laps were not easy, however, as Olson and Stuart made strong challenges.

Myers provided the biggest threat. He continued to use the top side of the track to maintain his charge and moved into second. In fact, he got a great run off turn four with just three laps to go and with a full head of steam down the front chute, had Leu in his sights. Unfortunately, he misjudged his speed and got into the back of the leader as he tried to pass him and Leu went for a wild spin into turn one. Myers was assessed the caution and went to the tail while Leu was restored to the lead.

He then held off a hard-pressing Olson and Stuart to drive home for the win. Cimfl and Anderson, who both had fine runs in the feature, had issues at the tech shed after the race. Myers was elevated to fourth and Davis was officially fifth.

Despite being the reigning track champion, the win for Leu was only his second ever at Rice Lake, the last one coming during the 2022 racing season.

Cody Kummer made his first appearance of the season a memorable one, as he led from start to finish to top the WISSOTA Street Stock feature. Kummer started on the outside pole and fought off Connor Franson to take the early lead. After a rocky period with back-to-back yellows on laps four and five, the race then settled in and the final 15 laps ran off green to checkered.

Kummer built up a nice-sized lead over the field, while Caiden Engel held second under pressure from Sam Fankhauser and eventually Danny Richards.

As Kummer raced alone up front, Fankhauser finally got by Engel for second and then began to close in on the leader.

While Fankhauser narrowed up the lead considerably, he was not able to catch Kummer. Kummer started out his season with a win, while Engel hung on for third, as he fought off Danny and Cole Richards for the spot.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[1]; 2. 30-Matt Leer[8]; 3. 57-Mike Anderson[5]; 4. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[3]; 5. 9U-Brady Uotinen[9]; 6. 621-Colin Chaschuk[4]; 7. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[11]; 8. 18S-Kennedy Swan[15]; 9. 9-Riley Matthews[16]; 10. 20-Austin Ellis[14]; 11. 22T-Michael Truscott[7]; 12. 70-David Simpson[10]; 13. 43-Lance Schilling[12]; 14. 3H-Jake Hiatt[13]; 15. 3-Bryan Hessler[17]; 16. (DNF) 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[6]; 17. (DNF) 27H-Steve Hallquist[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 22T-Michael Truscott[2]; 2. 30-Matt Leer[4]; 3. 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[1]; 4. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[8]; 5. 9U-Brady Uotinen[5]; 6. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[6]; 7. 3H-Jake Hiatt[3]; 8. 18S-Kennedy Swan[7]; 9. 3-Bryan Hessler[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[4]; 2. 57-Mike Anderson[3]; 3. 27H-Steve Hallquist[2]; 4. 621-Colin Chaschuk[8]; 5. 70-David Simpson[5]; 6. 43-Lance Schilling[1]; 7. 20-Austin Ellis[6]; 8. 9-Riley Matthews[7]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 14X-Leslie Leu[10]; 2. 1-Ryan Olson[4]; 3. 80-Steve Stuart[5]; 4. 2M-Alex Myers[14]; 5. 20-Andrew Davis[11]; 6. 22-Robert Holmstrom Jr[9]; 7. 9-Jakob Bond[1]; 8. 22AT-Austin Tilton[15]; 9. 02-Travis Anderson[6]; 10. 28-Josh Cappo[19]; 11. 247-Tracy Larson[12]; 12. 38-Trevor Koslowski[18]; 13. 17G-Chris Gross[17]; 14. (DNF) 2-Bart Steffen[13]; 15. (DNF) 77K-Rick Simpson[7]; 16. (DNF) 21-Mike Siewert[16]; 17. (DNS) 10-Jeff Eisner Jr; 18. (DQ) 245-James Cimfl[2]; 19. (DQ) 01-Michael Anderson[8]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 80-Steve Stuart[6]; 2. 77K-Rick Simpson[3]; 3. 245-James Cimfl[1]; 4. 14X-Leslie Leu[5]; 5. 2-Bart Steffen[2]; 6. 21-Mike Siewert[4]; 7. 38-Trevor Koslowski[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Jakob Bond[2]; 2. 1-Ryan Olson[4]; 3. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[3]; 4. 20-Andrew Davis[1]; 5. 2M-Alex Myers[6]; 6. (DNF) 28-Josh Cappo[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 01-Michael Anderson[5]; 2. 22-Robert Holmstrom Jr[4]; 3. 02-Travis Anderson[1]; 4. 247-Tracy Larson[6]; 5. 22AT-Austin Tilton[2]; 6. 17G-Chris Gross[3]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[9]; 2. 70-David Simpson[5]; 3. 37-Travis Anderson[3]; 4. 63JR-Brady Larson[1]; 5. 19C-Cody Cimfl[10]; 6. 7-Mike Schnider[12]; 7. 89-Kolby Reed[6]; 8. 28-Paul Ripley[8]; 9. 31-Jason Vokovan[2]; 10. 00-Joe Swearingen[15]; 11. 1-Jake Stai[13]; 12. 10Z-Cade Johnson[16]; 13. 62K-Ryan Kough[4]; 14. 20-Jaxon Helland[18]; 15. 101-Michael Grover[14]; 16. 15K-Connor Kaseno[17]; 17. (DNF) 41-Tyler Vernon[7]; 18. (DNF) 88K-Donavan Knutson[11]; 19. (DNF) 33-Cooper Berlin[19]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[4]; 2. 89-Kolby Reed[1]; 3. 63JR-Brady Larson[2]; 4. 19C-Cody Cimfl[6]; 5. 1-Jake Stai[5]; 6. 10Z-Cade Johnson[3]; 7. (DNF) 33-Cooper Berlin[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 37-Travis Anderson[2]; 2. 31-Jason Vokovan[1]; 3. 62K-Ryan Kough[6]; 4. 88K-Donavan Knutson[3]; 5. 101-Michael Grover[4]; 6. 15K-Connor Kaseno[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 70-David Simpson[1]; 2. 28-Paul Ripley[4]; 3. 41-Tyler Vernon[3]; 4. 7-Mike Schnider[6]; 5. 00-Joe Swearingen[5]; 6. 20-Jaxon Helland[2]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 12-Cody Kummer[2]; 2. 11-Sam Fankhauser[5]; 3. 7-Caiden Engel[4]; 4. 3R-Danny Richards[7]; 5. 1R-Cole Richards[8]; 6. 86-Layla Chaplin[11]; 7. 20F-Connor Franson[1]; 8. 00Z-Bryar Zimmerman[3]; 9. (DNF) 19A-Shawn Amundson[6]; 10. (DNF) 19C-Nick Traynor[9]; 11. (DNF) 81-Charlie Pitcavage[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3R-Danny Richards[1]; 2. 1R-Cole Richards[2]; 3. 19A-Shawn Amundson[4]; 4. 7-Caiden Engel[3]; 5. 19C-Nick Traynor[6]; 6. 86-Layla Chaplin[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Sam Fankhauser[1]; 2. 12-Cody Kummer[3]; 3. 00Z-Bryar Zimmerman[2]; 4. 20F-Connor Franson[5]; 5. 81-Charlie Pitcavage[4]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 78-Mark Barta[5]; 2. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[22]; 3. 52W-Austin Fencl[3]; 4. 5R-George Richards[4]; 5. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[19]; 6. 93-CJ Wagner[7]; 7. 55-Caleb Duffie[8]; 8. 04K-Jerame Ristau[10]; 9. 1-Carsyn Olson[20]; 10. 10-Anthony Ravina[13]; 11. 925-Dnae Rose[6]; 12. 67P-Dale Peterson[17]; 13. (DNF) 31-Tom Treviranus[2]; 14. (DNF) 231-Trevor Treviranus[1]; 15. (DNF) 89-Steve Karshbaum[12]; 16. (DNF) 23R-James Rahn[9]; 17. (DNF) 3D-Sean Duffy[15]; 18. (DNF) 9M-Marlene Lannet[16]; 19. (DNF) 07-Thomas LaPage[11]; 20. (DNS) 83-Tyler Wahlstrom; 21. (DNS) AK-Mitch Kesan; 22. (DQ) 89A-Alyson Karshbaum[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 93-CJ Wagner[5]; 2. 31-Tom Treviranus[4]; 3. 231-Trevor Treviranus[7]; 4. 04K-Jerame Ristau[1]; 5. 10-Anthony Ravina[8]; 6. 3D-Sean Duffy[3]; 7. 9M-Marlene Lannet[2]; 8. 67P-Dale Peterson[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 52W-Austin Fencl[2]; 2. 23R-James Rahn[7]; 3. 925-Dnae Rose[1]; 4. 07-Thomas LaPage[3]; 5. (DNF) 83-Tyler Wahlstrom[5]; 6. (DNF) 88-Robert Wahlstrom[6]; 7. (DNF) 1-Carsyn Olson[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 5R-George Richards[4]; 2. 78-Mark Barta[7]; 3. 55-Caleb Duffie[1]; 4. 89-Steve Karshbaum[6]; 5. 89A-Alyson Karshbaum[5]; 6. (DNS) AK-Mitch Kesan; 7. (DQ) 38-Simon Wahlstrom[2]