Tourville Tops Rice Lake “Little Dream”; $29.411 His Prize

By Ed Reichert

Rice Lake WI, August 1 – The twenty ninth annual running of the WISSOTA Street Stock Little Dream race was held on Tuesday night, August 1st at the Rice Lake Speedway in Rice Lake Wisconsin.

Janesville Minnesota's Keith Tourville became the eighth different multi time winner of the event when he took over the lead from Justin Vogel on lap five and paced the last thirty one laps of the race , fighting off repeated challenges from defending winner Nick Traynor to take his second win in this showcase event.

And once again the supporters of this race and Street Stock racing in general dug deep into their pockets and when all the tallies had been completed, Tourville would go home with a record payoff of $29,411, topping last year's record total by over twelve hundred dollars and the tenth straight time this race has paid out over ten thousand dollars to the winner of the biggest Street Stock race in the world.

Fifty six drivers from four states plus Canada would sign in to race on Tuesday night with a series of double heat races, B Features and a Last Chance race setting the twenty six car starting field. David Blackberg would become the twenty sixth and final starter when he would edge Mike Jans by .002 seconds to earn the last starting position when he passed up the winner's share of the Last Chance race for the opportunity to start on the tail of the main event field.

Tourville, the passing points leader after a heat race win and runner up finish, would start on the pole for the forty lap finale but it would be Justin Vogel, a ten time entrant in this event but with just a single top five finish, that would grab the early lead from the outside pole.

While Tourville would slip to the inside of Vogel and by his side, it would be Vogel that would lead the first four laps of the race despite constant pressure from Tourville. On lap five, Tourville would finally clear Vogel on the inside and would power into the lead off turn four with Vogel tucking in close behind him.

Defending event winner Nick Traynor would start fourth on the field and he would then move in to challenge Vogel for second as Tourville opened up a four car length lead on the field. Traynor would continue to press for second as Parker Anderson and Hunter VanGilder would race into the top five.

The first fifteen laps of the race would run off nonstop until on lap sixteen, a minor spin would trigger the first yellow of the race with the top five in the running order unchanged.

The race would get temporarily hung up at this point with the first yellow quickly followed by two more before another lap could be completed with both for minor issues. The top five would remain static through the halfway point of the race until a spin by Ryan Olson, who was having a terrific top ten run to that point as a rookie driver in this class, would again cause the yellow flag to wave.

While Tourville would continue to maintain his slight but consistent edge over the field, there was now some movement in the field behind him as the event moved into its second half. After laps and laps of trying, Traynor was finally able to move past Vogel for the second spot and he then began to cut into Tourville's lead. VanGilder had moved up to fourth but was then passed for that spot as Cody Kummer began a strong charge that would carry him from the fourth row up as far as fourth. Also on the move was Jeff Nowak as he tried to crack the top five after starting way back in fourteenth position.
One more yellow for another minor spin would set up a ten lap dash to the finish of the race. Traynor would then push his hardest of the race, driving deep into the corners and trying to slide up under Tourville and take over the lead. However, Tourvillle was able to maintain his small but steady lead despite Traynor's push to the front.

VanGilder would get a great final restart and would suddenly move up into the third position and try to track down the leaders while Nowak would continue his charge by cracking the top five for the first time.

The last ten laps would continue on without any slow downs and Traynor would continue to push Tourville but the veteran Street Stock racer and car builder, running this event for the thirteenth time since his first appearance in this race way back in 2004, would continue to make solid, smooth laps and would drive on for his second win in the Little Dream and fifth top five finish in this race.

Traynor would continue to push his hardest, seeking to become only the second ever back to back winner but his effort would come up short. He dove extremely hard into the final corner and hoped to slide up under Tourville but he would come up three car lengths short at the finish.

VanGilder, a former track champion here, would finish two more car lengths back in third and earn his first ever top five finish in this race. Nowak would end up fourth after starting fourteenth and Kummer would earn his fourth top five finish in this race.

The second five would consist of Vogel, Cody Cimfl, Danny Richards, Cole Richards and Kolby Kiehl. Tourville's first win in this race back in 2017 paid just over $15, 000 so in two victories at this event, Tourville has banked nearly fourty five thousand dollars in a Street Stock. Nineteen of the starting field of twenty six were still on the track at the finish and all drivers were on the lead lap.

FYE Motorsports Promotions once again administered the operation of this event and a huge crowd was on hand for this race, packing the grandstands and overfilling the parking lots. Even the weather cooperated with some potential storms steering away from the area and leaving a comfortable Summer evening.

FYE and the ownership group of Dave Adams and Mitch Hansen would like to thank all the generous individuals and businesses on hand that contributed to the race purse along with the significant contributions generated by the on line donations from fans watching the event on tv. Every sent collected went directly to the drivers who raced and contributions went out to many drivers and not just the race winner. One of the dubious winners was Josh Barker from Thompson North Dakota who received a bonus for being the first roll over victim of the night when he tipped over in one of the B Features.
Planning will soon begin for the thirtieth annual Little Dream which will come up in 2024. Management already has some exciting ideas in the works for 2024 and the mantra for this race in 2024 will be $30.000 for 30 as that will be the goal for the winner next year.

The Rice Lake Speedway will take this coming Saturday night, August 5th off. However, the track will return to action on Saturday night, August 12th with another of the season's biggest events. The WISSOTA Late Models will make their third and final visit of the year to the track and this time it will be as the twelfth round of the Structural Buildings Series WISSOTA Challenge Series. A forty lap feature race will be the highlight of the program for the Late Models with a large number of cars expected, led by series point leader Pat Doar. And as a special bonus for the fans, the five divisions that race at the track on a weekly basis will also be in action with WISSOTA sanctioned Modifieds, Midwest Modifieds, Super Stocks, Street Stocks and Pure Stocks all in action.

Race time will be 7 pm and information about this event and pricing information will be available on the speedway website and face book page.

56 entries
WISSOTA STREET STOCK

A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 111JR-Keith Tourville[1]; 2. 40T-Nick Traynor[4]; 3. 84-Hunter VanGilder[6]; 4. 79N-Jeff Nowak[14]; 5. 12-Cody Kummer[7]; 6. 10-Justin Vogel[2]; 7. 19-Cody Cimfl[8]; 8. 3R-Danny Richards[16]; 9. 1R-Cole Richards[18]; 10. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[20]; 11. 11JR-Jeff Ekdahl[25]; 12. 1S-Parker Anderson[3]; 13. 11-Sam Fankhauser[9]; 14. 26-Ty Agen[11]; 15. 69-Tim Johnson[10]; 16. 7-Jay Kesan[22]; 17. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[17]; 18. 980-Kaden Woodie[21]; 19. 27P-Tucker Pederson[19]; 20. (DNF) 7BR-Lucas Boyce[23]; 21. (DNF) 19H-Ryan Olson[5]; 22. (DNF) 11K-Kyle Dykhoff[12]; 23. (DNF) 30-Jim Randall[13]; 24. (DNF) 16X-Kyle Genett[15]; 25. (DNF) 16-David Blackberg[26]; 26. (DNF) 9-Adam Soltis[24]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[3]; 2. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[1]; 3. 7BR-Lucas Boyce[2]; 4. 69P-Dominick Platow[12]; 5. 56-Ethan Hommerding[9]; 6. 00Z-Bryar Zimmerman[10]; 7. 28-Greg Jose[4]; 8. (DNF) 15B-Mike Brown[6]; 9. (DNF) 2-Gunnar Watkins[5]; 10. (DNF) 57-Kyle King[7]; 11. (DNF) 99-Josh Barker[11]; 12. (DNF) 37X-Quain Busitzky[8]; 13. (DNS) 52-Aden Saunders; 14. (DNS) 11X-Levi Randt

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 1R-Cole Richards[4]; 2. 980-Kaden Woodie[2]; 3. 9-Adam Soltis[8]; 4. 25J-Mike Jans[3]; 5. 54-Jodie Michaelsohn[5]; 6. 4-Trey Hess[1]; 7. 20L-Roger Lee[11]; 8. 16-David Blackberg[7]; 9. 92R-Courtney Rose[9]; 10. (DNF) 66-Eric Haupt[13]; 11. (DNF) 19J-Brady Larson[6]; 12. (DNF) 87X-Quentin Busitzky[10]; 13. (DNS) 7X-Mike Knudtson

B Feature 3 (12 Laps): 1. 27P-Tucker Pederson[1]; 2. 7-Jay Kesan[4]; 3. 11JR-Jeff Ekdahl[3]; 4. 82-Kevin Bogdanovic[5]; 5. 40-Travis Loew[13]; 6. 77-Zach Degner[2]; 7. T20-Michael Tuma[8]; 8. 10B-Dylan Baskin[6]; 9. 314-Tyler Lamb[9]; 10. 71H-Ron Hanestad[7]; 11. 79-Dusten Holub[11]; 12. 25-Kat Luretig[10]; 13. 22-James Taylor[12]

Heat 1 (Round 1) (8 Laps): 1. 79N-Jeff Nowak[1]; 2. 12-Cody Kummer[5]; 3. 26-Ty Agen[2]; 4. 19-Cody Cimfl[9]; 5. 3R-Danny Richards[6]; 6. 7BR-Lucas Boyce[3]; 7. 2-Gunnar Watkins[10]; 8. 20L-Roger Lee[8]; 9. 11X-Levi Randt[7]; 10. (DNF) 7X-Mike Knudtson[4]

Heat 2 (Round 1) (8 Laps): 1. 84-Hunter VanGilder[1]; 2. 40T-Nick Traynor[3]; 3. 16X-Kyle Genett[5]; 4. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[6]; 5. 11K-Kyle Dykhoff[7]; 6. 16-David Blackberg[9]; 7. 27P-Tucker Pederson[10]; 8. 15B-Mike Brown[2]; 9. 66-Eric Haupt[8]; 10. 22-James Taylor[4]

Heat 3 (Round 1) (8 Laps): 1. 11-Sam Fankhauser[1]; 2. 77-Zach Degner[2]; 3. 82-Kevin Bogdanovic[4]; 4. 980-Kaden Woodie[9]; 5. 19J-Brady Larson[5]; 6. 314-Tyler Lamb[3]; 7. 10B-Dylan Baskin[8]; 8. T20-Michael Tuma[6]; 9. 52-Aden Saunders[7]

Heat 4 (Round 1) (8 Laps): 1. 111JR-Keith Tourville[3]; 2. 1S-Parker Anderson[6]; 3. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[4]; 4. 40-Travis Loew[7]; 5. 30-Jim Randall[9]; 6. 25J-Mike Jans[8]; 7. 56-Ethan Hommerding[2]; 8. 87X-Quentin Busitzky[5]; 9. 25-Kat Luretig[1]

Heat 5 (Round 1) (8 Laps): 1. 11JR-Jeff Ekdahl[2]; 2. 4-Trey Hess[1]; 3. 71H-Ron Hanestad[3]; 4. 69-Tim Johnson[7]; 5. 1R-Cole Richards[6]; 6. 37X-Quain Busitzky[5]; 7. 57-Kyle King[8]; 8. 79-Dusten Holub[9]; 9. 99-Josh Barker[4]

Heat 6 (Round 1) (8 Laps): 1. 10-Justin Vogel[5]; 2. 19H-Ryan Olson[9]; 3. 54-Jodie Michaelsohn[2]; 4. 28-Greg Jose[4]; 5. 92R-Courtney Rose[6]; 6. 00Z-Bryar Zimmerman[3]; 7. (DNF) 7-Jay Kesan[8]; 8. (DNF) 9-Adam Soltis[7]; 9. (DNF) 69P-Dominick Platow[1]

Heat 7 (Round 2) (8 Laps): 1. 27P-Tucker Pederson[1]; 2. 10-Justin Vogel[5]; 3. 12-Cody Kummer[6]; 4. 1R-Cole Richards[4]; 5. 10B-Dylan Baskin[2]; 6. 77-Zach Degner[8]; 7. 25-Kat Luretig[9]; 8. 22-James Taylor[7]; 9. (DQ) 40-Travis Loew[3]

Heat 8 (Round 2) (8 Laps): 1. 1S-Parker Anderson[4]; 2. 40T-Nick Traynor[8]; 3. 2-Gunnar Watkins[1]; 4. 11-Sam Fankhauser[9]; 5. 28-Greg Jose[6]; 6. 37X-Quain Busitzky[5]; 7. (DNF) 16-David Blackberg[2]; 8. (DNF) 7X-Mike Knudtson[7]; 9. (DNF) 52-Aden Saunders[3]

Heat 9 (Round 2) (8 Laps): 1. 19-Cody Cimfl[2]; 2. 19H-Ryan Olson[1]; 3. 7BR-Lucas Boyce[8]; 4. 15B-Mike Brown[9]; 5. T20-Michael Tuma[4]; 6. 87X-Quentin Busitzky[5]; 7. 99-Josh Barker[6]; 8. 00Z-Bryar Zimmerman[7]; 9. (DNF) 66-Eric Haupt[3]

Heat 10 (Round 2) (8 Laps): 1. 11K-Kyle Dykhoff[4]; 2. 7-Jay Kesan[2]; 3. 26-Ty Agen[9]; 4. 84-Hunter VanGilder[10]; 5. 15F-Zachary Flickinger[6]; 6. 19J-Brady Larson[5]; 7. 54-Jodie Michaelsohn[8]; 8. 20L-Roger Lee[3]; 9. 71H-Ron Hanestad[7]; 10. 79-Dusten Holub[1]

Heat 11 (Round 2) (8 Laps): 1. 30-Jim Randall[1]; 2. 111JR-Keith Tourville[7]; 3. 9K-Kolby Kiehl[5]; 4. 9-Adam Soltis[3]; 5. 57-Kyle King[2]; 6. 79N-Jeff Nowak[10]; 7. 82-Kevin Bogdanovic[6]; 8. 11JR-Jeff Ekdahl[8]; 9. 69P-Dominick Platow[9]; 10. (DNF) 11X-Levi Randt[4]

Heat 12 (Round 2) (8 Laps): 1. 69-Tim Johnson[3]; 2. 3R-Danny Richards[5]; 3. 25J-Mike Jans[2]; 4. 16X-Kyle Genett[6]; 5. 980-Kaden Woodie[1]; 6. 4-Trey Hess[9]; 7. 56-Ethan Hommerding[8]; 8. 314-Tyler Lamb[7]; 9. 92R-Courtney Rose[4]
Special 1 Non Qualifier (15 Laps): 1. 16-David Blackberg[14]; 2. 25J-Mike Jans[2]; 3. 82-Kevin Bogdanovic[3]; 4. 56-Ethan Hommerding[4]; 5. 54-Jodie Michaelsohn[5]; 6. T20-Michael Tuma[12]; 7. 77-Zach Degner[9]; 8. 10B-Dylan Baskin[15]; 9. 15B-Mike Brown[13]; 10. 28-Greg Jose[10]; 11. 00Z-Bryar Zimmerman[7]; 12. (DNF) 40-Travis Loew[6]; 13. (DNF) 69P-Dominick Platow[1]; 14. (DNS) 4-Trey Hess; 15. (DNS) 20L-Roger Lee