5-7 Page 23

This is my first time trying to write a column since I don’t know when ... at least since I began having my health problems.

I’ve been watching on my PC waiting for the racing season to start. Wouldn’t you know, for once we had a real mild winter — with almost no snowfall — setting the stage for an early start to the racing season here on the tundra. But now we have a real wet spring, placing our early scheduled races in jeopardy. Can’t get a break!

We watched Sam Mars beat early leader Nick Panitzke at Red Cedar during their opening weekend. Mars got a run and shot past Panitzke to the lead to win his first WISSOTA Late Model feature at Red Cedar. Chad Mahder started fifth and worked his way forward to get past Panitzke for second. Tyler Peterson and John Kaanta rounded out the top five.

In the WISSOTA Modifieds Kevin Adams was the winner, despite a late race caution flag. Adams held the point over the 2023 WISSOTA Rookie of the Year Kennedy Swan on the restart, and was able to take the win. Swan finished second while Canadian racer Cole Chernosky was third. They were followed by Shane Halopka and Dan Larson, Jr.

In the WISSOTA Super Stocks, early leader Terran Spacek and Jesse Redetzke paced the field early on. It was a tight race and Redetzke bobbled, taking out Spacek. Spacek was restored to the lead and took the win. Curt Myers, Matthew Larson, Dan Nissalke and Ron Mahder completed the top five.

In the remaining classes, Cody Kummer was the winner in the Street Stocks. He and Andrew Hanson had an incident, with the blame placed on Hanson. Kummer was declared the winner.

Jason VandeKamp won in the Midwest Mods, besting Blake Adams.

Wish we could have been there, instead of watching it on the computer, but I was unable to make the trip.

We were able to make the Rice Lake Speedway opener, however, on April 27. It was the first race for the new track owners and they started racing at 6 p.m.

Joanne went to set up for selling her World’s Finest Chocolate candy bars as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society once again, while I stayed in the van and rested.

The program started right on time; actually, it was a little early as there were hot laps for all classes before the Canadian and US national anthems to signal the start of weekly racing.

My count had 81 cars on hand for possibly the earliest opening night in some time, including Modifieds, Super Stocks, Midwest Modifieds, Street Stocks and Pure Stocks. There were a decent number of cars in four of the divisions, at least enough for two heats and a feature. The only class under represented was the Pure Stocks, with only 10 cars on hand. It sounds like many were not ready yet or out of town in that class.

In the Modified feature Mike Anderson held off Kevin Adams, Brandon Copp, Nick Oreskovich and Travis Anderson in the top five.

In the WISSOTA Super Stocks, the top five included Curt Myers, Simon Wahlstrom, Shawn McFadden, Kyle Copp and Eric Olson. Eleven cars finished the feature out of 20 starters.

In the Midwest Modifieds, the top five in the feature were Landyn Randt, Blake Adams, David Simpson, Mike Schnider and Jake Stai.

In the Street Stocks Cody Kummer grabbed the win ahead of Ty Agen, Danny Richards, Kolton Brauer and Braden Bauer in the top five.

Brent Mindock won in the Pure Stocks after the original winner was DQ’d for a brake infraction. Jake Smith, Trenten Holub, Skylar Findley and Trevor Phillips were top-five finishers.

It was a fun night of racing as we gazed at some of the improvements made to the 72-plus-year-old facility.

First, the track itself looked new and improved. Maybe it was the dampness (it misted lightly during the features), but the surface looked red to me, sort of like here on the tundra at Gondik Law Speedway, which is actually a clay track. There was no dust from it, obviously, so that was a blessing.

As mentioned they started at 6 p.m. and Joanne and I were on the road home at around 9:30, which may have been a record for the speedway as far as finishing time. Of course, there were no B features, so that may have been why. It was still a great night of racing and the track held up well, with no bumps noted!

We were joined by our friend and neighbor Dennis McCauley in our new-to-us first turn location. It was great to see him. Kind of looks as though he and I will be shut out of our RCS spring trip if we are able to get started here in the northern tier of WISSOTA tracks on time.

A closing thought for promoters from what I’ve noticed recently ... for your racing schedules, do not call your weekly unsponsored races regular races — you don’t want anyone thinking that your races are “just” regular!

That’s enough for this time, hopefully we will have more to report next time.