First time feature winners for the first Friday Night! By Amy Kolo

May 4, 2001; Plover, WI -  The warm spring-like weather cooled down for the first Friday night of racing, but it did not stop the fans from coming out to enjoy some great racing action. Congratulations to Katie Weinfurter, winner of the River City Motors Gift Certificate. Alexandra Lafave was nominated as the Short Trax Jr. Fan Club member of the Week. Golden Sands Speedway's new promotion for the 2001 season is the "Fast Dash For Cash"

Photo Highlights

Frank Nitzke (#18) scored his first career Super Late Model feature victory at Golden Sands Speedway. Working through traffic Frank Nitzke (#18) slips past Allen Check (#20) on his way to the lead in the Super Late Model feature. Greg Back (#62) has had terrible luck since opening day.  This evening he flipped his car while avoiding an accident in the Super Late Model feature race.  A large front end loader is used to lift the car back on it's wheels. Fast time honors were taken by Judd Brandl (#27) for the first time this year. Cary Lyons (#82) earned fast qualifying honors with his sharp looking Super Stock. Mike Doughty (#52) has proven to be a front runner in the Super Stock division, but a feature win eluded him until this evening, when he took his first trip to victory lane after a feature event. John Matthews (#98) scored top honors in the Pure Stock division main event for his first feature win of the 2001 season.

Sands' got a whirlwind money machine, filled it with Hard Cash, Speedway Bucks, and prize gift certificates. There also is a ticket that says loose everything. Mark Brillowski was the first lucky fan to try it out. Sign up every week for your chance at the Fast Dash for Cash.  And now for some racing…..

Cary Lyons took the fast time in the Super Stock Division. Lyons also opted to take the Mobile Link Challenge, which was up to $150.

Randy Storlie took the first lead of the 25 lap Super Stock feature event. Mike Doughty and rookie driver Jeremy Szymkowiak fell in second and third position. By lap 6 Doughty passed Storlie for the lead, as Szymkowiak and Scott Hamel tangled in the turn. Doughty maintained his lead with Storlie and Jim Cormack hot on his heels. All the fast runners were making their way up the pack.

Storlie started dropping back positions, as he got a little loose passing on the outside. By lap 20 a caution came out with tons of cars spinning out of control. Coming out of turn three and four, Cormack got off the bottom of the track and got loose, Keith Bohmsach couldn't find space to miss the Cormack car and ended up in the front stretch wall. Brian Stroik and Scott Hamel were also spinning to avoid the wrecks in front. At the restart, with just five short laps to go, Doughty took the lead once again. Shawn Stelzer slid up into the second position with Alan Sankey in third. Sankey took the second position from Stelzer, but Stelzer quickly took it back on the next lap. Sankey then fell back some positions, allowing Storlie to take the charge. Doughty held off for his first ever feature win, with Stelzer in second and Storlie in third.

Times were fast in the Super Late Models! Mark Eswein started it off with the first time in the elevens, with an 11.789. (Track record is an 11.6) Then Jeff Weinfurter pulled off an 11.936, Frank Nitzke an 11.902, Allen Check and 11.832, and Judd Brandl with an 11.737. Brandl at first opted not to take the Hot n' Now Ultimate Challenge, but owner, Allen Andreasen waved an extra $100 at him with the crowd cheering him on, Brandl finally took the challenge.

The feature started out with quite a few cautions. Greg Weinfurter took the early lead with Burton Brown and Frank Nitzke behind him. Nitzke motored his way to the front by the fifth lap. Leroy Pettis started making his way up the pack along with Jeff Weinfurter, Eswein and Check.

On lap 11, a bunch of cars started spinning in between turns one and two. Greg Back went directly into the soft wall, flipping his car onto the roof. Back was okay. The soft walls did exactly what they were supposed to do, protect the driver and leave minimal damage to the car. Back even rolled his own tire off the track as his pit crew took car of the car. At the restart Nitzke held his lead with Weinfurter still behind him. Pettis passed Weinfurter a few times for the second position, but Weinfurter was able to steal it back. Brown started slipping back a few positions, allowing Brandl and Eswein to move to the front. On lap 24, Brown took his racer to the pits.

On lap 26, Pettis was running third with Eswein right behind him. Both cars got loose and ended up in the rear of the field. This allowed Brandl and MG Gajewski to advance. With three laps to go, Gajewski shot passed Brandl with Todd Stapleman following in hot pursuit. Brandl dropped back. Nitkze took the checkered with Greg Weinfurter in second, and MG in third. Brandl finished fifth.

Ryan Rossier took fast time in the Pure Stock division.  John Matthews took the early lead in the pure stock feature and started pull ahead of the pack.  Mark Flink was close on Matthews heels.  Lapped traffic came into play right away with all the new rookie drivers.  Matthews held his lead as Flink dropped back.  Russel Kramer started making his way up the pack.  With about half the pack being lapped.  Matthews took the checkered with Hank Frasch in second and Flink in third.

The cruisers came out to the track for a night of racing fun. Hopefully some of the guys will realize that once you start spinning you should take the foot off the gas. One cruiser driver took out half the soft wall. The first race had Dean and Eugene Kramer taking the checkered. The second race had Scoot Davis and Joe Fitzgerald in first. The third race was won by Jerry Treb and Brian Suchowski.

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