By Brandon Aschenbrenner
Special to the City Times

Majeski and Brooks (25) (Photo: Jeff Blaser Photography)

A Memorial Day tradition continued in 2017 with the Dick Trickle Memorial race at Golden Sands Speedway. Twenty-five Super Late Model drivers were drafted into teams of five. The five teams were named for and captained by Central Wisconsin Racing Legends; Team Trickle, Team Back, Team Marzofka, Team Reffner and Team Sommers. Team captains were family members of those legends except for Team Trickle, which was captained by Father Dale Grubba and John Alft.

In Super Late Model Qualifying, Ty Majeski (91) turned the quickest lap at 12.043. Rain showers forced the heat races to be skipped. In the feature event, a sixteen car invert would set Wyatt Brooks (25) and Darren Jackson (2) on the front row. Brooks was able to get out to the early lead until the first caution flew for Jerry Ziemiecki (J3) who spun in turn one. Five laps after some green flag racing the second yellow would be caused by contact with Jake Capek (81) and Jordan Theil (2). Brooks would continue to lead until yet another caution would fly, twenty-one laps in, this one involving Derek Kraus (9) and Mark Mackesy (12). After the restart, Eugene Gregorich Jr. (14) now made his was to second. Gregorich challenged Brooks for the lead and was able to complete the pass with a little help from lapped traffic with sixty-nine laps left. Gregorich tried to pull away but Majeski worked his way to and past Brooks to take 2nd. Mackesy spun a few laps later in turn 2 and collected Kirby Kurth (85) ending both of their days. After the restart, Gregorich and Majeski went back and forth swapping the lead in some of the most exciting racing of the day. Majeski would reign supreme and take the lead for good at the half way mark. One more caution flew with nineteen laps left for Mike Olson (64) who had issues and stalled on the front stretch. Majeski held on for the win over Gregorich who ran out of gas just before the red/checkered flag finish because of rain with six laps unraced. Officially, Gregorich would be scored as the last car on the lead lap. Majeski won and Mike Lichtfeld (44) picked up a decent second place finish. Frank Nitzke (18) picked up a strong third place finish, with Dalton Zehr (7-11) and Steve Lichtfeld (32) picking up top fives. Brooks, Kraus, Collin Reffner (87) and Gregorich were the lead lap finishers.

The final team scores were calculated by drivers drafted in the same round being paired together. The highest finishing driver in the round got one point and the lowest finishing driver got five points. The lowest team overall in points would win. After qualifying, Team Sommers had a small lead. Without heat races, the feature would be of vital importance. With three drivers in the top five, Team Trickle ended up picking up the overall win with 18 points. Team Back ended with 19 points and Team Somers had 20 points. Teams Marzofka and Reffner ended with 33 and 35 points respectfully.

Majeski and Gregorich (14) (Photo: Jeff Blaser Photography)

Making their annual visit to GSS was the Wisconsin Sport Trucks. Drew Habeck (21) qualified the quickest. The heat also got rained out, so the feature would decide this year’s bragging rights. The Habeck’s made a stong showing with three finishing in the top five. Drew took the win with Blaine (20) taking second. Jordan Fisher (9) came back from an overly exciting trip through the sand to finish in third. Keith Habeck (19) and Mark Sokolic (29) took fourth and fifth.

The Upper Midwest Vintage Racing Series also made their return to Golden Sands Speedway with Darrell Paasch (7) picking up the feature win over Bernie Fritz (33) who slipped out of turn 2 on the white flag lap allowing Paasch to make the move to the outside. Full results follow and the next race for the UMVRS is June 10 at Dells Raceway Park. 1) Darrell Paasch #7; 2)Bernie Fritz 33; 3)Roger Peterson 91; 4) John Gilbertson 88; 5)Dave Gawronski 10; 6)Chuck Adams Ono; 7)Ray Burrows 22; 8)Darrel Bassusner 91; 9)Ralph Cottone 4; 10) Charlie Schwock 29; 11)Ron Demers Jr. 19; 12)Jim Olson 53; 13)Bryan Webb 36; 14)Paul Dolphy 99.

Also in attendance were the Midwest Truck Series with near record attendance. Ty Majeski (1) hopped into an empty seat and drove to victory. Their race recap and results can be found on their website/Facebook page.

The next event at Golden Sands Speedway is Friday, June 9th. It’s School’s Out night and all of our weekly divisions will be in action. Follow along on Facebook and/or www.gssrace.com.