RICE LAKE, Wis. – After a one week delay due to weather issues, the 69th full season of racing at Rice Lake Speedway took off Saturday night.
A large crowd was on hand as 101 drivers signed in to race and the five opening night winners included Cole Spacek (Modifieds), Kyle Copp (Super Stocks), Simon Wahlstrom (MidMods), Cody Kummer (Street Stocks) and Cory Jorgensen (Pure Stocks).
Judging was done during the evening for the Best Appearing car in each class, and those winners will be announced before the program begins next Saturday night.
For Spacek, it was his first feature win ever at Rice Lake as he became the fourth different leader during the modified feature, a race where he had to trade the late lead back and forth with his father Jeff, who ended up third.
Rookie modified driver but seasoned Midwest Modified champion Shane Halopka was the early leader of the race with challenges from Pat Hoffman and Mike Anderson.
However, it was Kevin Adams who put the most pressure on Halopka as he moved into second after starting in the sixth position.
Three early-race yellows for minor spins kept the field bunched and this gave Adams the chance to put the pressure on. With a hard charge off of turn four, he was able to drive into the lead.
While many believed that this would mark the end of the lead changing, the Spacek family had none of that, as both Jeff and Cole would then move up to challenge Adams for the lead. When Adams started to falter coming off the corners, Jeff was able to move right up to his rear bumper.
Following a lap 10 yellow for another spin, he got a great restart and drove under Adams to take over the lead.
But just as soon as Jeff Spacek took the lead, suddenly his son Cole was right there to put the heat on him and he drove past his father to take over the lead.
The next few laps would provide some of the most entertaining racing of the evening as the Spaceks would swap the lead twice back and forth before Cole assumed the top spot for good.
One more yellow on lap 15 saw another contender emerge, as Pat Hoffman would get a good restart and passed Jeff Spacek for second.
Hoffman attempted a pass for the lead himself, but Cole Spacek was able to keep himself several car lengths in front and he drove on for an exciting win.
Hoffman finished a strong second, with Jeff Spacek, Dave Mayala and Cooper Berlin completing the top five.
The finish:
1. 22S-Cole Spacek [6]; 2. 308-Pat Hoffman [5]; 3. 22-Jeff Spacek [13]; 4. 204-David Mayala [10]; 5. 33-Cooper Berlin [11]; 6. 3JR-Shane Halopka [2]; 7. 40-Kevin Adams [7]; 8. 57-Mike Anderson [4]; 9. 18W-Wayne Poteet [1]; 10. 11-Sam Fankhauser [8]; 11. 74-Shaun Kreyer [9]; 12. 34JR-Dan Larson Jr. [3]; 13. 10-Kyle Helling [12]; 14. 20-Denny Cutsforth (DNS); 15. 2-Todd Gehl (DNS); 16. 27H-Steve Hallquist (DNS).