Weinfurter Races Ahead of the Field at Golden Sands
By Mike Barrett
Jeff Weinfurter started 2nd row inside for the late model feature Friday May 8th and took care of business to win the 2nd week's feature at Golden Sands Speedway.
Pole-sitter Chris Weinkauf looked poised for a win after the draw put him on the front row, but struggled and gave up an early lead to Frank Nitzke. Nitzke seemed have problems with grip in the outside groove and dropped back many places, while Weinfurter and Weinkauf raced for the lead.
Last week's winner Brandon Selle also slowed abruptly, losing spot after spot while eager racers drove past. By lap 10 Weinfurter had passed Weinkauf, and put a lead of a few car lengths on the rest of the field. By the halfway point Mark Eswein had fought a battle with Weinkauf for 3rd, then began a torrid skirmish with Mark Mackesy for 2nd position. There was contact, there was smoke, there was Eswein sideways, but Mackesy backed off and the seemingly sure-to-happen wreck never did. They finished with Eswein the runner-up and Mackesy 3rd. Jordan Thiel had a fine view of all this until the final lap, when fast qualifier Keith Bohmsach squeezed by for 4th. Thiel settle for 5th, and Brandon Selle appeared to be the hardest working driver, getting back up to 6th after falling out of the top 12 early on. Weinfurter's fast car has him smiling, and looking forward to next week after the win. The rest of the top 5; Eswein, Mackesy, Bohmsach and Thiel will be looking to keep Weinfurter a little farther back next week.
Super Stock racer Greg Back may have missed week 1, but the old speed is still there. Colin Reffner celebrated fast time with his new-look racer, and a lucky draw that put him 6th on the starting grid. Back qualified 2nd and began the race just inside Reffner. This was a bad thing for Colin, because the outside lane threw out an anchor, and the inside lane cars picked up spot after spot. By the time lap 5 had clicked by, the two drivers from the front two outside rows had been passed by 10+ cars. Dean Burby's backwards plunge from the front ended him up in 10th, but Michael Gwidt furiously gained back spots to finish 4th. Meanwhile Brian Weinfurter had positioned himself at the point, and even though both Matt Pyburn and Greg Back in similarly painted #71 cars (Pyburn in 71x) took a turn, neither could get past Weinfurter. Brian led every lap...until the last one, when Back laid back a bit, then drove alongside in turn 3, and out of turn 4 while mashing the gas. The tires stuck, and Back made a last-lap feature-winning pass in all of 20 feet. Weinfurter's 3 "insurance" laps were to no avail, Back had picked up the win. Colin Reffner waited out the traffic to finsh 3rd, Gwidt 4th and Matt Pyburn made it to 5th.
Pure Stock drivers have been a steadily growing class recently, and needed a b main to get the feature set after Ryan Mork set fast time for the 2nd week in a row. Joey Kuhn and Brent Weiland started the field up fornt, but gave way to some faster cars by the halfway point. Lap 10 saw seven cars racing in the space of about four, with Mike Kasperek taking the lead for good. Ron Grabarski was obviously fast, and by lap 15 was in 2nd, where he finished. Mork came out of virtually nowhere (outside of the top 10 at lap 10) to post a solid 3rd place finish, proving that the speed has some talent to back it up. Kyle Gennett placed his car in 4th and Brent Weiland held on for 5th.
The first visit for the Cruiser stock and mod classes were relatively quiet affairs, Harvath & Coulthurst posting the top spot in the stock class, and Spritka & Berg putting a half-lap lead of a spanking on the mods.
