Golden Sands Speedway was started by Sam Bartus in the year of 1967. It was the first high banked, bowl shaped track that enticed a young group of drivers to glide, spin, and fly around the fastest third mile in the mid-west. The design of Golden Sands Speedway was so unique at it virtually had no other competition.
This unique track has seen many veteran drivers, some of which still race the highly banked track, some who have moved on to NASCAR and the NASCAR Super Trucks, and some that no longer race, but their children carry on the addicting tradition. Names like Dick Trickle, Mark Martin, Dave Marcis, Bryan Refiner, Tom Reffner, Jimmy Back, Marv Marzofka, Bobby Turzinski, Lyle Nabbelfeldt, Vic Getzloff, Kirby Kurth and others to numerous to mention.
he 1970’s brought out the bounties. Drivers like Tom Refiner seemed too fast to catch or even catch. To stir up the action and heat the competition, Sam Bartus offered bounties on anyone who could beat drivers like Reffner. He even started to offer bounties outside of the Central Wisconsin Racing Association’s Club. Also in 1970, the track was repaved right before the mid-season championship. Tom Reffner was the first to time in on the newly paved track. He ended up setting a new track record. Needless to say the record changed twenty times before time trials were over.
During the 1980’s the track was in a gray area, and went under some major management, and ownership changes. The track was only open for business for the first few years. The summer of 1981 it hosted only one late model show, with Mark Martin winning the first caution less 75-lap feature. From 1984 until 1988 the track sat idle. Phil Bickley now owner of State Park Speedway in Wausau, WI gained ownership from Sam Bartus in 1988. From 1989 to 1991 Terry and Alice Preuser leased the track from the Bickley’s.
the 1990’s brought many more changes. Phil and Helen Bickley ran the speedway from 1992 until 1994. In the winter of 1994 the speedway was sold to Darrel and Shela Bassuener. The Bassuener family made numerous updates to the facility.
In 2016 the Bassuener family sold the track to Cody and Shannon Smiley. The Smiley’s have made many improvements to the facility. In April of 2017 the Smiley’s updated the original scoreboard with a new LED 20 position scoreboard. Also at that time the track was updated with MyLaps computer scoring. In 2020 the spotters tower was rebuilt and brought into the 21st century. The Smiley’s goal is to get the entire facility over to LED lighting to help reduce electrical consumption.