The Rice Lake Speedway suffered its sixth rainout of the 2024 racing season on Saturday night. An inch of rain during the morning of the 13th plus the combination of poor drying conditions due to lack of sun and wind plus high humidity all made it impossible to prepare the track and grounds for racing, and the program was canceled early in the afternoon. The program was scheduled to be a salute to the Barron County Fair and 4-H programming in the county, with the annual county fair this week. The speedway will be silent when the fair is in full swing.
While the speedway will now go through a 21-day break since the last racing action on July 3, when racing returns to the Rice Lake oval, the track will be hosting two very large events back to back.
On July 27, the WISSOTA Late Models return for their second and final appearance of the 2024 racing season with a full program topped by a 40-lap feature race paying $2,000 to the winner. A large field of the area’s best Late Model drivers are expected to be on hand for their last event at the track this year. Along with the Late Models, the Super Stocks, Midwest Modifieds, Pure Stocks and Modifieds will also be in action with each running a full program also. Originally both the Modifieds and Street Stocks were scheduled to have that night off but that has now been changed as the Modifieds have been returned to the program.
According to speedway spokesman Kolby Kiehl, track management has received a number of requests by Modified drivers from the area that the Modifieds be allowed to race on that night. The Modified drivers have been particularly hard hit at the track by the many rainouts and as the season winds down, they would like to race one additional night.
On July 30, the race that has made the Rice Lake Speedway famous, the Street Stock Little Dream race, will take place. This will be the 30th edition of this well known race and as such, track management is going all out to make this a memorable night of racing.
Last year’s winner Keith Tourville went home with more than $29,000 for his efforts, thanks in large part to generous donations to the purse from race fans in attendance along with area businesses and online donations. The hope is that this year that record will be smashed and the 30th edition of this race will see the winner taking home over $30,000.
Presented by S & R Towing, this event will feature double heat races and last chance races, leading up to the main event with a $500 to win nonqualifiers race for those drivers that don’t make the main event. Possibly 60 or more drivers from a five-state area plus Canada are expected to be on hand for this race with many of WISSOTA’S top Street Stock drivers to be in attendance, most of them having yet to crack victory lane at this “bucket list” event.
Pit gates will open at 4 p.m. on July 30 with the spectator gates to open one hour later. The draw cut off and hot laps will be at 6:30 p.m. with racing to follow. The following night, July 31 is reserved for a rain date. No preregistration is needed and as been track policy all year for the new owners. Despite both these races being special events, regular Saturday night admission prices will be in effect.
Another change to the racing schedule was also announced Tuesday that will impact the year-end program, the Dairyland Dash special, which will be a two-day program at the track on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 The adjustment in the schedule will find the UMSS Sprints, both the Traditionals and the Winged Sprints, racing a full program on Aug. 31. Then the next night the USRA Late Models will run a fully sanctioned program. The Sprints were originally scheduled to run at the track on June 22 but that program was rained out and they will now be a part of the Saturday Labor Day weekend event.
The Rice Lake Speedway is located one mile north of Rice Lake midway between highways 48 and SS. The track phone number is 715-236-2002. As these race dates approach, more information on both events is on the track website ( ricelakespeedway.net ) or the Facebook page .
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