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WEST SALEM, Wis. — Dick Trickle, you're a
legend in these parts and always will be. With that said, you're going down.
No, you have gone down. Twice this year, if you're counting. We are.
First, it was Bangor's Kevin Nuttleman who did the unthinkable when he caught you, then surpassed you in terms of the
all-time number of Late Model victories ever recorded at the
La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway. Nuttleman won No. 87 on
April 26, then won two more
features this summer to take over the top spot at 89.
Sorry, Dick. You're still sitting on 86 wins. The pit gate's always open, however, should you decide to leave the south and rejoin us.
If losing the top spot in all-time wins wasn't bad enough (for you, not us), a 26-year-old driver named Jason Weinkauf rolled into town on Friday, then stole a little more of your spotlight when he erased your track record — your 14-year-old track record, that is — in the Central Wisconsin Racing Association (CWRA) division during the second day of the four-day racing extravaganza.
Weinkauf rocketed around the track in 19.361 seconds, which topped your mark of 19.537
seconds. To most of us, those are just five numbers with a decimal point. Put them in mph, and this is what you get: Weinkauf drove his spiffy red and white race car around the Fairgrounds Speedway's five-eighth's mile track at average speed of 101.5 mph.
Yes, he averaged 101.5 mph while turning four corners. That means he was flying at least
125 mph down the front and back straightaways. Trickle's record? Gone as fast as one of those blooming onions fans were consuming at the 34th annual Oktoberfest Race Weekend.
"We were turning sixes (19.6) and one five (19.5) during practice," Weinkauf said. "In qualifying, especially on the second lap, I could drive it into the corner a ton. I drove it harder than I ever have."
For those of us not strapped into a driver's seat, that means Weinkauf was able to keep his foot on the accelerator longer than most of us would ever think of doing. He felt in complete control of the car and wasn't worried about scraping himself off the turns one and two wall like your wipers do to a bug on your windshield.
No crash, no mess, just pure speed.
"You hit a set-up and you just feel confident. You drive it harder and harder," Weinkauf said, smiling. "You know you've pushed the envelope when the car breaks loose."
That's reassuring. Seriously, Wienkauf is no amateur at this racing business. He's raced three times at Oktoberfest (1999, 2001 and this year), but began a Late Model racing career as a 17-year-old when he jumped behind the wheel, then finished second in both races he entered at the Tomahawk Speedway near Merrill, Wis.
Since then, he's competed mostly at Golden Sands Speedway in Plover, where he finished fourth in the Super Late Model points standings. He's also raced at the Dells Motor Speedway, but coming to Okotoberfest and pushing aside a legend, well, that's more than he ever dreamed of.
"It is pretty amazing. He's a big idol of mine. I remember as a kid I used to watch Trickle race at State Park Speedway near Wausau," Weinkauf said. "I knew were were running some good laps, but I never expected this."
The crowd, estimated at 2,000 early Friday night, evidently didn't either. The buzz in the stands, and in the pits, was about "the guy who broke Trickle's record."
Whether or not Weinkauf, or his brother, Chris, who also is competing in the CWRA events this weekend, does anything more at this point almost seems irrelevant. Jason has something that many drivers have taken a shot at — and missed — for 14 years.
He caught, and passed, Trickle. Or at least he did so in terms of the time it took him to circle the Fairgrounds Speedway track.
So when he goes back to work as a shipping supervisor at Goetsch's Welding next week, he'll have a story to tell all right. And he'll have his name in the record book to prove it.
Jeff Brown can be reached at (608) 782-9710, ext. 403, or e-mail at jbrown@lacrossetribune.com
