RICE LAKE, Wis. — The Fastlane Northland Super Stock Series made its first visit to the Rice Lake Speedway on Thursday night and defending WISSOTA National Super Stock champion Shane Sabraski led from start to finish.
An impressive field of 52 Super Stocks from throughout the WISSOTA region would sign in to race on a gorgeous Thursday night in early June with six heat races and three B Features needed to cut the field down to feature racing size.
Once all qualifying was done, two provisional starters, one from the track and one from the series, were added to the field and 26 drivers would take the green flag for the 25-lap main event.
Dylan Nelson and Sabraski shared the front row.
Sabraski and Nelson raced side by side on the opening lap with Sabraski scored the leader of the opening circuit. Nelson would tuck in close to him with Nick Oreskovich closely following Nelson. There was plenty of side-by-side racing in the early going but with the green flag remaing displayed, Sabraski would start to open up some distance on Nelson, who was being pressured heavily by Oreskovich for second.
Sabraski was rolling through the middle of the turns on the shiny track and it was working for him as he gradually began to distance himself from the field as the race remained under green. Tim Johnson and Simon Wahlstrom moved into the top five with Wahlstrom coming from the fifth row to do so. Also on the move was Dexton Koch who started way back in the seventh row.
The best battle was for second as Oreskovich continued to pressure Nelson for second and finally made a low side move off turn two to take over the runner up honors. Meanwhile, Sabraski had caught the back of big pack and started lapping cars, and exercise that on this night didn’t even slow him down as he naviagated through the slower running cars.
Finally, on lap seventeen, the first yellow of the race was triggered by a spin off turn two which bunched up the field and took away Sabraski’s big lead. Another yellow flew before a lap could be completed for yet another spin but following that, the last nine laps of the race would go green to checkered.
Oreskovich had hoped to stay with and perhaps challenge Sabraski following the slowdown, but on this night, that would not be the case as Sabraski had the field “wired.” He would once again pull away, gradually increasing his lead.
The best battle was for the fourth spot and Wahlstrom was finally able to get past Johnson for that position near the end of the race. Koch would continue his impressive charge, cracking the top five before a last lap bobble cost him a couple of hard-earned spots.
At the finish, Sabraski had a half straightaway lead over Oreskovich as he took the checkered flag from starter Jim Saul. Nelson would hold on for third and Wahlstrom would lead the local delegation home with his fourth place run and Johnson, in a borrowed car for the weekend, would complete the top five.
The Midwest Modifieds also raced on Thursday night and George Dalbeck ended up in victory lane.