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Zehr Continues His Winning Ways

Zehr Continues His Winning Ways
Story By: Brandon Aschenbrenner

It was Fan Appreciation Night at Golden Sands Speedway and all normal divisions were in action. It was also Fey Printing Paper Airplane Contest night for the kids during intermission and the fans were rewarded with excitement during intermission and on the race track.

Leading off the night was the Super Stock class. Greg Back (6) took fast time for now the 3rd week in a row. In the feature, Rick Beyer (18) and Matt Komatz (33) lead the field to green. Beyer was able to lead early, but a yellow flag flew for Beyer and Brad Scholze (87) and would bunch the field back up. On the restart, Brian Weinfurter (24) would make his way to the front and capture the lead. A second caution would bring the field back together with 13 laps to go when contact occurred between Greg Back and John Zuch (8) in turn 2. On the restart, Weinfurter would try to put as much space as possible between himself and the rest of the field and succeeded in doing so. Greg Back worked his way up through the field steadily until he made it to 2nd place, but ran out of laps as Weinfurter picked up his 2nd win of the year. Back would come home in 2nd place, with Matt Komatz, Matt Ciesielski (21) with his door barely hanging on from damage in the first caution and Brad Scholze also with damage finishing top 5. In the points, Weinfurter has a 9 point lead over Back.

The Late Models saw Reagan May (33) take fast time honors. After three heat races, Ryan Hinner (23), Mike Olson (64) in his first time back since a big wreck in week 1 and Steve Litchfield (32) all made their way to victory lane. The B-Feature was star studded with many big hitters and only two drivers making the A Main. Mark Eswein (71), Darren Jackson (2), Frank Nitzke (18) and Ryan Hinner were all lined up in the top 4 positions for most of the race. Eswein eventually made his way to the front for the win, but the last transfer spot was not settled until the final lap. Hinner and Nitzke were side by side and Darren Jackson looked to the inside and opened the lane on Hinner and made a pass out of turn 2 to grab the 2nd spot and move into the feature with Eswein. In the A-main, Dave Neitzke (06) and Chad Devine (54) lead the field to the green flag. Neitzke would pace the field early, but a caution would come out 8 laps into the race for contact between Justin Mondeik (44) and Steve Litchfield. On the restart, after almost completing a lap, Wyatt Blashe (78) and Dave Neitzke made contact in the front of the field off of turn 4 and caused Neitzke to spin. This would end Dave’s night and also Eugene Gregorich Jr suffered night ending damage. On the 2nd restart attempt, we got one lap completed and then MG Gajewski (22) slowed out of turn 2 to bring out another caution. Colin Reffner (87) would lead for the next laps until the very fast Dalton Zehr (7-11) car made his way past Reffner with 25 laps to go. Zehr would go on to win in a dominating performance with Natalie Decker (04), Reagan May, Colin Reffner and Jordan Thiel (2) rounding out the top 5. Zehr holds a point lead of 47 over Reagan May.

In the Pure Stocks, Dillon Mackesy (93) took fast time. Two heats would see Hunter Cramer (66) and Brock Heinrich (52) with victories. In the feature, it took 3 starts to finally get into a rhythm. The first caution was before 1 lap was completed when the whole field played bumper tag and a bumper came off in turn 3 and 4. The second start got 1 lap completed but then had Dave Lashua (01) and Carter Kauth (97) forced to the rear for causing a yellow. After a restart, 1 more lap was completed but again slowed for a spin on the front stretch sending Brandon Knoblock (71) and Kyle Genett (16X) to the rear. Finally the field settled a bit, and went back to green. During the race, it still was a hard fought battle with old school bomber style bumping and grinding on all of the cars. Hunter Cramer lead the field until the final laps when Louie Merriam (17) and Dillon Mackesy made their way around Cramer at the same time to move to 1st and 2nd. Mackesy would then fight off Merriam to pick up the feature win. Merriam would hold on to 2nd, Karl Genett (16K) made some headway in the upper grove to finish 3rd, Hunter Cramer fell back to 4th and Travis Volm took home 5th. Volm has a 22 point lead over Merriam with Mackesy in 3rd, 24 points out of the lead.

The 4-Cylinder open class did not qualify because of a small rain shower that hit the race track. Two heats would show Eric Robinson (2) and Scott Ciesielski (21) to winner’s circle. In heat 1, a big wreck occurred when Kiley Irwin (13) spun in turn 4 early in the race and Jenna Breitenfeldt (14) was not able to avoid the 13 car and made heavy contact ending the nights of both drivers. Both racers were not injured in that wreck. In the lower feature, it was all Eric Robinson as he took the lead and ran away from everyone going on to the easy win. Matt Van Pietersom (17) who we know as “Milky Way� took 2nd, Corey Stephens (3), Randy “Papa� Polansky (7) and Jim Belling (44) brought home top 5 finishes. In the upper feature, Ian Arneson (14) started near the back, but that would not last long as he was able to duck in and out of traffic and take the lead after 1 and a half laps. He would run away up front until Scott Ciesielski ran him down, but was not able to get to Arneson’s bumper. Arneson picked up his first win and Ciesielski was relegated to 2nd, Keith Wosick (61), Jerad DeBoer (2) and Shawn Kemnetz (24) finished out the top 5.

The next event at Golden Sands Speedway is Friday, July 22nd. It’s Blu Play Café Kids Night with Kid’s stock car rides from 7:15 to 7:30 and a candy/penny drop and many special prizes. All of our divisions will be back in action including Late Models, Super Stocks, Pure Stocks, 4-Cylinders and Cruisers. Gates open at 4:30, Qualifying at 6:30 and Racing at 7:45.

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