Lonnie Wheatley, BRAINERD, Minn. (September 1, 2007) – Jerry Richert, Jr., kicked off North Central Speedway's Mighty Axe Nationals by posting his first career American Sprint Car Series feature win in Saturday night's 25-lap ASCS Northern Plains Region feature event.
 
Richert played the first half of the feature event playing the role of chaser, as front row outside starter Eric Lutz paced the opening dozen circuits until a caution flew for Alan Gilbertson's turn three spin.
 
Restarting in front of Dave Glennon and Richert, Lutz slipped high in turns one and two on the restart allowing both his pursuers to slip by.  Richert ducked underneath Glennon for the point a half lap later in turns three and four and raced away to a three-second victory over Glennon.
 
Current ASCS Northern Plains Region points leader Lee Grosz battled past Lutz for third on the 15^th round and challenged Glennon for runner-up honors over the final rounds.  Glennon held on for second however, with Grosz settling for show honors in front of Lutz and Tom Kamrath.
 
Ken Melanson crossed the stripe sixth, with Brad Barickman, Sye Anderson, Troy Meyer and Mason Hill completing the top ten.
 
ASCS Northern Plains Region Results from North Central Speedway:
 
First Heat (8 laps):  1. 5-Dave Glennon, 2. 6-Tom Kamrath, 3. 25-Ken Melanson, 4. 34TW-Brad Barickman, 5. 18-Tony Hargrave, 6. 29-Leigh Thomas, 7. 10-Kevin Nickel.

Second Heat (8 Laps):  1. 20G-Chris Graf, 2. 20-Eric Lutz, 3. 4J-Lee Grosz, 4. 37-Sye Anderson, 5. 11M-Troy Meyer, 6. 45-Tony Norem, 7. 92-Mike Sitzmann, Jr.
 
Third Heat (8 Laps):  1. 62-Jerry Richert, Jr., 2. 97-Alan Gilbertson, 3. 2-Mason Hill, 4. 18X-Ryan Wilson, 5. 63-Jesse Cripe, 6. 14-John Nelson.
 
A Feature (25 laps):  1. 62-Jerry Richert, Jr., 2. 5-Dave Glennon, 3. 4J-Lee Grosz, 4. 20-Eric Lutz, 5. 6-Tom Kamrath, 6. 25-Ken Melanson, 7. 34TW-Brad Barickman, 8. 37-Sye Anderson, 9. 11M-Troy Meyer, 10. 2-Mason Hill, 11. 45-Tony Norem, 12. 20G-Chris Graf, 13. 18X-Ryan Wilson, 14. 18-Tony Hargrave, 15. 14-John Nelson, 16. 97-Alan Gilbertson, 17. 63-Jesse Cripe, 18. 10-Kevin Nickel.  DNS: 29-Leigh Thomas, 92-Mike Sitzmann, Jr.
 
ASCS Northern Plains Region Points (Top Ten):  1. Lee Grosz 1,644, 2. Dave Glennon 1,552, 3. Eric Lutz 1,464, 4. Chuck Swenson 1,400, 5. Curt Lund 1,156, 6. Chris Graf 1,128, 7. Scott Winters 970, 8. Jody Rosenboom 897, 9. Clint Garner 848, 10. Chad Meyer 812.