RICE LAKE, Wis. – Local driver Jimmy Randall won his third Street Stock Little Dream race Tuesday night at Rice Lake Speedway, earning a whopping $25,000.57 for the victory.
Randall topped a event-record sixty six entrants from five Midwestern states. Race fans and area businesses also helped set a race record payoff for the race winner, smashing the old record for the Little Dream payoff by nearly $9,000.
Randall was just a car length in front of last year’s winner Danny Richards at the finish in a race where fan contributions to the payoff are what make it so big and this race so unique.
A passing points system set the top sixteen cars for the feature event with Last Chance races filling the rest of the field and when starter Jeff Stacken dropped the green flag, twenty seven drivers were off for forty laps of feature racing action. Randall started on the outside pole and he and Dave Mass battled wheel to wheel on the opening lap with Randall being scored the leader by inches. Randall was then able to edge ahead of Mass a bit more and held a car length lead as the field started to sort itself out.
The first yellow flag flew with five laps complete for a spin and at that time, it was Mass and second row starter Simon Wahlstrom who were putting the pressure on Randall for the lead. They were racing side by side for second with Randall just in front of them. On each turn those two would try to get a nose under the leader but each time Randall would come off the corners strong and fight off their every challenge.
On the move from the third row was defending champion Richards and he motored past Keith Tourville and Jake Froemke as he headed to the front. When the yellow next flew, it was for the stalled car of Parker Anderson who tagged the front stretch wall and then stalled in turn one. Randall continued to hold a tenuous lead with Mass and now Richards moving past him for second putting the pressure on the leader.
At the halfway signal from Stacken, Randall continued to hold a tight lead over Richards and Mass with Tourville now up to fourth and one of the biggest climbers was Dustin Doughty who had started twelfth and had climbed into the top five. A couple minor spins slowed the field over the next ten laps but the front three continued to be the same with Randall holding the point and Richards looking low on each corner and Mass trying to work around him on the high side as they raced door handle to door handle. Several times Randall would slide just a bit up the track but he had the speed coming off the corners to fight off both of his chasers.
A restart for a spin with thirty laps in the book turned more serious suddenly when Ron Hanestad got tangled up on the restart and went for a quick barrel roll down the front chute. The red flag came out immediately and the Glenwood City driver climbed out of his car unhurt.
A ten lap shootout for the dollars would be called for and once again it was the three car bunch of Randall with Richards and Mass chasing as the green was returned to the field. First Mass would try the outside and then Richards would poke the nose of his car under Randall but each time “The Blade”, as Randall is known, would fight off the challenges with Zach Manley being the newest driver to join the front group. Manley had started sixteenth on the grid but by the lap thirty point would move his way past Doughty and into fourth with Andrew Hanson and Jonny Carter, who had started nineteenth, next in line.
The top three continued to fight their own fight for the lead with an almost identical scenario taking place lap after laps as they continued their fight. It looked like this would be the pattern as they set up for one last battle before the finish when the yellow waved one last time as Wahlstrom’s great race ended when he parked his vehicle in turn four with only two laps left to go.
It was then time for the two lap fight to the finish with twenty five grand on the line. Randall got a good start with Richards glued to his rear bumper. Mass went for broke in turn three but got up the banking just a bit with both Manley and Doughty slipping past him as they exited turn four. Richards tried to get the nose of his car under Randall in turn one but didn’t succeed and in turn three gave Randall a shot in the left rear to try and move him up the track.
While Randall slid up the track just a bit, he kept his foot to the floor and as they crossed the finish line, Randall was the leader and winner as he held on by a car length for the most thrilling victory. Doughty was able to wrestle the third spot away from Manley on the last lap and Mass, after battling for the lead for every lap, was forced to settle for fifth after his all out effort for the win failed.
The second five at the finish included Andrew Hanson, Carter, Calvin Iverson, Cody Kummer and Nick Traynor as fifteen cars finished the forty lap grind, all on the lead lap at the finish.
With his wins in this race in both 2012 and 2015, Randall has now taken over forty six thousand dollars out of the Rice Lake Speedway in those three races alone as the winner’s share from this event has continued to escalate each year.