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Labor Day Weekend
We decided to attend the inaugural Dairyland Dash at Rice Lake Speedway in Rice Lake, Wisconsin over Labor Day weekend. If you follow racing here in Wisconsin, you are already aware Rice Lake Speedway changed hands before the 2024 season began.
Joanne and I, opted for a motel room in Rice Lake rather than driving the 92.5 miles one way each day down and back home. It's a good thing we did—but I'll fill you in later as to why!
Onto the racing. There must have been many racers wanting to be a part of an inaugural event, as a total of 162 cars showed up to take the green flag. On the menu were the five regular weekly classes that race at Rice Lake, plus a contingent from the USRA Late Model class.
On Friday all classes raced qualifying heats, B features and feature events.
In the WISSOTA Modifieds, it was a sweep for young driver Kaden Blaeser, as he finished ahead Shane Halopka, Kennedy Swan, Al Uotinen and Mark Hessler.
In the 20-lap WISSOTA Super Stock feature it was Curt Myers completing the division sweep with the win. Dexton Koch, Dan Nissalke, Alex Myers and Shane Kisling completed the top five.
Next up were the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds with a total of 25 entries. Tyler Vernon took the victory, followed by Blake Adams in second. Derrick Reed, Cole Elton, and Mark Thomas rounded out the top five.
In the Street Stock feature, Cody Cimfl took the victory. Second was Cody Kummer, third was Levi Randt, fourth went to Hunter VanGilder and Kyle Genett was fifth.
Bob Whalstrom beat out Aaron Bernick in the 12-lap WISSOTA Pure Stock main event.
About 8 p.m. it began to shower, resulting in a rain delay of around three hours. We found out how they bring back a very wet racetrack, but it took a while. They were determined to continue, however, as there was no room to finish out Friday night in Saturday’s schedule. After a three-hour delay we resumed racing.
The first night of the weekend really finished late due to the threehour plus delay for rain. As mentioned, that was the great reason for Joanne and I to opt for a motel room.
After a good night’s sleep, we headed out to the speedway for the second day of the Dairyland Dash. We made our way to our shared booth and got settled.
Mike Anderson pulled off the sweep by winning the 25-lap Modified feature over Kevin Adams, Nick Oreskovich, Tyler Vernon and (Superior hometown boy) Brady Uotinen in the top five.
The Super Stock feature was won by Curt Myers, ahead of Dexton Koch, Terran Spacek, Eric Olson and Curt's son Alex Myers in fifth.
In the Midwest Mods, Blake Adams took the victory over Vernon, Wyatt Boyum, Landyn Randt and Travis Anderson.
The 20-lap main event in the Street Stocks was won by Hunter VanGilder from the pole, with Andrew Hanson second. The rest of the top five included Cody Cimfl, Nick Traynor and Danny Richards.
Dusten Holub went on to win the Pure Stock feature from the front row. Aaron Bernick was second, Devin Fries was third, Rob Grabon ran fourth and Charlie Pitcavage finished fifth.
Wednesday, September 4
Before the 36th Northern Nationals three-day run, there was a practice session the Wednesday before. In addition, Gondik Law Speedway hosts the “Showdown in Souptown” alongside its practice, which pits the WISSOTA Super Stocks and WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds against each other, eight in each class.
In order to become eligible all cars in each class must run a two lap time trial for position. Dylan Nelson was the quickest qualifier at 17.980 seconds. Next fastest was the Mid Mod of Evan Checkalski at 18.148 seconds.
Nelson’s fast lap put him on the pole. I must mention that “our driver” Cody Carlson qualified fifth with a lap at 18.258. Carlson then started fifth in the feature.
By the end of the 20-lap feature Carlson moved from fifth to make what he called his $500 pass to finish second to Nelson. Finishing second was worth $1000 to the young man! What a great way to start out the 2024 Northern Nationals!
Thursday, September 5
The “real event” started September 5 with a total of 135 cars signed into competition. On hand were Midwest Modifieds, Pure Stocks, Hornets and Street Stocks.
In the 20-lap Midwest Mod feature Cody Carlson had the fortune of his favorite starting spot, on the outside of the front row. From there he cruised to the feature win, giving him the first night sweep. He managed to fight off Jason VandeKamp to take the win. WISSOTA National Midwest Modified point leader David Simpson was third followed by Paul Ripley and Michael Blevins, Sr. in fifth.
In the WISSOTA Pure Stocks Eric Crosby completed a sweep with the feature win.
The WISSOTA Hornets only had eight cars on hand, with Justin Schelitzche taking the feature win for another sweep on the night.
The final division of the night was the WISSOTA Street Stocks, who were making a rare appearance at GLS with a total of 11 entries. In the feature, Nick Traynor won ahead of Kolby Kiehl. AJ Kellar, Thomas Worth and Brendan Makkinga finished in the top five.
The weather was varied for the Northern Nationals. Luckily for us, day two had a few sporadic raindrops that didn’t interfere with anything. I will say that day two was very cold, with a wind and 52 degrees overnight. As I get older, cold weather bugs me now; it feels colder, and I’m cold all the time. I’m not looking forward to winter.
Friday, September 6
On Friday the program included heat races for WISSOTA Late Models, Modifieds and Super Stocks, alongside a full show for the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds.
For the lone WISSOTA Dirt Track Series main event on Friday, Ryan Savoy grabbed the win in the 20-lap Midwest Mod feature ahead of Joey Jensen. Jason VandeKamp, James Vendela and David Simpson rounded out the top finishers.
I saw that Cody Carlson had pulled off during the feature. I spoke to his mother Judy and she told me that since he was going nowhere, he decided to just pull in and live to fight another day!
I have to say a word about the crowd, well, a couple words: PACKED HOUSE! It was a great crowd. As many of you know my wife Joanne sort of runs the 50/50 draw. The track did really well the first night, Friday. Someone took home $1300 dollars. (The second night it was down a bit to $1100).
Saturday, September 7
Saturday was the night of finales for the four classes that qualified on Friday night. In the feature for the Late Models, 40 laps went right along with only a couple of cautions. Ashley Anderson decimated the 25-car field winning the feature by 11 seconds over Kevin Burdick. Pat Doar, Dan Bargender, and John Kaanta finished in the top five.
Mike Anderson swept the 30-lap Modified feature over Clayton Wagamon. Darrel Nelson was third, Brandon Copp fourth, and Jody Bellefeuille fifth. Wagamon’s car had an in-car camera it was announced.
In the WISSOTA Super Stocks on the final day, the feature went to Dylan Nelson ahead of Cory Casari (who just started racing that car a few weeks ago). Kyle Copp was third followed by Shawn McFadden, and Matt Deragon finished in the top five.
The WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds had 40 entries for the final day. Following the heat races, David Simpson won the 20-lap feature over Deven VanHouse, David Swearingen, Garrett Paull and James Vendela. (Cody started ninth and finished in the same position.)
The long weekend was jam-packed with WISSOTA racing, most of it very good. I did forget to mention that Jason VandeKamp had an incident in the first turn and rolled his car hard, landing on the roof. I don’t believe he was injured.
That finishes a very tiring weekend. Time to take some time off from racing for a few days. Until next time ...