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The race also had three different leaders. Edginton led the first two laps from the pole before he was passed by Mike Greseth, who drove up from the second row. Greseth then led until lap 15 when Tyler Peterson drove around him and took over the top spot.

TPO was running the high side and he really tossed his car into the corners, drifting up high and then blasting down the chutes. He had plenty of traffic to deal with after he drove away from the pack for awhile. Those lapped cars slowed his pace and both Greseth and Edginton closed up his lead.

However, there was no catching Peterson and he drove on for the win, with three lappers between himself and Greseth — who held off Edginton in a close finish.

Both Seng and Schill drove forward the second half of the race; Schill cracked the top five on the final lap, as he put Brody Troftgruben behind him. Strand finished seventh and lost a few points to Edginton.

Since my last visit to the track, they have erected a new stage in the middle of the track and made some upgrades to the area under the bleachers. The whole facility is very much a show place. It's too bad they don't offer more events that pique my interest.

Thanks go out to everyone at the Fix It Forward Speedway for their help and special thanks to the NLRA, Brad Seng and Kalen Helle.

Saturday, August 22

It was a beautiful night for racing Saturday, August 22 and Rice Lake Speedway was back in action with a regular five-division program. The season is winding down with only one regular season race left before the Labor Day weekend doubleheader.

Saturday was interesting with new faces on hand. That always spices things up, especially when the new faces also have fast race cars.

There were several different drivers who visited victory lane on Saturday, including two first timers, two who won their second main of the year, and then there is Simon Wahlstrom. He won his ninth feature race here this year and has a good chance of breaking into double digits, something that is very rare indeed. I would have to go back into the records to see when that last happened, but it surely must have been quite awhile.

I'm also waiting for that night when we have two female feature winners on the same night, something I'm quite sure hasn't happened in the long history of the track. There is a very real chance of happening yet this year, however.

It's interesting how things work sometimes. Right now, the track's division with the most frequent travelers is in the Pure Stocks. Many are racing three nights per week with two of the nightly pulls clocking in at least 90 minutes one way. They are spending quite a few hours on Highway 53 heading north to the Twin Ports, the closest areas around to also race Pure Stocks.

With a marriage this summer plus building a new house, I did not expect to see Andrew Hanson racing this year. It was a surprise when I was alerted by Kolby Kiehl that Hanson was set to race his Street Stock at Rice Lake Saturday. It is a new car and he made a powerful impact in his first night out, running a very close second in the feature race. All his pulls to the track are long ones, too; Rice Lake is the closest stop from his Iron River, Wisconsin home.

It didn't take the Chaplin family long to recover from the wild flip that took out Alaina at Rice Lake last week. I'm assuming that car is junk but they wasted no time getting back in the saddle, so to speak. The Street Stock owned by track owner Kiehl, which sat for much of this summer due to Kiehl’s responsibilities, has been rented by the Chaplin family. It’s the same Streeter Kennedy Swan raced during the Little Dream. Alaina can run it the rest of this year as she fights to win the WISSOTA Rookie of the Year honors in that class.

It was great to have Doug Wojcik racing back at the track Saturday. Driving his Modified, he made his first appearance of the year at the track, where he got started racing a Pure Stock all those years ago.

It was autograph night at the track, which is a new promotion along with the yearly bike races. Drivers were seated and signing autographs, pictures, you name it. A big group of fans participated and it seemed like this new promotion went over very well. Any chance that the drivers can interact with the fans is a plus for the sport as the fans roaming the pits after the races doesn't seem to be nearly as big as it used to be at one time.

Despite some high winds and low humidity plus very dry conditions locally, the track still raced well on Saturday. The top line didn't seem quite as good as some weeks, and while the first and second corners usually allow drivers to “rip the lip,” it seemed to be the exact opposite Saturday.

Track points ended Saturday night, with three of the titles well in hand. The Street Stock and Modified point titles were still to be determined. Cole Richards had a good hand in the Street Stocks and just had to have a consistent night to win, which he did. In the Modified title chase, it was much closer. Blake Adams and Matt Leer were tied going into the last night of point racing. Both finished second in their heats, and neither did themselves much in the way of favors by drawing the third and fourth rows, respectively, for the feature. It was not Leer's night, as he tore off his spoiler and much of the rear deck in a wall banger early in the race. Leer had to settle for sixth.

Adams was able to advance farther forward and got to second, getting nipped by less than a car length by Jake Hartung for the win. He could have used that victory, as his national point lead has shrunk down to about nothing. He has been on a bit of a cold streak of late, while Shane Sabraski is starting to peak at just the right time. It is such a long season and it is hard to be at your best from April until October, without any downtime.

It a tough night overall for Adams, who uses his home court advantage generally to grab a number of wins yearly. Saturday he had the lead in the Midwest Mod feature with just a couple laps to go when a bout into the first turn wall ended his night. I'm not sure if the front end had issues that sent him into the wall or if the trip damaged the car but the front end had issues. He tried to get back into the mix on the final lap and he dived into the infield to get out of the way.

Adams and Nick Koehler have been putting on a show all year as they battle night after night. On Saturday they were joined by Joey Jensen, who now seems to be running like the Joey Jensen we remember from last year.

Cole Chernosky did a nice job holding off a group that challenged him to win the Super Stock feature. It seemed Saturday like there were about four to six drivers in each class that at some point of their mains had a legitimate chance to win and weren't afraid to search around on the track to find a faster lane. We even saw Tommy Richards try the top side of the track and Shane Kisling in the low groove, lanes that are generally foreign to each of them.

It was a night of ups and downs though for Chernosky; after he won the Super Stock feature, he stopped for a spinning driver in the Modified feature and was rear ended by another driver who couldn’t get stopped in time, damaging the front bumper of Chernosky’s car. He called it a night.

Next week are the season championship races. Rice Lake does it a bit differently from other tracks that just point race until the last race of the year and then declare champions. Rice Lake cuts off their points one week early and then has a last regular season race that everyone can participate in, with those winners declared the season champions.

Michael Shalley made his first appearance with his Midwest Mod and was running in the top five until the late race scramble when Adams had problems and Shalley was shuffled back a bit.

Sunday, August 23

The regular season of racing for Proctor Speedway wrapped up on Sunday night, August 23. It was a sunny but slightly cool night for racing but not at all uncomfortable. Proctor was holding its last race of the season before the Silver 1000, which is Thursday, September 3, including the WISSOTA Structural Buildings Challenge series and Modifieds.

Proctor is one of those tracks that crowns their season champions based strictly on points accumulated during the season, and not on one “season championship” feature. Points accumulated through the night’s races and at the end of the night, six track champions were crowned.

The way the season played out, the only real divisions left where points were still up for grabs including the Late Models and the Midwest Mods. In the Late Models Harry Hanson led Danny Vang and in the Midwest Mods, Paul Ripley had a small lead over Adam Shinn. The other four classes were already determined: Nick Ruzich won the Hornets, Dylan Helget won the Pure Stocks, Shawn McFadden won the Supers and Brandon Copp won the Modifieds’ point titles.

It was a tough go of it for Helget to claim the title, as he is currently on his third race car of the year. He blew up his own car weeks ago and then borrowed a Treviranus car to race for a few weeks. He is now in the car that Brent Mindock drove successfully a couple years ago. It was last seen on the track at a nonsanctioned Pure Stock race with ABC Six Cylinder driver Roger Walker behind the wheel.

His path to the point title was eased when his nearest competitor, rookie Anthony Ravina, blew his motor in a heat race and ended his racing for the night.

The Pure Stocks have been doing a lot of racing, with some racing three and four nights per week and a lot of the cars are starting to look and run like they were very tired, which many of them likely are.

An interesting entrant on Sunday was a driver who used to live right down the road from Proctor Speedway and raced at the track for years — before he moved across the border to “Cheesehead Land,” where he’s raced Modifieds. Jason Miller was a well-known driver at this track, particulary in the days when he was an outstanding Super Stock driver. Competing for the first time in years at Proctor, Miller is just returning to part-time racing this year after he was away from the sport for a considerable time. He shares the driving duties in this car, but it sat for a couple weeks, so he decided to give Proctor a try. He didn't get his old parking spot on Sunday but a lot at the track looked and felt the same to him as when he last raced there.

He later led some laps in the Mod feature before falling victim to a couple of hip checks that moved him out of the groove as he settled for fourth.

Things were buzzing from the moment I arrived at the pit entrance as the ladies in charge had to move across the road and set up shop on an outside table. It seems the pit shack has been overtaken by some aggressive Hornets — and I'm not talking about those that race on the track. An exterminator will be needed before the Silver.

I got a chance to talk briefly with Tammy Lofdahl, who while not a member of the board of director of the club, is in on the ground floor of everything that happens. She was pleased to tell me that the track is in the best shape of the year and that with a good Silver, they will be in good shape for the next racing season.

They have picked up a number of sponsors, volunteers and ideas for activating the racing crowds after the week when the ultimation was issued last month. The crowds have also picked up in recent weeks and Sunday night's crowd seemed like the best I had seen in my visits this year. The challenge comes in 2027 to continue to keep those crowds returning. They do have some younger folks expressing interest in getting involved with the club, and that is a very good thing as they need folks to carry on in the coming years.

For the second straight time that I have been here this year, the Late Model field, with 17 on hand, was the largest of the six classes racing on Sunday. That is both good and bad. Good in that 17 Late Models is a nice field for any track at any time. Bad because some of the other classes where more cars would normally be expected just have not been showing up. Hornets, Super Stocks and Modifieds only needed one heat race Sunday. The Modified class has been short here all year and the Hornet count is trickling down, especially if the Iron Range cars don't show up. The Super Stock shortage is a new phenomena and perhaps just a one night hiccup.

The track was heavy on Sunday. Two graders were used to move the cushion up, the track was shaped up nicely and then it raced much better for the main events. It was a bit tricky though as it was dry on the bottom for about one lane and then had a small berm with plenty of moisture above that.

The most exciting race of the night was the Midwest Mod feature where Brady Larson was able to throw a slider on Brant Gruba in the final corner of the race and win the feature. It marked a good weekend for Larson, as it was his second straight win for the weekend. One had to feel for Gruba, who was only yards away from scoring his first ever feature win in the Midwest Mods.

Gruba has been rapidly improving this year and he led from the start of the race through three yellows that were triggered in the first half of the contest.

Much of the time, he was fighting off Sam Blevins for the lead. Adam Shinn, Justin Bassa and Mikey Blevins were also among the leaders at various times.

Larson started seventh and bided his time, moving up to third by the halfway point of the race. Gruba was challenged hard by Sam Blevins during the second half of the race. However, Larson was able to get by Blevins and rapidly move in on Gruba. Larson followed him closely for a few laps, trying the low side but not finding it to work. He then closed back up on Gruba and with a massive but clean slider in turn three, was able to drive past Gruba who had a little bobble at the same time. Larson drove to the win ahead of Gruba, Sam Blevins, Bassa and Shinn.

Things looked bad for point leader Paul Ripley when he missed the redraw but Shinn, who started on the pole, was not able to use that advantage and Ripley finished just two spots behind Shinn, which gave him the Midwest Mod title.

The other race the fans seemed to enjoy was the Late Model feature. Tim McMann got a great start and was able to build up a considerable lead early, with the first 10 laps of the race green. Danny Vang, battling Harry Hanson for the point title, moved into second with an aggressive move and then slowly closed in on McMann.

McMann was able to fight him off for several laps but as they came up on a slower driver, Vang made another daring move and took over the lead. However, just seconds after driving into the lead, Vang had the car come out from under him and he spun in turn one, triggering the yellow flag. When he had to go to the back of the pack, that pretty much gave Hanson the crown.

McMann continued to hold the point and while he was challenged several times by Darrell Nelson, who had moved into second after passing his son Cade, McMann continued to lead. Finally, with 14 laps in the books, Darrell drove by to take over the lead, which he then stretched.

The battle was now between McMann and Cade for second and after a number of laps, Cade made the pass and moved into second.

Nothing was more pleasing to the Nelson fans on hand than a father-son first and second finish and that’s what they got. Kevin Burdick passed McMann on the final lap for third, and Hanson rounded out the top five. That ensured the title was his.

Evan Checkalski used lots of “elbow” to move his way past Miller and take over the lead in the Modified feature on lap four, but he wasn't able to hold off the charge of fifth-starter Jody Bellefeuille. Once Bellefeuille got past Miller for second, he was rapidly able to catch Checkalski and then passed him on lap 10 of 15.

Checkalski held off Darrell Nelson and claimed second in the small field of drivers.

A last lap repass allowed Austin Fencl to edge out Aaron Bernick and win the Pure Stock feature. Early on, Fencl moved from the second row to grab the first lap lead. He then had pressure from Tom Treviranus, while Bernick moved up from the third row.

Bernick was able to get past Treviranus for second and then put the pressure on Fencl. Fencl was running the inside line and then drifting up the track through the corners, but Bernick used the high side to nose into the lead with 10 of 12 laps completed. However, Fencl fought back and they were racing nearly side by side through the final two laps.

On the white flag lap, Fencl drove deep into turn one and gave Bernick a bit of an “elbow,” causing Bernick to slide even higher up the track and nearly off turn one, but he recovered. However, that loss of momentum was all Fencl needed and he held off Bernick the rest of that lap to claim the win. Treviranus was a close third.

The Hornet and Super Stock features were much the same as each other. Both had small fields of drivers and both had one driver dominate. In the Supers point champion Shawn McFadden started on the outside pole, pulled away from the field easily, and led from wire to wire despite several slowdowns for spinners. Tristan LaBarge was second and Adam Pratt third.

The Hornet feature went nonstop, led early by Kyle LeDoux. He cruised away from the pack raced nonstop to an easy win ahead of Nick Ruzich and Madisyn Olson.

To the credit of the track and officials, when they are in a situation where the car count is small, rather than try and drag things out they put the same effort into keeping the show moving, which I ultimately believe the fans appreciate.

Getting done early is a good thing and something fans like, especially on a Sunday. Sunday night they didn't even have to turn the track lights on, as the final checkers flew at 8 p.m. on the dot. It was getting toward dusk, and if there was a yellow in the Hornets, they probably would have had to turn their lights on. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.