By Brandon Aschenbrenner
Special to the City Times

WISCONSIN RAPIDS — Golden Sands Speedway honored a great man on Friday night with the inaugural Albert Getzloff Memorial.

Louie Merriam in Victory Lane. (Photo: Jeff Blaser Topography)

Albert sold tires pretty much at every single track in Central Wisconsin and was always the source of humor and energy in the pit area. We lost our dear friend in early June of 2016. The CWRA Super Late Models made their first trip of the season to Golden Sands to honor Albert and their results will be available on their website/Facebook page.

In Super Stock Action, Greg Back (6) retained his title as the fastest qualifier. In the first heat race, some crazy racing action took place with Lucas Betro (1), Jeremy Schuelke (15) and Rick Beyer (18). Betro would retire from the heat early and Schuelke and Beyer would fight through the rest of the event, but Andy Casavant (117) picked up the heat win. In heat two, some really close racing action would end with Gregg Matthews (8) picking up where he left off last race, in victory lane. The feature was another great close race.

Brian Weinfurter (24) was able to make it to the lead only five laps into the race. Weinfurter did what he could to set the sail and cruise to a win. However, with three laps left, lap traffic almost wrecked the leader of Weinfurter. That allowed Back to sneak to the inside and steal the lead away. Back would continue on and cross the line first, but would later fail post-race inspection. Weinfurter, who crossed second, would then be awarded the win. Brad Scholze (87), Casavant, Matt Komatz (33) and Schuelke finished top five. Travis Volm (76), Matthews and Betro would all be forced to retire with mechanical issues and did not finish the feature.

(Photo: Jeff Blaser, Blaser Photography)

In the Pure Stocks, Mark Kalata (75X) took fast time for the second race in a row. One heat would find Louie Merriam (17) in victory lane after 3 and even 4 wide racing took place. In the feature, the pure stocks put on a show, once again, and great close racing took place. With three laps to go, contact between Hunter Cramer (66) and Brandon Knoblock (71) caused Knoblock to spin and then collected Cramer and the contact caused Cramer’s axle to break and would retire him from the event. A three lap shootout would find Merriam holding off Kalata in a very close battle. Mitch Stankowski (19) took a third place finish with Ron Grabarski (13) and Knoblock picking up top five finishes.

In Four-Cylinder Stock racing, Brett Breitenfeldt (7) got quick time for his second race in a row. The heat races would be conquered by first time racers at GSS, Paul Finch (3) and Tom Ensinger Jr (33). The fifteen car feature would start with more wild and crazy racing with three and four and at one point a few seconds of five wide racing. Another visitor for the first time this year, Dan Rozek (77) would take an early lead and set the pace for the entire time. Garret Strachota (77) battled with Finch most of the race and picked up second place. Finch, Breitenfeldt and Brandon Polansky (287) rounded out the top five.

The Four-Cylinder Outlaw class saw George Seliger (06) pick up fast time for his first time on the season. Scott Ciesielski (21) grabbed the heat win. The feature started with three wide racing at the green flag and contact between Keith Wosick (61) and Barry Tolliver (112) causing them to lose ground and also hurting Ciesielski’s momentum. That allowed Tim Hintz (1), Seliger and Ian Arneson (14) to check away from everyone else. Hintz would hold off all challengers and pick up the win with Seliger settling for second. Ciesielski made it back to third topping Arneson and Tolliver and Wosick finished out the field.

The next event at Golden Sands Speedway is Friday, July 7th. It’s Salute to Troops night featuring Guns N’ Hoses racing where local firefighters will race against local law enforcement to raise money for military veterans. Free admission for all active service members and veterans with military ID. All of our weekly divisions will be in action along with the Central Wisconsin Steel Frame Challenge Series Pure Stocks. Gates Open at 5, Time Trials at 6:30 and Racing at 7:45. Follow along on Facebook and/or www.gssrace.com.