Season Championship's are in the books for the 2008 Rice Lake Ice Racing season, and on a day filled with sunshine and warm temps 49 drivers took too the ice oval in hopes of bringing home some new hardware for their trophy cases. After cancelling the first week due to ice conditions, drivers and crews spent the previous seven weeks fine tuning their cars by running in two heats and a feature each week, accumulating points awarded in each race throughout the year. Saturdays races would use those points for lining up cars, with cars having the most points starting in the front working back too the least points.
Winning five features so far this year, Scott Miller started on the pole of the Front Wheel Drive feature with Jesse Tripp on his outside, looking for feature win number one. Tripp quickly moved too the outside bank with Miller on his inside, but the top groove proved to be much faster as Tripp put distance between himself and the rest of the field. Mike Schnider, the only other winning driver in the class, moved from his third place starting position into the runner up spot temporarily, but as the field approached lapped traffic at the halfway mark the runner up spot change hands a couple times.
Just when it looked like clear sailing for Tripp, a late race caution put Steve Hallquist, Schnider and Miller back in contention with no lapped traffic between them. On the restart Tripp moved to the same outside grove, leading the remaining laps for his first win of the season. Schnider rolled in second followed by Miller. Jon Wigchers moved up from his eighth place starting spot for fourth with hard charger Fred Lloyd coming from fourteenth too fifth. Hallquist left the race with mechanical issues in the late going.
Schnider paired his heats wins, with Tripp, Miller and Hallquist each winning one. Also posting a heat win was rookie Travis Lloyd.
Andy Cimfl and Steve Hallquist shared the front row of the 6/8 Full Size feature with Troy Holder and Don Cook in the second row. Another Cimfl~Hallquist third row included Andy's father, Jim, and Steve's brother, Rick . After a late start in the year, Jarrod Amundson had four wins in a row giving him a mid pack starting spot and making him a serious contender amongst the talented field of 18 drivers.
The younger Cimfl lead the first lap with Cook second. The pair swapped positions on the second lap and again on the third putting Andy ahead of his father. Amundson moved into the third spot with Cook and Holder in tow. Holder moved up the track and used the fast high grove, coming off of turn two in a slingshot move past the pack of cars on the fourth lap, putting distance on the pack. The runner up spot was still undecided as the group stayed in touch with each other jockeying for positions as the laps wound down. As the checkered flag flew it was Holder with a comfortable lead, with Amundson crossing the line runner up ahead of Jim Cimfl. Cook and Rick Hallquist rounded out the top five. Heat winners included Amundson, Cook, Andy Cimfl, Steve Hallquist, Bill Crapser and Butch Madsen, jumping in a borrowed car for one race.
But Holder's day was not complete yet as the Rice Lake driver has been doing double duty this year. Holder would jump into his COMP4 and start pole position with five time feature winner Karen Koltunski on his outside. Tadd Davis and Jeremy Winningham held the second row, with Karen's husband, Al, in the third row with Troy Gross. Koltunski lead the first lap ahead of Holder, Davis and Al but a banked car brought out the caution, with the cars now being lined up single file. On the restart Holder moved too the same line he used in the Full Size feature, and just like before the fast outside grove propelled him ahead of the field. The next lap brought out the caution again, and on the restart the class would have problems getting going with yet another caution.
The forth try finally got the field got going under power again and Holder continued using the fast high grove putting a straight away lead on Koltunski, but that lead would be negated by a late race caution, grouping the field for a green, white, checkered shootout. Again, Holder darted ahead of the field, putting distance on the battling group and looking for his first feature win in the class and second win of the day when the unthinkable happened. Snow dust was being sucked into Holders carburetor causing the car to miss. With Holder's car slowing Koltunski caught the leader on the back stretch just as Holders car fired again. Going into the last corner Koltunski dove low and Holder went high, the pair crossing as they come out of the corner in a mad dash to the line side by side with Koltunski finishing a fender ahead of Holder. Davis and Winningham had a last lap pass on Al for the third through fifth spots. Karen also won both heats for her second clean sweep of the season.
Jill Amundson lead every lap of the Powder Puff feature for the win ahead of Deb Cimfl and Sheila Cook. In the FWD Powder Puff class first time driver Amy Lindberg finished ahead of Missy Hallquist and Heikki Hansen. Heat winners were Amundson in RWD and Lindberg in the FWD.
There is one week left of Rice Lake Ice Racing, held on Rice Lakes north end by the Bungalow Bar with racing action starting at 1:00 pm. Spectator admission is free and there is a plowed viewing area to enjoy the races from the comfort of you vehicle. For more information please visit our web site at www.geocities.com/ricelakeiceracing . An awards banquet will be held on March 29th at the Bungalow Bar. Cost will be $12.00 per person, RSVP must be made before Monday, March 10th. Please contact Troy Holder at (715)296-6768.
COMP4
Heat 1: 1~Karen Koltunski, Cumberland; 2~Tadd Davis, Rice Lake; 3~Troy Gross, Turtle Lake
Heat 2: 1~K. Koltunski; 2~T. Davis; 3~T. Gross
Feature: 1~K. Koltunski; 2~Troy Holder, Rice Lake; 3~T. Davis ; 4~Jeremy Winningham, Menomonie; 5~Al Koltunski, Cumberland
6/8 FULL SIZE
Heat 1: 1~Don Cook, Barron; 2~Steve Hallquist, Eau Claire; 3~Andy Cimfl, Clayton
Heat 2: 1~Butch Madsen, Rice Lake; 2~Jeff Brueggen, Rice Lake; 3~Steve Davidson, Richland Center
Heat 3: 1~Jarred Amundson, Barron; 2~Richard Featherly, Chetek; 3~Don Cimfl, Viola
Heat 4: 1~S. Hallquist; 2~Joel Hinrichs, Cameron; 3~Joe Rowan, Chippewa Falls
Heat 5: 1~A. Cimfl; 2~Jim Cimfl, Clayton; 3~Rick Hallquist, Eau Claire
Heat 6: 1~Bill Crapser, Eau Claire; 2~J. Amundson; 3~Troy Holder, Rice Lake
Feature: 1~T. Holder; 2~J. Amundson; 3~J. Cimfl; 4~D. Cook; 5~R. Hallquist
FWD
Heat 1: 1~Mike Schnider, Rice Lake; 2~Fred Lloyd, Cumberland; 3~Pete Leuschner, Cumberland
Heat 2: 1~Jesse Tripp, Spooner ; 2~Jon Wigchers, Rice Lake; 3~Jim Wigchers, Rice Lake
Heat 3: 1~Steve Hallquist, Eau Claire; 2~Scott Miller, Rice Lake; 3~Jeff Berggren, Afton, MN. M. Lawrence
Heat 4: 1~S. Miller; 2~J. Tripp; 3~P. Leuschner
Heat 5: 1~Travis Lloyd, Cumberland; 2~Harold Fischer, Eau Claire; 3~Mark Lawrence, Cumberland
Heat 6: 1~M. Schnider; 2~S. Hallquist; 3~F. Lloyd
Feature: 1~J. Tripp; 2~M. Schnider; 3~S. Miller; 4~Jon Wigchers; 5~F. Lloyd
POWDER PUFF
Heat 1: 1~Jill Amundson(RWD), Barron ; 2~Deb Cimfl (RWD), Clayton; 3~Sheila Cook (RWD), Barron
Feature: 1~J. Amundson (RWD); 2~D. Cimfl (RWD); 3~S. Cook (RWD); 4~Amy Lindberg (FWD), Cumberland; 5~Missy Hallquist (FWD), Eau Claire