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Saturday, June 6

Rice Lake Speedway was in action on Saturday night, June 6 with the normal five division program of WISSOTA racing, plus the first-ever appearance of Legend Cars at the track.

Quite frankly, they were lucky they could even race on Saturday. Late Friday afternoon, they were hit with a strong downburst storm that dumped more than two inches of rain on the local area and rained out the kart races.

For the first time ever that I can remember, the main driveway into the track was under water and spectators entering the grounds had to drive carefully through some pretty deep water to get up the hill to the main parking lot.

In fact, as the evening went on, the water level continued to rise and most of the entire driveway was under water. Track officials roped off the entire driveway and fans had to leave through the auxillary driveway by the kart track or use the pit road. I have never seen that before, either.

Interestingly, while the infield of the track was mostly a sea of mud, the track itself was in good shape. It was better than good shape, actually; it might have been the best it has been all season. It was smooth, fast and had multiple grooves. The Street Stocks used it to put on their best show of the season. Passing was certainly possible, with Blake Adams coming from the fifth row to win the Midwest Mod feature and Parker Anderson from the fourth row to win the Street Stock feature.

I believe Rice Lake has been one of the luckier tracks to date with the weather. The track has been able to run six straight nights so far and not lose a single show to the weather. It hasn't always been the greatest of Saturday nights, but they have not lost a race to date. Next week they take a scheduled Saturday night off with the Aquafest celebration in town. It’s probably just the right time, giving everyone a chance to catch a breath before things get busy once again during the end of June and into the early part of July.

The car count held up just a bit better this week; all classes had more than a single heat and in fact, three heats were necessary for the Midwest Mods. These are tough times and just maintaining is considered a victory. The drivers proved you don't have to be packing the pits to put on a good race program, with excellent races on Saturday. And, again, the program was done by 9:30 p.m. I am really getting spoiled, as I enjoy getting home at an early hour, and I imagine those race teams hauling a distance are, too.

For the second straight week, Kyle Bolt pulled his Street Stock all the way down from Rosslyn, Ontario and he has done a good job hanging in there against one of the toughest fields of Street Stocks to be found anywhere.

For me, the Street Stock feature was the highlight event of the racing program with at least five drivers in the hunt for the win, running in a tight pack through most of the race. The track was beautiful for them and it's not often that you see the Streets running high on the cushion but Parker Anderson has a knack of making that work here. He is now two for two, having only broken out his car last week and now having won for the second straight week. They managed to run off the first twelve laps nonstop before things got a bit chippy and Cole Richards was the victim; I don't believe he went around by himself while battling for the lead, but tough calls are a part of this class. Just like other sports, sometimes you get the call and sometimes not, as things are subjective and not always so clear. A track like tonight for the Little Dream would be fantastic.

The Pure Stocks did just about as well as the Streeters, with five drivers running in a tight pack for the win in a race that went green to checkered. And it was a double win for Tyler Wahlstrom as not only did he get the victory, he proposed in victory lane and got a “yes” on that, too!

What tough luck for Kyle Helling Saturday. He had been missing from the field for several weeks with his Modified but made a return this week. He ran right with the leaders for the whole race and was less than a lap away from getting his first top-five finish and best run of the year when the car came around on him and he failed to finish. While the result must have been disappointing, the fact that he ran so good should have lifted him up some anyway.

Travis Anderson, a loyal racer here every week and also at Red Cedar on Fridays, was oh, so close to his first feature win of the year when a late yellow hurt his chances. He had led since the start of the Mid Mod feature and had done a great job weaving his way through heavy traffic as the first 16 laps of the race went nonstop. He had Nick Koehler nipping at his heels but despite Koehler being so good here this year, Travis had kept him behind and with them fighting through traffic, looked to be in good shape to take the win.

However, a spin triggered the yellow with just four laps to go. Let me repeat myself here, for the umpteenth time: I hate double file restarts. Always have, always will. They were an artificial invention to try and make races closer and something that didn't need to be done. And particularly distasteful are double-file restarts in the last five laps.

Anderson was a sitting duck as he had Koehler and Blake Adams side by side behind him, both with the advantage of being able to see where the best line on the track was, while Anderson didn't have the advantage of being able to cover all grooves. He was saved by a bizarre series of yellows following that first one that negated several passes past him, but Adams made a great move to get up and past Koehler on the outside on the final green and then drove past Anderson to get the win. Anderson tries so hard to get a win, and I believe one is coming, but tonight looked like a good opportunity until that stinking late yellow.

It was interesting to watch the strategy used by Koehler and Adams as they tried to decide which line on the track to use as they lined up behind Anderson. The key moment was when Koehler buzzed his tires on the restart, which allowed Adams to shoot past him to the outside and then have a free run on Anderson using the fast banking in turn one.

The legendary “Dirt Dueller” himself, Les Duellman was on hand to race the Kyle Runkle Tribute car on Saturday and he gave it a fine fourth-place finish. He looks to be a serious contender to take the K-Runk Memorial on July 2, which is also fireworks night, a night when the speedway doesn't have enough seating for the thousands who come out for the fireworks.

Alex Myers was driving with some fire in his eye Saturday as he made up for last week's unfortunate situation. He had won the Super Stock feature, only to lose the race on a procedural ruling that was correct but unfortunate. He took the green on lap two Saturday and then led the rest of the race.

It has been good to see Eric Olson running strong the last couple weeks also with a pair of runner-up finishes. Early on this season, he has been playing crew chief for his daughter Carsyn, who is in her first full year of Pure Stock racing. Now, with the track smooth, slick and fast like he likes it, he has finally brought out his own car after racing it just on opening night. And most importantly, since he doesn't like working on the cars anymore, he has race two straight nights without having to pound out any fenders or fix any damage as he's been running up front.

Matt Leer is in the midst of a year that he hasn't seen in several years. He has been running strong everywhere he has raced. It has been quite a few summers since he has won back-to-back features at Rice Lake, but he will go into the break with a two feature win streak in 2026.

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