8-13 Page 24

Stai and Schnider fight to one of closest finishes of the year while Chernosky, Richards, Myers and Rahn also race to Rice Lake wins

By Ed Reichert

RICE LAKE, WI (August 10) - Rice Lake Speedway was back in action and the racing was furious on a comfortable Saturday night.

In one of the closest finishes of the 2024 racing season, Jake Stai was able to withstand a heavy challenge from Mike Schnider to win the WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature by the small margin of .028 seconds, becoming the first repeat winner in the class this year. Two other drivers - Cole Richards and Cole Chernosky - won their first feature races of the season at the track, while James Rahn and Curt Myers added to their totals in WISSOTA Dirt Track Series action.

The Midwest Modified feature included plenty of old-school wheel banging, with sparks flying, and sheet metal grinding action as the leaders jockeyed for position and slugged it out right to the final checkers.

Kenny Kincaid took the early lead from the outside pole and he maintained the top spot through the first four laps and two yellows, the second of which occurred when second-place Brady Larson spun and stopped the action.

There were four cars closely chasing leader Kincaid, and the restart proved to be a disaster for the Shell Lake driver; he slipped up too high in turn one and before the lap was over, he fell from first to fifth. Stai, who started third, then assumed the leadership role in the race.

However, he was under significant pressure from Schnider, Cody Cimfl and David Baxter as the top four ran in tight formation. Schnider lost second at the halfway point to Cimfl, but then fought his way back and regained the spot.

The last five laps were wild, with the two leaders battling it out. Schnider was trying to get his car under the leader’s, while Stai was pinching down in the corners. That led to a lot of banging and bumping between the two, but they both maintained control and continued to aggressively go for the lead. This continued into the final lap as they raced side by side off the final corner. In the charge to the finish line, Stai nosed out Schnider by the smallest of margins. Cimfl, Baxter and Travis Anderson completed the top five at the line.

While Stai became the first repeat winner in the class this year, Schnider heads into the final points week as the leader.

In the WISSOTA Modifieds, veteran Danny Thomas took the initial lead after the first start was called back when Austin Ellis spun in turn four.

Thomas was in front for the first five laps with Travis Anderson moving to the cushion and gradually edging up on the leader. Down the back chute, Anderson drove around Thomas to take over the top spot, but he was challenged quickly by Pat Hoffman and fourth-row starter Chernosky. Anderson fought hard to retain the lead; as Chernosky tried to go around him, Anderson lost control and Chernosky spun in turn two as a result. Anderson forfeited the top spot to Chernosky for the restart.

At the halfway point of the race, Chernosky had the advantage over Hoffman, with Joe Chaplin, Jr. putting pressure on Hoffman. Shane Halopka and Ellis, fighting his way back through the field, appeared in the top five.

Chernosky gradually began to pull away from the pack during the last half of the race. Hoffman and Chaplin, Jr. had a great battle for second, before Chaplin Jr. prevailed and then attempted to catch the leader. There was no catching Chernosky, however, as he motored on for the win and became the first Canadian driver to win a Modified feature race at Rice Lake since 2007. Chaplin finished a strong second and Ellis completed his march back up through the field to finish third. Halopka and Aiden Hoffman, who passed his dad late in the race, completed the top five.

Rahn dominated the WISSOTA Pure Stock feature, leading from start to finish and having to just hold off Dusten Holub for the win. Holub, who started sixth, was up to second by the time the first yellow waved when Aaron Holmberg took a wild ride in turn four, nearly going over as he took some air after rolling a rear tire off the rim.

Rahn continued to lead following the yellow, with Holub and Bob Thompson next in line and racing hard to catch him. As Rahn continued to control the lead and Holub continued to chase, a good race for third developed with Thompson having his hands full as Austin Fencl and Brent Mindock both challenged him. While there was much jockeying of position during the last half of the race, that was the order they finished in, with Rahn winning his second straight Pure Stock feature.

The WISSOTA Street Stock feature went green to checkered Saturday and it was Cole Richards, starting from the outside pole, who dominated the race.

The early part of the event was a fight as Jay Kesan battled Richards hard for the top spot, before Richards prevailed. Richards then began to put some distance on the field as Kesan battled with Hunter VanGilder for second, which VanGilder secured by the midpoint of the race.

Richards continued to maintain a good-sized lead as VanGilder tried to catch him, while the “Thirty Thousand Dollar Man” Cody Kummer started to make his way forward from seventh. He was in the top five by that halfway point of the race and just continued to march forward.

While Richards maintained his comfortable lead and drove on for his first win of the year here, VanGilder managed to finish a strong second and Kummer charged all the way up to third, edging past Kesan and Cody Cimfl. Richards became the seventh different winner in the class here so far in 2024.

Currently second in national points, Curt Myers continued his hot streak and added to his total as he won his third WISSOTA Super Stock feature race at Rice Lake and padded his track points lead.

Despite the fact he started eighth in the field, it took him only 10 laps to march to the front. To begin the feature, Cory Davis led his first feature race laps of the year, maintaining the top spot for the first three revolutions before Simon Wahlstrom threw a slider at him and took over out front. By this point, Myers was already up to third, having fought his way past Leslie Leu and D.J. Keeler.

Myers continued to move forward and by the halfway point of the race, was knocking on the rear bumper of Wahlstrom. With a slide job of his own, he took over the lead. Wahlstrom tried to cross him back over without success and after that, Myers gradually pulled away from the field. One more yellow bunched the pack again, but no matter to Myers, who again drove away from the field. Wahlstrom, Keeler and Leu finished behind Myers, with Eric Olson making a late pass on son Ryan to complete the top five.

Going into the final point night of 2024, the five leaders are Chaplin, Jr., Myers, Schnider, Danny Richards and Bob Wahlstrom. The kids get a chance to race their bikes during intermission next Saturday night with racing starting promptly at 6 p.m.

Season Championships are scheduled for Saturday night, August 24, and the season will conclude with the inaugural Dairyland Dash on August 31 and September 1. Run in cooperation with the Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie, racing will take place there on Friday night of the Labor Day weekend and then racing will move to Rice Lake on Saturday and Sunday. Complete details for the drivers on the purse structure is expected to be released within a few days.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 33C-Cole Chernosky[7]; 2. 5-Joe Chaplin Jr[6]; 3. 20-Austin Ellis[8]; 4. 3JR-Shane Halopka[11]; 5. 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[9]; 6. 308-Pat Hoffman[2]; 7. 13H-Mark Hessler[3]; 8. 10-Kyle Helling[5]; 9. 37-Travis Anderson[4]; 10. T40-Danny Thomas[1]; 11. 78-Brent Prochnow[12]; 12. 204-David Mayala[13]; 13. (DNF) 18-Mark Hanson[10]; 14. (DNS) 12-Jason Gross

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Joe Chaplin Jr[1]; 2. 13H-Mark Hessler[3]; 3. 10-Kyle Helling[4]; 4. 37-Travis Anderson[6]; 5. 9MM-Aiden Hoffman[5]; 6. 3JR-Shane Halopka[7]; 7. 204-David Mayala[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. T40-Danny Thomas[2]; 2. 20-Austin Ellis[1]; 3. 33C-Cole Chernosky[3]; 4. 308-Pat Hoffman[7]; 5. 18-Mark Hanson[6]; 6. 78-Brent Prochnow[4]; 7. (DNF) 12-Jason Gross[5]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 33-Curt Myers[8]; 2. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[3]; 3. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[6]; 4. 14X-Leslie Leu[4]; 5. 1E-Eric Olson[9]; 6. 1-Ryan Olson[5]; 7. 57-Randy Graham[11]; 8. 1M-Alex Myers[13]; 9. 20-Cory Davis[2]; 10. 1776-Wayne Dean[7]; 11. 28-Josh Cappo[14]; 12. 20*-Andrew Davis[1]; 13. 247-Jackson Larson[16]; 14. 22-Clay Albrecht[12]; 15. 01-Michael Anderson[17]; 16. (DNF) 22AT-Austin Tilton[10]; 17. (DNF) 21-Mike Siewert[18]; 18. (DNF) 02-Travis Anderson[15]; 19. (DNS) 90-Adam Pratt; 20. (DNS) 10-Jeff Eisner Jr

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Ryan Olson[2]; 2. 1E-Eric Olson[4]; 3. 20*-Andrew Davis[5]; 4. 22AT-Austin Tilton[7]; 5. (DNF) 21-Mike Siewert[3]; 6. (DNF) 90-Adam Pratt[1]; 7. (DNF) 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[3]; 2. 12K-Duane (DJ) Keeler[4]; 3. 20-Cory Davis[1]; 4. 57-Randy Graham[6]; 5. 1M-Alex Myers[5]; 6. 02-Travis Anderson[7]; 7. 01-Michael Anderson[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Curt Myers[1]; 2. 1776-Wayne Dean[4]; 3. 14X-Leslie Leu[6]; 4. 22-Clay Albrecht[2]; 5. 28-Josh Cappo[3]; 6. 247-Jackson Larson[5]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 1-Jake Stai[3]; 2. 7-Mike Schnider[8]; 3. 19H-Cody Cimfl[6]; 4. 35B-David Baxter[7]; 5. 37-Travis Anderson[5]; 6. 63JR-Brady Larson[4]; 7. 4K-Kenny Kincaid[2]; 8. 13-Derrick Reed[14]; 9. 00-Joseph Swearingen[1]; 10. 410-Jesse Young[13]; 11. 88K-Jason Knutson[10]; 12. 39-Rusty Taber[9]; 13. (DNF) 101-Michael Grover[12]; 14. (DNF) 63C-Braydon Larson[15]; 15. (DNF) 78-Bently Prochnow[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 63JR-Brady Larson[1]; 2. 1-Jake Stai[3]; 3. 35B-David Baxter[5]; 4. 19H-Cody Cimfl[7]; 5. 39-Rusty Taber[6]; 6. 78-Bently Prochnow[8]; 7. 410-Jesse Young[2]; 8. 63C-Braydon Larson[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Mike Schnider[1]; 2. 4K-Kenny Kincaid[6]; 3. 37-Travis Anderson[4]; 4. 00-Joseph Swearingen[3]; 5. 88K-Jason Knutson[5]; 6. 101-Michael Grover[2]; 7. 13-Derrick Reed[7]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 1R-Cole Richards[2]; 2. 84-Hunter VanGilder[4]; 3. 12-Cody Kummer[7]; 4. 12K-Jay Kesan[1]; 5. 19H-Cody Cimfl[3]; 6. 30-Shawn Amundson[8]; 7. 3R-Danny Richards[10]; 8. 7-Caiden Engel[6]; 9. T20-Michael Tuma[12]; 10. 16-Warren Bartelt[14]; 11. 31-Tom Treviranus[16]; 12. 20F-Connor Franson[11]; 13. 9-Adam Soltis[13]; 14. 19J-Nolan Brown[5]; 15. 79-Joseph Ott[15]; 16. 74-Bruce Stanley[17]; 17. (DNF) 10B-Dylan Baskin[9]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 12K-Jay Kesan[2]; 2. 84-Hunter VanGilder[4]; 3. 1R-Cole Richards[3]; 4. 19J-Nolan Brown[6]; 5. 10B-Dylan Baskin[8]; 6. 20F-Connor Franson[7]; 7. 74-Bruce Stanley[9]; 8. 16-Warren Bartelt[1]; 9. 31-Tom Treviranus[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 30-Shawn Amundson[3]; 2. 12-Cody Kummer[5]; 3. 19H-Cody Cimfl[1]; 4. 7-Caiden Engel[4]; 5. 3R-Danny Richards[7]; 6. T20-Michael Tuma[6]; 7. 9-Adam Soltis[8]; 8. 79-Joseph Ott[2]

WISSOTA Pure Stocks:

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 23R-James Rahn[1]; 2. 15H-Dusten Holub[6]; 3. 70-Bob Thompson[3]; 4. 52W-Austin Fencl[5]; 5. 57M-Brent Mindock[7]; 6. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[8]; 7. 17-Brian DeNucci[11]; 8. 81-Charlie Pitcavage[10]; 9. 28-Eric Crosby[9]; 10. 7D-Trevor Phillips[4]; 11. 55-Brad Hudson[12]; 12. (DNF) 4K-Terry Kemp[13]; 13. (DNF) 12-Aaron Holmberg[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 52W-Austin Fencl[2]; 2. 15H-Dusten Holub[6]; 3. 23R-James Rahn[7]; 4. 12-Aaron Holmberg[1]; 5. 28-Eric Crosby[4]; 6. 17-Brian DeNucci[3]; 7. 4K-Terry Kemp[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 57M-Brent Mindock[4]; 2. 7D-Trevor Phillips[1]; 3. 70-Bob Thompson[6]; 4. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[3]; 5. 81-Charlie Pitcavage[5]; 6. 55-Brad Hudson[2]