Richards and Wahlstrom Win Rice Lake Speedway Thrillers; Blaeser Wins First Ever

By Ed Reichert

Rice Lake WI, August 12 – The second to the last point race of the 2023 racing season at the Rice Lake Speedway produced an evening of exciting racing with two of the feature races coming right down to the wire and another driver winning his first ever main event at Rice Lake.

Both Danny Richards and Bob Wahlstrom won multi car feature race battles that came right down to the final corner while Kaden Blaeser put on a dominating performance to win his first ever Modified feature race at Rice Lake. Jesse Redetzke made his first appearance of the year a winning one as he would top the Super Stock feature while Blake Adams continued his outstanding rookie season as he won again in the Midwest Modifieds.

Drivers will earn their final points of the 2023 racing season in the regular season finale next Saturday night as the racing season begins to wind down. In fact, only three races are left on the schedule in 2023.

Saturday night's featured attraction was the appearance of the Late Models for the third and final time of the 2023 racing season with the Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series in action and Menomonie's Jake Redetzke would lead the last twenty eight laps of the race to win his second series event of 2023 and firmly establish him as the current runner up in the points fight for that series with everyone still chasing Pat Doar.

Along with the Late Models, a good field of cars turned out for racing in the track's other five divisions and some of the closest racing action of the year would see two of the feature events end in photo finishes.

The Street Stocks would continue the seemingly nearly weekly war for control of the division with another feature race that would come right down to the wire. James Clausen would take the early lead and control the top spot for the first four laps. He was pressured early by Travis Loew and Joe Ott when the first yellow was triggered when Adam Soltis was turned in heavy traffic. The race would take the green once again but only a lap would be completed before Ott and Soltis got bumpers locked and the yellow waved once again.

However, after that it was green to checkered racing with multi car packs fighting it out for position. Danny Richards started eighth on the grid but using the high side of the track, he was able to drive past several other racers and secure the third spot early. And following the second yellow, he would drive around Clausen on the top side of the track to take over the lead.

There would be a lead group of five drivers battling that included both the #40 cars of Loew and Nick Traynor, Richards' son Cole and Clausen who wasn't out of it yet. That group would continue to battle hard past the halfway point until at the end it would settle down to Danny Richards and Traynor.

Nick would try several times to get under Richards and would come very close but each time Danny would some how fight him off as they raced just inches apart. After one last attempt to get under Richards, as the white flag waved Traynor would switch lines and try an outside pass. Coming off the final corner Nick had a good run and they crossed the finish line with just inches separating them as Richards would hold on by .067 seconds to take his third win of the year here and continue as the only Street Stock driver at the track this year with multiple wins and retain his points lead. Loew, Clausen and Cole Richards would complete the top five.

The Pure Stocks would put on an excellent feature race themselves that would see the top three cross the finish line in a group with just inches separating them also. While Bob Wahlstrom, who started in position three and would grab the lead before the first lap was completed and be scored the leader of all twelve laps, was in front all the way, his lead was anything but comfortable.

Rob Grabon and Leo Moos would be right on him early with George Richards eventually racing up into the third spot. After that, those three would battle lap after lap with one to the outside of Wahlstrom and one under neath him in the corners but lap after lap, Bob would continue to hold them off. Right down to the wire those three would run together with Grabon making a particularly strong move off the top side on the final lap. Skimming the concrete wall, Grabon would close on the leader and at the line, Wahlstrom would hold on by half a car length to get his first win of the year over Grabon with Richards just inches behind in third. Austin Fencl and Devin Fries would complete the top five.

The speedway would again see another first time winner at the track and as has been the pattern this year, the winner would be exceedingly young to be running so impressively.

Pistol Pat Hoffman would take the early lead from Kyle Helling before the first and only yellow of the race would be triggered by a lap two spin. After that, the Modifieds would run nineteen clean and green laps to the finish.

As Hoffman restarted on the point, Kaden Blaeser would move to the outside on the green and drive past Hoffman to take over the lead. And once Blaeser got to the front, there would be no catching him. Setting a blazing pace, he would pull away from the field as a big pack of drivers would fight for position behind him but all were well in his rear view mirror as Blaeser just continued to make fast and consistent laps.

After running a number of laps in second, Hoffman would be challenged by Darrell Nelson for that spot with Nelson, just having completed the Late Model feature as runner up, would take over that same spot in the Modified main. However, even with a number of laps for Nelson to catch up, there would be no stopping Blaeser who just continued to pull away from the field in a stunning performance against a formitable field of open wheel drivers.

At the finish, Blaeser had half a straightaway lead over Nelson with Hoffman having a fine run to finish third. Kevin Adams and Simon Wahlstromg would complete the top five. For Blaeser, it would be his first feature win ever in the Modifieds at Rice Lake, and just two months removed from his fifteenth birthday, he showed the skill and maturity of a driver far beyond his years.

Speaking of young drivers, another driver still too young to legally hold a driver's license in this state would drive on for his second feature win of the year as Blake Adams would lead all fifteen laps of the Midwest Modified main event to record his second win of the season here. He would start on the outside pole and quickly take the lead from Jason Vokovan. Adams would pull away from Vokovan who had Brady Larson challenging him and eventually getting past him for the runner up slot.

Vokovan's good night would end when he would spin out of the third spot, triggering the first yellow of the race. Adams' big lead would dissolve and Larson would put pressure on him for the top spot. One more late yellow would slow the action and set up a three lap sprint to the finish but Adams would pull away and take the win over a strong running Larson. Consistency has been the trade mark of Shadow Kitchner all season and he would get another solid third place run, finishing ahead of Mike Schnider and Will Moelter.It would be the seventh win overall for Adams at area tracks this year.

It would be a great night for the Redetzke family as not only would Jake win the Late Model Challenge Series race, his brother Jesse would make his first appearance of the year at the track a winning one also as he would come from the third row to win the Super Stock main event. Andrew Davis would start on the pole and would lead the first eight laps of the race. Early going would see the yellow wave three times as spinning cars would keep the action to brief bursts until everyone would settle down. Jeff Eisner Jr and Rich Bishop would run side by side with their twin #10 cars as they battled for second while Redetzke took his time getting to the front.

Finally, when things started to settle down, Jesse would move to the outside lane and find immediate success as he would drive into the top five and then quickly pick off driver after driver as he moved to the front.

On lap nine he drove past Davis to take over the lead and from that point, the only thing holding him up were several more yellows as a few drivers struggled keeping their cars pointed the corrrect direction.

While Redetzke would remain comfortably in front, Eisner Jr would provide his stiffest challenge with a strong run of his own. Late in the contest, point leader Eric Olson would work his way forward after starting ninth and would move to the third spot but Eisner Jr would hold on to second with an impressive run. Tucker Quinn and Leslie Leu would also work their way forward and complete the top five.

For Redetzke, it was his second ever Super Stock feature win at Rice Lake in the Dan Arneson owned car.

Next Saturday night will be the final night for drivers to earn track points for the 2023 racing season with the Season Championships then scheduled for the following week. The closest point race currently is in the Pure Stocks where after Ryan Olson hit the wall in the feature race and finished fourteenth, Rob Grabon has closed to within fourteen points of the Ladysmith driver.

It was announced that due to a conflict in racing schedules, the USRA Limited Late Models have been removed from the schedule for the Labor Day weekend concluding event on Saturday night, September 2nd . The track will instead focus on its core five divisions for that program with details on the race expected to be released shortly. Racing next Saturday night for all five divisons will begin at 7 pm.

20 entries

WISSOTA LATE MODEL

Structural Buildings Inc A Feature 1 (40 Laps): 1. 27-Jake Redetzke[4]; 2. 44-Darrell Nelson[3]; 3. 6M-Jeff Massingill[8]; 4. 55C-Chad Mahder[14]; 5. 11-Pat Doar[6]; 6. 22E-Kevin Eder[1]; 7. 10-Daniel Bargender[11]; 8. 28-Dustin Sorensen[5]; 9. 19-Steve Laursen[9]; 10. 68-Mike Prochnow[16]; 11. 28S-Sam Mars[10]; 12. 71-Buddy Hanestad[7]; 13. 1M-Mike Anderson[19]; 14. 42-Paul Niznik[15]; 15. 4L-Carey LePage[13]; 16. 1-Lukas Koski[12]; 17. (DNF) 50-Gavin Tarras[17]; 18. (DNF) 23-Steve Vizer[18]; 19. (DNF) 00-Jason Quarders[20]; 20. (DNF) 85-John Kaanta[2]

Garage Tech X Treme Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 85-John Kaanta[2]; 2. 71-Buddy Hanestad[1]; 3. 6M-Jeff Massingill[3]; 4. 28S-Sam Mars[4]; 5. 42-Paul Niznik[5]; 6. 23-Steve Vizer[6]; 7. 00-Jason Quarders[7]

Marvs Trailers Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 44-Darrell Nelson[2]; 2. 22E-Kevin Eder[4]; 3. 19-Steve Laursen[1]; 4. 10-Daniel Bargender[5]; 5. 55C-Chad Mahder[3]; 6. 68-Mike Prochnow[7]; 7. 1M-Mike Anderson[6]

QFR,com Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 27-Jake Redetzke[1]; 2. 28-Dustin Sorensen[3]; 3. 11-Pat Doar[4]; 4. 1-Lukas Koski[2]; 5. 4L-Carey LePage[6]; 6. 50-Gavin Tarras[5]

Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 28S-Sam Mars, 00:14.385[4]; 2. 6M-Jeff Massingill, 00:14.550[2]; 3. 85-John Kaanta, 00:14.591[5]; 4. 71-Buddy Hanestad, 00:14.915[6]; 5. 42-Paul Niznik, 00:14.977[3]; 6. 23-Steve Vizer, 00:15.990[7]; 7. 00-Jason Quarders, 00:16.696[1]

Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 22E-Kevin Eder, 00:14.526[4]; 2. 55C-Chad Mahder, 00:14.745[5]; 3. 44-Darrell Nelson, 00:14.769[1]; 4. 19-Steve Laursen, 00:14.931[3]; 5. 10-Daniel Bargender, 00:14.973[6]; 6. 1M-Mike Anderson, 00:15.032[2]; 7. 68-Mike Prochnow, 00:15.038[7]

Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 11-Pat Doar, 00:14.686[2]; 2. 28-Dustin Sorensen, 00:14.752[1]; 3. 1-Lukas Koski, 00:14.985[5]; 4. 27-Jake Redetzke, 00:15.002[6]; 5. 50-Gavin Tarras, 00:15.314[3]; 6. 4L-Carey LePage, 00:15.567[4]

17 entries

WISSOTA MODIFIEDS

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 43K-Kaden Blaeser[3]; 2. 44N-Darrell Nelson[6]; 3. 308-Pat Hoffman[2]; 4. 40-Kevin Adams[7]; 5. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[5]; 6. 57-Mike Anderson[8]; 7. 10-Kyle Helling[1]; 8. T40-Danny Thomas[12]; 9. 20C-Denny Cutsforth[11]; 10. 18S-Kennedy Swan[10]; 11. 37-Travis Anderson[9]; 12. 78R-Ross Prochnow[14]; 13. 5-Joe Chaplin Jr[4]; 14. 74-Shaun Kreyer[16]; 15. 204-David Mayala[13]; 16. 28-Don Gleason[15]; 17. (DNF) 18H-Mark Hanson[17]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 44N-Darrell Nelson[4]; 2. 40-Kevin Adams[7]; 3. 10-Kyle Helling[5]; 4. 38-Simon Wahlstrom[6]; 5. 37-Travis Anderson[3]; 6. 20C-Denny Cutsforth[1]; 7. 204-David Mayala[2]; 8. 28-Don Gleason[9]; 9. (DNF) 18H-Mark Hanson[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 308-Pat Hoffman[2]; 2. 57-Mike Anderson[3]; 3. 43K-Kaden Blaeser[1]; 4. 5-Joe Chaplin Jr[4]; 5. 18S-Kennedy Swan[8]; 6. T40-Danny Thomas[7]; 7. 78R-Ross Prochnow[5]; 8. 74-Shaun Kreyer[6]

20 entries

WISSOTA SUPER STOCK

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 207-Jesse Redetzke[6]; 2. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[3]; 3. 1E-Eric Olson[9]; 4. 11-Tucker Quinn[4]; 5. 14X-Leslie Leu[8]; 6. 10B-Rich Bishop[1]; 7. 5-Jason Havel[5]; 8. 14-Warren Bartelt[10]; 9. 18-Willie Johnsen Jr[7]; 10. 20*-Andrew Davis[2]; 11. 71-Brandon Clemens[11]; 12. 77L-Andy Ladd[12]; 13. 1776-Wayne Dean[13]; 14. 28-Josh Cappo[16]; 15. 01-Michael Anderson[19]; 16. 34-Joe Miller[18]; 17. (DNF) 22AT-Austin Tilton[14]; 18. (DNF) 63-Ken Larson[15]; 19. (DNF) 21-Mike Siewert[17]; 20. (DNF) 247-Jackson Larson[20]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 14X-Leslie Leu[6]; 2. 10-Jeff Eisner Jr[2]; 3. 20*-Andrew Davis[1]; 4. 14-Warren Bartelt[7]; 5. 1776-Wayne Dean[5]; 6. 28-Josh Cappo[3]; 7. 01-Michael Anderson[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 207-Jesse Redetzke[7]; 2. 18-Willie Johnsen Jr[2]; 3. 10B-Rich Bishop[1]; 4. 71-Brandon Clemens[5]; 5. 22AT-Austin Tilton[4]; 6. 21-Mike Siewert[3]; 7. (DNF) 247-Jackson Larson[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1E-Eric Olson[1]; 2. 5-Jason Havel[2]; 3. 11-Tucker Quinn[3]; 4. 77L-Andy Ladd[5]; 5. 63-Ken Larson[6]; 6. 34-Joe Miller[4]

14 entries

WISSOTA MIDWEST MODS

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[2]; 2. 63JR-Brady Larson[4]; 3. 68-Shadow Kitchner[5]; 4. 7-Mike Schnider[8]; 5. 87-William Moelter[6]; 6. 23DD-George Dalbeck[7]; 7. 19-Aiden Hoffman[9]; 8. 13-Derrick Reed[12]; 9. 31-Jason Vokovan[1]; 10. 19H-Kevin Herrman[3]; 11. 410-Jesse Young[13]; 12. 18-Tacoma Randall[10]; 13. 6-Cory Deilke[11]; 14. 88K-Jason Knutson[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 68-Shadow Kitchner[2]; 2. 19H-Kevin Herrman[1]; 3. 63JR-Brady Larson[5]; 4. 40D-Blake Adams[7]; 5. 19-Aiden Hoffman[6]; 6. 6-Cory Deilke[3]; 7. 410-Jesse Young[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 23DD-George Dalbeck[1]; 2. 31-Jason Vokovan[2]; 3. 7-Mike Schnider[6]; 4. 87-William Moelter[4]; 5. 18-Tacoma Randall[5]; 6. 13-Derrick Reed[3]; 7. 88K-Jason Knutson[7]

14 entries

WISSOTA STREET STOCK

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 3R-Danny Richards[8]; 2. 40T-Nick Traynor[5]; 3. 40-Travis Loew[4]; 4. 24-James Clausen[1]; 5. 1R-Cole Richards[7]; 6. 9-Adam Soltis[3]; 7. 20-Connor Franson[11]; 8. 66-Eric Haupt[12]; 9. 19H-Kevin Herrman[9]; 10. 10B-Dylan Baskin[10]; 11. 79-Joseph Ott[2]; 12. 52*-Aden Saunders[14]; 13. 84-Hunter VanGilder[6]; 14. 19-Jenna Herrman[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3R-Danny Richards[1]; 2. 1R-Cole Richards[2]; 3. 40-Travis Loew[6]; 4. 24-James Clausen[5]; 5. 19H-Kevin Herrman[4]; 6. 20-Connor Franson[3]; 7. 19-Jenna Herrman[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 40T-Nick Traynor[7]; 2. 9-Adam Soltis[2]; 3. 84-Hunter VanGilder[5]; 4. 79-Joseph Ott[3]; 5. 10B-Dylan Baskin[4]; 6. 66-Eric Haupt[1]; 7. 52*-Aden Saunders[6]

15 entries

WISSOTA PURE STOCK

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[3]; 2. 16-Rob Grabon[4]; 3. 5R-George Richards[6]; 4. 52W-Austin Fencl[5]; 5. 95F-Devin Fries[10]; 6. 15H-Trenten Holub[9]; 7. 18M-Leo Moos[1]; 8. 09-Skylar Findley[15]; 9. 101-Michael Grover[12]; 10. 7D-Trevor Phillips[13]; 11. 17G-Chris Gross[14]; 12. 23R-James Rahn[7]; 13. (DNF) 81-Charlie Pitcavage[11]; 14. (DNF) 1-Ryan Olson[8]; 15. (DNF) 86J-Jake Smith[2]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Ryan Olson[1]; 2. 52W-Austin Fencl[2]; 3. 18M-Leo Moos[3]; 4. 86J-Jake Smith[8]; 5. 15H-Trenten Holub[6]; 6. 81-Charlie Pitcavage[7]; 7. 7D-Trevor Phillips[5]; 8. (DNF) 09-Skylar Findley[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 23R-James Rahn[2]; 2. 16-Rob Grabon[4]; 3. 5R-George Richards[6]; 4. 88-Robert Wahlstrom[5]; 5. 95F-Devin Fries[7]; 6. 101-Michael Grover[1]; 7. 17G-Chris Gross[3]