Also on the card are the Wissota Modifieds, Wissota Midwest Modifieds and the Pure Stocks. Last year the Modified winner was Craig Thatcher but I don't believe Craig is racing much on Saturdays this season so my guess would be that Buzzy Adams will be the man to beat in the Mods.
Rice Lake had one of the better fields of Pure Stocks that I've seen in my travels. They're nowhere near as fast as the other classes but they put on a good race that's fun to watch. The IRA along with these support classes should make it an entertaining night. Rice Lake has been struggling with car counts this season from what I have seen on the results pages. I am not hung up on the sanctioning politics and don't like to see anyone struggle regardless of their affiliation.
There are some rumors going around the internet boards that the Rice Lake Speedway was sold. I can't verify that and have no idea what goes on behind closed doors so I'll just let those details work themselves out and leave it at that. RLS is an infrequent destination for me anyways as I have only attended a few Late Model and Sprint specials up there. Actually, I did make one attempt to go to Rice Lake sometime around the summer of 1966. There was a Supermodified special and I rode up there with my uncle Lloyd following the race car trailer. My uncle used to help our cousin out with the car so I tagged along with them. Unfortunately, that was before the days of cell phones and when we got there a heavy shower had dumped on the track resulting in the race being canceled. I specifically remember there being little or no grandstands and the track being the tiniest little thing I had ever seen up til then, a small quarter mile.
I did not return to Rice Lake until I started writing for MRC in 1999 and wanted to get out and visit a bunch more new tracks. I'm not on a mission to rack up record numbers of tracks on my racing resume but I have been to quite a few. Let me see if I can name some of them:
Minnesota
State Fair (dirt & asphalt)
Twin City (later North Starr)
Stillwater
Hutchinson
Fairmont
Jackson
Deer Creek
Kasson
Owatonna
Princeton
Grove Creek
Golden Spike
Alexandria
Proctor
North Central
Elko
Raceway (17)
Wisconsin
Cedar Lake
Kopellah
Rice Lake
Superior
ABC
Fox Ridge
Red Cedar
Central Wisconsin (formerly Monster Hall)
Angell Park
La Crosse (10)
Iowa
Knoxville
Cresco
Farley (3)
Ohio
Eldora (1)
Kansas
Kansas Speedway
Lakeside (2)
Texas
CC Speedway Corpus Christi (1)
South Dakota
Aberdeen
Husets (2)
That's 36 total but I can't help feeling as if I might have missed one. This year I added La Crosse to the list and I'm thinking about going to Chateau for the USMTS the Friday of Labor Day weekend (that's next Friday already). It's 122 miles from Forest Lake and work is 25 miles so I'd have a 97 mile drive, mostly freeway after work. Without taking any vacation I'd be leaving the office around 3:30 and should be able to get down there by around 5:30 or 6pm. That would give me enough time to sign in and walk around the pits for a while before the races started. I'm going to have to give that some serious thought because it's not that far and I have never been there before. I have seen photos and video clips and it looks like it would be a fun place to take photos of the USMTS. So far this season I haven't seen the USMTS and it's coming up on the end of the year already. I could add a new track and catch the USMTS in one shot. Might be a plan, we'll have to count the pennies.
I don't know about you but I'm about broke after a season of racing. Not the kind of broke where I'm destitute and can't afford to go to another race but the kind of broke where I'm having to pay attention to the bottom line more than I was a couple months ago. I'm just going to bite the bullet and spend the money. There's plenty of time over the winter to live like a monk and not do anything so I can save money. The rest of the season is going to cost more than I want to think about but I want to do some traveling to close out the year and I'll be damned if I'm going to let anything stop me. Photo sales usually pick up after the season for a couple months leading up to the holidays so I'll be able to bank a few bucks after the season to hopefully replace what I spend.
I've got a personal savings account that I use to fund all my racing. I have a certain amount taken out each month and lately I've been drawing more than I've put in. That might not sound like such a terrible thing but my property taxes, homeowners insurance and car payments come out of that account too. I've got another tax installment due in October and have not made a car payment in several years so I'm getting by with tired old iron. One of these days it's going to catch up with me and I'm going to have to start taking a car payment out of there again. Also, I use that fund for emergencies like breakdowns, etc. I've got credit but I don't like to use the plastic unless it's absolutely necessary so I've been dipping into that a little more than I'm comfortable with lately as well.
I was raised by my depression era grandparents after my folks died and I was in my formative teen years so being frugal was pounded into my head. Another thing they did was to insist that I work during the summer instead of just hanging around getting in trouble. I got my first job at 14 on a truck farm, worked 8 hours five and a half days a week. The first year the farmer paid me $3.50 per day and the second year I got a raise to $5 a day. I was one of the bigger kids so he used to take me out to do road maintenance because he had the contract for our village. Talk about violating child labor laws LOL, today they'd have hung anyone they caught doing that to kids. He contracted to do driveways too so he'd bring me along on those jobs as well. Hot sun, 95 degrees and humid I'd be out there raking asphalt and pulling the roller (water filled pushed, pulled by hand). At 16 I went to work on the golf course cutting fairways, roughs and greens with various size mowers up to and including a tractor with a gang mower. A few weeks prior to my 18th birthday I reported to basic training, got married a couple years later and have been working ever since. I guess the "abuse" according to modern libs that I received working on a truck farm at 14 gave me what they'd consider a bad habit in their eyes. I developed a good work ethic. Those lessons I learned at 14 were passed onto my children and hopefully will help my grandkids in some small way in their lives as well.
So where were we before I got sidetracked and told half my life story. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the Rice Lake Midwest Modifieds.
Rice Lake offers some good photo opportunities and I'm looking forward to shooting there again. There was enough daylight last year to catch hot laps and most of the IRA time trials head on using available light. Rice Lake has some good angles for the type of head on shots I like to do where you can see the driver's eyes. This is my favorite angle for Sprint Car photos and I love shooting without a flash whenever I can get away with it. Perhaps I'll do that or maybe I'll try the straight on angle from the infield I did down at Arlington and Jackson. I'll see how the light is and make a decision when I get there.
Well, this is going to have to do it for tonight. I'm about typed out for now...
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