Gold Sands Speedway from the air. (Contributed photo)

Memorial Day Monday kicked off the 2014 racing season

Story by Brandon Aschenbrenner

Rain pelted the speedway around 10:30 but soon cleared leaving sunny skies and warm temperatures at Golden Sands Speedway on Monday to start the 2014 season. Inclement weather postponed the first two events of the season, but we finally got a race under our belts.

It was a special day to remember Dick Trickle and a great chance to raise some money for the Dick Trickle Memorial Project.  

The TUNDRA Super Late Model Series was on hand for the second race of their season and Eugene Gregorich Jr. (14) took fast time. Michael Bilderback (2) won the feature event after holding off a hard-charging Gregorich. For full TUNDRA results and a re-cap of the events check out their website, www.tundrasuperlates.com.

Also in action on Memorial Day were the American Super Cup cars. Most of these drivers are from Southern Wisconsin or Illinois. Golden Sands is like a super speedway for these cars as most of them ran full-throttle the whole way around. Mick Ellis (31), the president of the American Super Cup Series, picked up fast time honors. Brian Baldyga (4) took care of business by pulling away from the field in the heat. The feature event saw three wide action at the beginning, but ended very similar to the heat. Brian Baldyga won by almost half a track over Andy Forster (33), Rookie Derek Doer (20), Mick Ellis, Ken Jones (3) and Greg Davis (8).

The Wisconsin Sport Trucks, a division you can normally see run at Wisconsin International Speedway in Kaukauna, brought 13 trucks to Golden Sands Speedway. Bryan Monday (51) started off the day with fast time. Jake Boldig (77) and Cory Kemkes (1) both took wins in the heat races. The feature event got going with the fast trucks in the back making 4 and once even 5 wide passes on the front stretch. One driver specifically making huge moves was the 77 of Boldig. Jake was able to make his way to the front and pulled away from the field, but then had issues with 5 laps remaining and pulled into the pits. That gave the lead to Brian Vixmer (5) who hung on for the win. Bryan Monday, Hayden Watzka (12), Kemkes and Jason Plutz (96) rounded out the top 5.

The Vintage drivers put on a good show with 5 cars. The two fastest cars were Royce (4) and Rex (21) Rossier. Both drivers used to run Golden Sands Speedway on a weekly basis, but this time they were back in Vintage cars. Royce picked up fast time in the old Bob Jusola, 1970 Chevy Nova and Rex took home the feature win in his 1976 Chevy Camero. Bob Heine (80), Rodney Schuette (28) and Paul Dolphy (99) were the other 3 drivers that competed this weekend.

Wrapping up the Memorial Day Monday racing events was the 2-man cruisers. Wheelock and Kalata (73) were back once again to defend their championship from last year. They did that quickly and easily in the main event taking the lead on lap 2 and never looking back.  Finishing out the 5 car field were Helbach and Helbach (27), Poeschel and Fourness (69), Carlson and Carlson (5.0) and Baer and Baer (80).

The next event here at Golden Sands Speedway is Friday June 6th for Subway sub night and the Paul Gross Jewelers Powder Puff qualifier #2. The weekly Super Late Models, Super Stocks, Pure Stocks and 4 Cylinder Stocks will all be in action to get their season started.