Forum: Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Forum (go)
Moderators: StanM

Tatnell Keeps It In the Family at Richert Memorial

By: Justin Zoch (9-12-09)

It was an emotional night for the entire Richert family as they huddled to honor their father, Jerry Richert, and watched a member of the family - Brooke Tatnell - score the win at the 9th Annual Jerry Richert Memorial at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Tatnell, who is married to Jerry's daughter Amy, raced a car owned by Joe Kouba and Jerry Richert Jr. to victory over a very impressive field of IRA Sprint Cars to score his second consecutive win in the event.

Tatnell, who was returning to the cockpit for the first time since shattering his left leg in a driveline explosion in July, started the feature event in the fifth spot and watched Johnny Herrera open up a lead over the first part of the race. Once the leaders reached lapped traffic, Herrera eventually succumbed to the pressure from Tatnell as a torrid four-car battle between Herrera, Tatnell, Terry McCarl and tenth starting Scott Winters heated up from laps 10-20, when Josh Higday slapped the concrete wall on the backstretch, bringing out a yellow flag.

Tatnell survived a series of late race yellow flags and managed to hold off Scott Winters on every restart while McCarl and Herrera battled back and forth. On the final restart, with two laps remaining, Bill Balog drove from sixth to fourth while Tatnell cruised around to a very popular victory. Tatnell was followed by Johnny Herrera, Balog and McCarl.

Greg Parent (GRP Motorsports) put up two Hard Charger Awards and it went to two very deserving drivers as Bill Balog earned the IRA Hard Charger and Scott Winters won the non-IRA member award. Each driver was given $200 from GRP.

In Osborne and Sons Trucking Qualifications, Terry McCarl nearly broke his five-year-old track record with a lap of 10.787 (the record in 10.757) and the four heat races went to Scott Uttech, Lynton Jeffrey, Robbie Wolfgang and Tatnell. Davey Heskin won the Behling Racing Products B-main, which saw Phillip Mock take a horrendous backstretch tumble. The current IRA Rookie point leader emerged uninjured.

Osborne and Sons Trucking Qualifications (34 Cars)
Fast Time: Terry McCarl (10.787)

Lane Automotive Heat 1 (Top Four Transfer)
1. Scott Uttech, 2. Jerry Richert Jr., 3. Terry
McCarl, 4. Bill Warren/ 5. Billy Hafemann, 6.
Brad Barickman, 7. Leigh Thomas, 8. Todd King, 9. Tony Kaus

VMAC Racing Heat 2
1. Lynton Jeffrey, 2. Mark Dobmeier, 3. Dave
Uttech, 4. Jake Peters/ 5. Ryan Wilson, 6. John
Haeni, 7. Josh Higday, 8. Duane Olson, 9. Travis Whitney (DNS)

DMI Heat 3
1. Robbie Wolfgang, 2. Bill Balog, 3. Kris Spitz,
4. Johnny Herrera/ 5. Davey Heskin, 6. Scott
Biertzer, 7. Andy Hunt, 8. Joe Symoens

Wesmar Racing Engines Heat 4
1. Brooke Tatnell, 2. Mike Reinke, 3. Scott
Winters, 4. Erin Crocker/ 5. Scott Neitzel, 6.
Phillip Mock, 7. Russel Borland 8. Bill Wirth (DNS)

Behling Racing Products B-main (Top Six Transfer)
1. Heskin, 2. Barickman, 3. Biertzer, 4. Higday,
5. Haeni, 6. King/ 7. Wilson, 8. Hafemann, 9.
Borland, 10. Kaus, 11. Olson, 12. Neitzel (DNF),
13. Mock (DNF), 14. Hunt (DNF), 15. Symoens
(DNF), 16. Thomas (DNF), 17. Wirth (DNS), 18. Whitney (DNF)

Jerry Richert Memorial (30-Laps)
1. Tatnell, 2. Winters, 3. Herrera, 4. Balog, 5.
McCarl, 6. Crocker, 7. Jeffrey, 8. Peters, 9.
Reinke, 10. Wolfgang, 11. Biertzer, 12. Heskin,
13. Richert Jr., 14. Dobmeier, 15. Warren, 16.
Barickman, 17. D. Uttech, 18. King, 19. S.
Uttech, 20. Spitz, 21. Haeni (DNF), 22. Higday (DNF)

Lap Leaders: Herrera 1-11, Tatnell 12, Herrera 13-15, Tatnell 16-30

Cautions: (5)

It was a very entertaining IRA feature race at the 9th Annual Jerry Richert Memorial. The field was solid top to bottom. It was certainly one of the stronger fields in recent years, but then again, this race always has a lot of very good quality cars and drivers on hand. When I looked at the 30 lap A Main starting lineup, those first five rows really stood out. It was 2009 Knoxville Raceway Track Point Champion Johnny Herrera on the pole with female sensation Erin Crocker outside. Mark Dobmeier and two-time Richert Memorial champion and current CLS track record holder Terry McCarl were in row two. Wow is all I can say about that row! Defending Richert Memorial Champion Brooke Tatnell and young Robby Wolfgang (Doug was helping in the pits of course) made up row three. Aussie Lynton Jeffrey (Knoxville regular) and the first IRA member driver in the field, Scott Uttech comprised row four. Row five had Jerry Richert, Jr. in the Marty Johnson blue with red number 81, a car that he had a ton of success in back in the 1980-90s era on the inside with Scott Winters to the outside. The past two years, Winters has swept the IRA portion of the Masters event at CLS and is always a force to be reckoned with when the sprint cars run at CLS.

The balance of the 22 car starting grid had plenty of talent remaining. Davey Heskin (Knoxville regular from MN), Brad Barickman (doing double-duty in two Olson Motorsports entries), Jake "The Snake" Peters (car based out of Jackson), defending IRA Champion and current point leader Bill Balog, two-time Richert Memorial champion Mike Reinke, Dave Uttech (solid IRA supporter), Kris Spitz (running full-time this year with the IRA), Bill Warren (another long-time IRA racer), Scott Biertzer (from the famous WI racing family and long-time IRA supporter), Josh Higday (Knoxville regular), John Haeni (top IRA contender for many years), and Todd King in the Layton Motorsports K9 entry definitely showed talent top to bottom.

As you can see race fans, the stage was set for 30 exciting and entertaining laps around the 3/8 mile high-banked Cedar Lake Speedway. From the heartbreak while leading the UMSS 360 sprint car feature and suffering a flat tire to the emotional high generated by a repeat victory in the Jerry Richert Memorial IRA/Knoxville Challenge, Brooke Tatnell certainly had himself another night to remember at CLS. Many thanks to the Richert family for all of the hard work and effort they put into this awesome event each year. The amount of additional sponsorship money and product contingencies they are able to round up for this race is phenomenal. As IRA President Steve Sinclair stated at the drivers meeting, it is the best paying IRA event of the season. It is also a pleasure to have the IRA on hand to sanction the race. Many thanks to the Knoxville drivers who supported the event, as well as drivers from around the area including the likes of Mark Dobmeier and Jake Peters. It was also great to see the First Lady of sprint car racing, Erin Crocker, on hand at CLS along with NASCAR's Ray Evernham. All in all, it's just a fantastic evening each and every year at the Jerry Richert Memorial. I hope CLS sticks with the same format for next year and invites the UMSS 360 sprints back along with the vintage cars. The vintage cars are a perfect fit for this event, especially their super mod class. Many sprint car personalities ventured over to their part of the pit area to look at the super modified cars of yesteryear. Ricci Lepinski told me he had several of them come up and say they remembered when they started racing in those types of cars back in the 1960s-1970s era. Fun stuff!

Cogratulations Brooke, Joe, and Jerry on your win!!!

Ken Netsch

Thanks Ken!! Boy was I happy and Boy was I sad! Brooke driving our car was a thrill and an Honor. Seeing Jerry in that beautiful 81 car was like a step back in time to all those years of success. I had hoped for better luck for him. It seems another year of troubles at his Dad's memorial. Like me at my dads--- Oh well, Next year He and I will get er done!!! I know it in my heart we can do it.We need Lady Luck to smile on us !!! I need to make sure Brooke is there to motivate him. They keep talking about the sub belt having to be adjusted-----what ever that meant.

Joe

You guys were awesome. What kind of steroids did you guys feed that #63 car? I've seen it fast like that a few times before so I guess every now and then that machine hooks up and goes like h*ll.

Stan Meissner

Stan, I have to agree with that. It was like Winters was in June. What a great night. We left Champlin at about 3:30 in pouring rain. I figured with my luck it would be a rainout... Turned out to be an awesome night.

Congratulations to Brooke for nearly 2 A main wins... It was truly a great show and having the UMSS guys there was awesome as well. It was my first time seeing them, but will catch them again, no doubt.

Thank you to all for putting on such a great show!

From user "Movie Maker" at the IRA message board:

http://www.irasprints.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=312

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cedar lake Movies