Kurth takes the checkered flag at Golden Sands Speedway!

By Amy Kolo

July 31, 1998; Plover, WI: -  At the beginning of the week Golden Sands Speedway’s track surface had just been re-surfaced by FastTrack Co. This brought out some extra-ordinary times by all division drivers. Shawn Stelzer broke the track record for about the fifth time this year in the pure stock division. Jason Szymkowiak broke the super stock track record. The late model track record is still held by Sam Brundidge, but Jeff Weinfurter came very close to taking that away.

Defending Golden Sands Speedway CWRA Late Model champion, Kirby Kurth scored his first feature win of the season.  Kurth held off hot rookie Chris Wimmer to pick up the win.

During the late model feature Larry Lepak took the lead right away with Kirby Kurth hot on his heels. Fast timer and Hot N’ Now Ultimate Challenger, Jeff Weinfurter started fighting his way up from the back of the pack. By lap four,  Kurth was able to make his way around Lepak for the lead. A spin came out on lap six, between Bobby Turzinski and Gary Back. This gave Keith Witt the chance to take the second position away from Lepak.

On the fast track!!  Jeff Weinfurter flew around the high-banked third mile oval in a near record 12.463 seconds.  The raceway was resurfaced this week and the result was an incredibly quick racetrack.   Weinfurter would later finish ninth in the feature.

Chris Wimmer started working on Lepak for the second position. Lepak got loose coming out of turn four and Wimmer was able to edge his way around Lepak. The three drivers fought hard for the top positions. Weinfurter started making his way up to the front but got stuck behind some of the slower cars. Kurth took the checkered with Wimmer in second and Witt in third.

Jim Marquard started out in front of the super stock feature, with Tim Plowman coming up fast in his rear view mirror. Randy Storlie found some very fast time on the new surface and quickly maneuvered around Plowman for the second position, and started working on Marquard.

Plowman started to fall behind as Scott Hamel snuck around. By lap 11, Marquard started falling backward. Storlie took the first position with Hamel in second and Plowman in third. Gary Wosick started making his way to the front from the back of the pack. From lap 20 to lap 21 Wosick was able to go three wide and move up two positions into fourth. By the very next lap Wosick moved up two more positions for the second place. Hamel fought hard with Wosick. It looked like Wosick was going to steal the lead from Storlie, but Storlie managed to hang on. Storlie took the checkered with Wosick in second, and Hamel in third.

Randy Storlie took the Super Stock feature win after holding back the determined challenges of Gary Wosick and Scott Hamel.   Storlie also won his heat race earlier in the program.	Brian Stroik survived numerous cautions for mayhem in the Pure Stock feature.  Stroik however kept his car headed the right direction and avoided trouble to claim the feature win.

The pure stock feature started out with fifteen cars and on the very last lap only ended up with eight cars. The feature was crash after crash. The fast drivers were driving hard to get to the front, the less experienced drivers were all too cautious on the green racing surface. Brad Scholze started out in the lead with Mike Flick in second. Flick then spun out on lap 9. The race then took three re-starts before the cars actually could make one lap with out a spin or a crash. By lap 10 Shawn Stelzer, who started at the very back of the pack moved up into the third position with Jim Stratton hot on his heels. The points fight was on! Scholze held onto his lead until the white flag lap coming into the checkered. Scholze got loose in the corners, and Brian Stroik overpowered him for the lead. Stratton also wizzed by Scholze for the second position. Scholze ended up third.

Six competitors and three cars!!  The popular Cruiser cars returned to Golden Sands this week and this talented ( and brave) group of drivers finished in the top three.  The event was won by Randy Feltz and Fran Esser, who's zebra striped car can be seen in the background.

The ever-popular cruisers are back. Eighteen cruisers showed up to race on Golden Sands new surface. After the first caution flag the cars had to then turn around and take the right hand turns around the track. After a ton of banging and crashing the race was ended after just nine laps as anti-freeze covered the track. Randy Feltz and Fran Esser finished first. Wes Coon and Arron Yeske ended up second, and Jim Hansen and Mark Flink took third.

	Golden Sands Speedway is a high-banked 1/3 mile oval, located between Wisconsin Rapids and Plover, WI, on highway 54.  Time Trials for the program start at 6:30 p.m. with racing at 7:45 p.m.  Each week the show features CWRA Late Models, Super Stocks and Pure Stocks with many added special events.  For those special nights please consult our schedule.
Golden Sands Speedway's pit area begins to fill up with competitors before the program.  The drivers are greeted with a clean, paved pit area to work on their cars.  Every year Golden Sands makes improvements that benefit both fans and drivers, and these paved pits are enjoyed greatly by the people who work on these race cars.

Semi-Feature: 1.) Brian Lambie; 2.) Jeremy Lepak; 3.) Steve Gress; 4.) Donald Trapp; 5.) Jack Greenwood; 6.) Rene Scheinoha
First Heat: 1.) Gress; 2.) Brian Back; 3.) Jeremy Lepak
Second Heat: 1.) Kurth; 2.) Krzykowski; 3.) Larry Lepak
Third 10 Lap Heat: 1.) Mike Budleski; 2.) Witt; 3.) Wimmer
Dash: 1.) Wimmer; 2.) Rossier; 3.) Weinfurter

Semi-Feature: 1.) John Bell; 2.) David Pagels; 3.) Jim Cormack; 4.) Matt Wisz; 5.) Wesley Krause
First Heat: 1.) Bell; 2.) Pagels; 3.) Wisz
Second Heat: 1.) Storlie; 2.) Weinfurter; 3.) Jim Marquard
Third Heat: 1.) Alan Sansky; 2.) Brandl; 3.) Szymkowiak
Dash: 1.) Doughty; 2.) Szymkowiak; 3.) Kirsling

First Heat: 1.) Scholze; 2.) Tony Christman Jr.; 3.) Anney Turzinski
Second Heat: 1.) Stelzer; 2.) Flick; 3.) Gruber
Dash: 1.) Curt Blenker; 2.) Stroik; 3.) Stratton