RICE LAKE Wis. – The second night of racing for the season at Rice Lake Speedway saw five different winners visit victory lane.
Taking their first wins at the track this year were Mike Anderson, Dave Flynn, Austin Ellis, Shawn Amundson and Travis Hazelton.
The Best Appearing car presentations, based on balloting on opening night went to Mike Anderson, making him a double winner for the evening; Mickey Anderson; Travis Anderson; James Clausen; and Bob Thompson for his unique El Camino Pure Stock.
For Anderson, his feature win was a relatively easy one in that he started on the outside pole, took the point quickly and then drove away from the field in what turned out to be a caution-free modified finale.
Anderson stretched his margin to nearly a full straightaway over the field as he received absolutely no challenges to his front-running position. Sam Fankhauser pulled into second behind him and also rode in that position throughout the race.
The best battle was for third where it was members of the Spacek family battling it out once again, this week for third whereas a week earlier it was for the win. Father Jeff and son Cole swapped the third spot several times and it was clear they didn’t mind leaning on each other, family member or not.
They crossed over each other several times before Cole finally secured the position. He then tore off after Fankhauser and was able to draw near to him but ran out of time to provide a severe challenge for that second spot.
For defending track champion Anderson, it just marked another win in a long and successful career of racing at Rice Lake.
Flynn won his first ever Super Stock feature win at the track on Saturday and led from start to finish in doing so.
While Flynn was strong throughout the race, the several yellow flags that flew meant that he had to be on his guard every time the green flag flew, so as to not make a mistake and give one of the challengers a chance at him.
Ellis took a hotly-contested Midwest Modified win Saturday, with 23 taking the green flag and only two minor yellows and two cars that didn’t finish the race. That meant there was much green flag racing and several strong charges to the front put on.
Amundson earned his second ever win in the Street Stocks as he led from start to finish in their main event, but it was a challenge as he was stalked throughout the race by veteran Adam Soltis, who very nearly got by several times to take the lead.
The most impressive drive of the night was turned in by Pure Stock driver Hazelton, who came from the sixth row to win the Pure Stock feature race.
The finish:
WISSOTA Modifieds A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 57-Mike Anderson [2]; 2. 11-Sam Fankhauser [1]; 3. 22S-Cole Spacek [4]; 4. 22-Jeff Spacek [3]; 5. 0-Zack Drews [7]; 6. 99-Neil Balduc [9]; 7. 20-Denny Cutsforth [5]; 8. 27H-Steve Hallquist [8]; 9. 3H-Jake Hiatt [6]; 10. 204-David Mayala (DNS); 11. 308-Pat Hoffman (DNS).