RICE LAKE, Wis. – Mike Anderson started on the outside pole and led all 40 laps to win the Advantage RV Modified Tour race Saturday night at Rice Lake Speedway.
Anderson, the current point leader in the Modified division at Rice Lake, won his first RV Tour race of the season by beating current RV point leader Shane Sabraski and Jake Hartung to the line, earning $1,500 for the dominating run.
After the redraw of the top finishers in the Modified heats, it was Jeremy Nelson and Anderson leading the field of 22 cars to Troy Holder’s green flag for the 40-lap grind.
Anderson would use the high side to jump into the lead immediately, with Nelson and Michael Truscott battling for the second spot. Only four laps could be completed before the first yellow waved for a spin by Sam Fankhauser that slowed the action.
Anderson continued to pace the field with Nelson and Truscott trading the second spot back and forth as Steve Hallquist, Shane Sabraski, Johnny Broking and Jake Hartung lurked next in line and were also looking to move up.
Only one more lap was completed before the yellow waved again, when Joseph Thomas lost the driveshaft from his car and stalled on the track.
Anderson continued to pull away as the green came back out, with Nelson then securing the second position and Sabraski driving into third as they looked to track down Anderson. Sabraski began to pick up the pace and he drove past Nelson to take over the second spot as he looked for yet another RV victory.
The third and final yellow of the race was triggered when Andy Jones and Mark Hanson got together in turn four. Hanson would call it a night, while Jones restarted the race at the back of the pack.
The final 24 laps of the race would go nonstop, and by the halfway point, it was Anderson leading Sabraski, Nelson, Broking and Hartung.
Anderson continued to motor away from the pack, while the best battle was for third with Nelson, Broking and Hartung fighting it out. Dave Cain temporarily displaced Hartung for fifth, but then Hartung fought back to reclaim the position as those two raced hard.
With 10 laps to go, the running order of the top 10 remained in place, but Anderson was catching some lapped traffic that slowed his progress. Sabraski made up some ground on the leader and closed to within a half dozen car lengths as Anderson continued to battle through the traffic.
However, while it appeared the slower cars were helping Sabraski catch the leader, Anderson turned things around with a bold move in turn three that saw him first squeeze past one of the slower cars on the bottom and then drive to the outside of another one in turn three on the next lap.
Those strong moves gave him more breathing ground when Sabraski got hung up behind those same cars as the race neared its conclusion.
Sabraski would draw no closer over the final few laps, and Anderson maintained a comfortable lead as he drove home for the win with one lapped car between himself and Sabraski.
However, there was drama on the final corner of the race as a lapped car temporarily slowed on the last corner and Nelson had to slow to avoid rear ending that car.
Broking drove up on the rear of Nelson’s car and they got hooked together. The slowed cars fought to reach the finish line and as they did so, Hartung drove to the outside of them and was able to pass both, nipping Nelson by inches for the third spot.
The second five at the finish included Cain, Truscott, Adams, Bellefeuille and Ebert.
Winners in the four support divisions included Simon Wahlstrom (Super Stocks), Shane Halopka (Midwest Modifieds), Andrew Hanson (Street Stocks) and Cory Jorgensen (Pure Stocks).