Class of 2022

Pat Becker had a long career in dirt track racing, running on and off for well over thirty five years in various classes of competition. And while he will be remembered as a long and loyal member of Rice Lake Speedway racing, it was perhaps his influence on others off the track that steered them toward participating in the sport that might be his strongest legacy in local racing.
Pat got his start in local racing at a young age, first racing as a fifteen year old Freshman at the Rice Lake Speedway in 1961. He was influenced to get into racing by Lavern Fossum and his first car was a 1950 Ford. The car was purchased without a motor for $35 and the V-8 engine in it was built from one found in a garage that they assembled themselves. The car was #17 but he can't remember just how the car acquired that number. Pat particularly enjoyed building and racing Sprint Cars.

Pat graduated in 1964 from Rice Lake High School and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. While in the service, he was able to continue his racing career, racing in places like Minot North Dakota, Clovis New Mexico and Lubbock Texas where he was stationed.

When he was discharged from the Service, he attended U.W. Stout in Menomonie and returned to Rice Lake where he taught high school. Pat was a teacher in the Rice Lake school system for twenty nine years, teaching Industrial Arts, Auto Mechanics and Drivers Education.

Pat was a hard charging driver on the race track and while he lists his last race in a Stock Car as most memorable, many people will always remember the night when he performed a move still talked about today. It seems that coming out of turn one his front wheels came completely off the ground and he temporarily lost control. The car exited the track in turn two but Pat didn't slow down as he went completely through the pit area and returned to the track in turn three where he kept right on racing and finished the event.

Pat was suppported over the years in his racing efforts by many good folks including Larry Boettcher, Smith Bus Garage(John and Steve Smith), Mark Larson, Paul Bjugstad and his wife Linda.

Long a supporter of the speedway, Pat even sold advertising, put up posters and arranged radio ads amongst other things for the track. As a long time activist of racing in this area, Pat was also asked to be a part of the Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Fame committee when it was first formed also.

It is estimated that over one hundred of Pat's students at Rice Lake High School were influenced by him to give racing at the Rice Lake Speedway a try and there are stories of many a student race car being built or repaired that somehow found its way into the Vocational area of Rice Lake High School to be worked on as a class or individual project. Pat retired from racing in 1977 and retired from teaching in 2002.

Pat had influence on his family too, both in the areas of education and racing. His son Eric is an Assistant Principal in the Northland Pines School District in Eagle River and a part time Sprint Car racer in a new racing organization that Eric was instrumental in helping form. Eric first tried the sport when he was just fourteen.

There aren't a lot of feature wins to talk about in Pat's racing career, nor track or point titles. However, sometimes it's not the statistics or titles that measure a person's worth to a group and a person's loyalty and influence on others can't always be measured easily, but to those spectators that Pat entertained over the years and those students who got help in making their dream come true, his assistance can not be overestimated.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Famer Pat Becker.

Local dirt track racing has changed greatly since the first laps were turned at this track in 1952. Did you know that this track was originally a fifth mile perfectly flat oval? Did you know that a wooden fence circled the inside of the track at one point or that the judges and announcer huddled in a brick stand that hung right over the front stretch retaining wall? Did you know that the spectators all sat on wooden benches on the sidehill that overlooked the track? These, along with many other things have changed over the years at the track and except for the efforts of Larry James Quinn, who has documented all them and much more on his face book album, “Old School Rice Lake”, they would be lost forever.
Larry has been nice enough to provide a little information with this introduction, of which I'm going to read parts of now.

Larry reports that his dad first took him to the races in Rice Lake in 1963 when he was five years old. He was hooked on racing right away with Russ Laursen being his favorite driver but he enjoyed all of the drivers and classes of competition.

Larry has always been interested in local history, but never had an outlet for it until he reluctantly joined Facebook in July of 2009. He had never used a computer or the internet before and wasn't sure what Facebook was all about. Eventually he made a Facebook album in December 2009 that he titled “Old School Rice Lake” which was a collection of old photos, ads and such. A few months later he decided to make more albums including albums featuring cars and drivers that raced at the Rice Lake Speedway. This was about the time that Dave Adams and Mitch Hansen bought the track in 2010.

Like a telemarketer, Larry started calling people up to see if they might have old pictures he could borrow. Louie Foss helped a lot and Doug Zimmer loaned Larry hundreds of photos that he had taken at the track. Many drivers like Don Brown, Jack Shimon, Dave Palmquist, Dick Hessler and Shorty Espeseth loaned old photos.

Larry is grateful to everyone in the racing community that has helped him with pictures as he has been sent hundreds of old photos by e-mail, through Facebook Messenger and other modern methods.

Larry decided to see if he could find every article on racing in Rice Lake and put them in albums. Currently, he has every newspaper article, ad and photo on Rice Lake racing from the Rice Lake and Barron newspapers through the 2003 racing season. The stories and results with photos are all included and he has a goal of taking it up to the present day.

Larry would like to thank all those people that have helped him in his noble efforts to document the entire history of racing in Rice Lake and at the Rice Lake Speedway. He says it's never anything he thought would happen and that it's still hard to believe he accomplished it.

Special thanks should go out to Ryan Viltz who honored Larry by putting his “Old School Rice Lake” site on his race cars and even though he may not have realized it, his enthusisiasm for the history of the track was an inspiration for Larry to keep working on his project.

Larry grew up in Rice Lake and graduated from Rice Lake High School in 1976. In September, he will have worked for American Excelsior Co. for forty four years. He has been married to his wife Louise for thirty five years and their son Ryan is a well known local name, being the Program Director/Music Director for the five Rice Lake radio stations.

For his fantatic work in documenting the history of this long running track and leaving a legacy for new fans about the history of our sport, a documented record that any track in the country would be proud to have, Larry is certainly a worthy candidate for inclusion in the speedway Hall of Fame. His work is something that fans will be able to admire and enjoy for years to come.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Famer, Larry James Quinn.

When it comes to Street Stock racing and the Rice Lake Speedway, one doesn't have to look any farther than to check out the records held by Scott Clark to understand that he has set the standard that all others that race in the class have been trying to duplicate and will continue to do so for many years before they can reach the level of success he has achieved. The records he has set and the awards he has won are very impressive indeed and rival those of any driver that has ever raced at this track.

Like so many others that have raced at Rice Lake, Scott got his start in the sport as a second generation racer, following in the footsteps of his father Ron Clark who was a well respected racer at the track for years. Scott spent his Saturday nights at the track, watching his father race so he grew up with the sport and the only place to be on Saturday nights was at the race track.

When he got old enough to race, which is Scott's case was at the age of thirteen in 1983, he started out with a 1971 Pontiac with a big 400 cubic inch motor, a race car that his grand parents donated to him so he could start racing. The car was numbered #71, just one number down from the #72 that his father Ron raced under.

Interestingly, it took Scott twelve years to win his first feature race at Rice Lake but once he got that hurdle completed, things really took off after that, to the point that record setting perforances would follow.

And in spite of all the big wins Scott has earned, he says that his most memorable win at Rice Lake was his first one which he achieved on Memorial Day weekend of 1995. In fact, he enjoyed that win so much, he came the next night and won again,sweeping the weekend doubleheader at the track.

Speaking of wins and honors, Scott has a resume that is one of the most impressive of any driver who has entered this Hall of Fame. The most significant likely would be the forty four feature wins Scott has won in the Street Stock class, number one on the all time list at this speedway and five more than runner up Eric Olson. He also earned two Super Stock feature wins in a short stint in that class near the end of his career. He is one of the very few drivers ever to win the Street Stock Little Dream, the track's biggest event, more than one time. He was a winner in both 2002 and 2008. Not only that, he finished third in this race three more times, in 1995, 1996 and 2003.

He was point champion at the track in 2002, 2003, 2008 and 2009 as well as winning the Season Championship in 1995, 2002, 2008 and 2009. He also has Midseason Championships in 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2008 as well as Memorial Day Championship wins in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2008 and in both 1995 and 2002, he won both nights of doubleheader programs. He also won 4th of July specials in 2008 and 2014, holds a Labor Day special win in 2006, won the track Hard Charger award in 2003 and was Super Stock Rookie of the Year in 2010.

And if that were not enough, he also won the Wisconsin State Point Championship in both 2002 and 2003, was fifth in WISSOTA National points both of those years and finished third in the WISSOTA 100 in both 1999 and 2000. He also has other special wins at various tracks and in all claims seventy eight feature wins over his career.

Scott is very appreciative for all the support he received over the years from family and friends, especially his wife Peggy, his father Ron, his mother Marlene Prill and his sister, the late Tammy Clark.

His pit crew over the years consisted of Ron Clark, Arnie Bartes, Tim Robarge, Will Hargreaves, Matt Hargreaves, Joe Sadowski, along with Peggy and Tammy.

Scott has many sponsors that have been with him for years and supported him over that course of time. They include Mike Steele at MAS Performance Engines, Pat Snivley at Kadingers II, Mark Ewert at Swant Graber, Terry and Kim Johnson from Johnson Graphics, Sue at Warren G's Liquors and Mallum Electric.

Scott retired from racing in 2018 at the relatively young age of forty nine, primarily due to the demands of his business. Scott and Peggy reside in Cameron and Scott owns Mallum Electric in Eau Claire.
Ladies and gentlemen, Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Famer, Scott Clark.

Most people know that a race track can not survive from the ticket admission gate receipts alone. Both the spectator and pit gate admission fees are a part of the whole picture but it is the profits generated off the sales at the concession stand that keep many race tracks alive and surviving. It is that way in 2022 and has been the business model for most tracks since the first wheels were turned on dirt in this area way back in the 1950's. This was perhaps even more important back in the days when a non profit club ran this track as there was not a private owner to fall back on for help if the bottom line for the track contained a lot of red ink.
This is why Marge Rettenmund was such a key figure in the history of the Rice Lake Speedway and its success over the years. Marge managed the hill and pit concessions for the Rice Lake Speedway for seventeen years, from the years of 1985 through 2001. Over that course of time, Marge was responsible for all phases of the concessions operations at the track. She did everything from ordering all the food and making sure it was properly prepared and served to the cleaning of all the concession stands and equipment. She was also in charge of hiring all the help that worked at the concession stands, supervising these people and then preparing all the financial reports at the end of each night.

But the concession stand at a race track was so much more than just a place to buy hot dogs, popcorn and coffee, particularly in those days. The concession stand was the nerve center of the whole race track. Spectators went there to buy food and drink but they spent more time around the concession stand talking racing with their friends and fellow race fans then they did any other place on the speedway grounds. They met their friends at the concession stand, bought some food and then hung around, discussing the previous week's races, speculating on what might take place on that particular night, trade the latest racing rumors and study the sky together if storms were in the forecast. And as the only place on the speedway grounds with a phone, important phone calls had to be received at the concession stand. Many is the time that the phone would ring and Marge would have to deliver the message to track officials that the Sheriff's Department had just called and advised that the grounds be cleared because a severe storm was on the way.

Spectators became friends with many of the concession stand workers, they knew them by their first names and stopped to visit with them on a weekly basis. That is why it was so important for Marge to hire all the great employees that she had over the years, workers that went above and beyond to be friendly and kind to everyone. They followed the lead of Marge, as friendly and outgoing person as there could be and a great example for her employees as it was clear that she really did enjoy her job which was to provide tasty food and beverages at reasonable prices and always treat the customers like family.

Marge graduated from the Ladysmith High School in 1963 and then attended Barron County Teachers College, as it was called then, obtaining her credits in the field of Eduation to teach school. She was then employed by the Rice Lake School District in the Head Start program for thirty five years.

Using her knowledge about managed food operations, Marge also managed the concession stand at the Rice Lake Hockey Area during the 1980's when her sons wer playing hockey.

Away from work, Marge was an excellent slow pitch softball player and played in the Women's League for many years along with serving on the Rice Lake Softball Association Board of Directors. Marge is now retired and resides with son Jeff and Shelli on their farm in the Campia area where she does a little farming herself.

Marge will go down in Rice Lake speedway lore as a memorable figure in the operation of the track, right up there with the legendary R.A. “Doc “ Doctor, the original owner of the track and first concession stand manager and another Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Famer.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rice Lake Speedway Hall of Famer, Marge Rettenmund.