Reinke Leads Wire to Wire to Take Jerry Richert Memorial

New Richmond, WI
9/10/2006
Cedar Lake Speedway welcomed back a great crowd after a weekend off from racing to remember and salute a driving legend at the Jerry Richert Memorial.  The cool temperatures that fell upon the area were not enough to keep these great fans and drivers away from some great sprint car racing here at the Cedar Lake Speedway.  36 sprint cars from the IRA, NOSA, and Knoxville sprints filled the field at the 5th annual challenge and Jerry Richert Memorial as well as 29 DTRA Midwest Modifieds came ready to compete with 9 of the top 10 in the DTRA national points on hand to try to claim their stake at the points lead before heading into the season finale DTRA 100 next week here at the Cedar Lake Speedway.  With some fantastic sponsors offering tons of bonuses.  The sprint cars were rewarded for many things including winning a heat, leading a feature lap, to total purse.  Every lap of every race was intense all night.  Both the IRA/NOSA/Knoxville 410 sprints cars and the DTRA Midwest Modifieds put on some fast heat races to lead us up to our features.

The first feature to make their way out onto the Cedar Lake Speedway was the DTRA Midwest Modifieds.  Jim Schweitzer and Dane Durbin lead he field to the green from the front row.  Schweitzer used his poll position to his advantage and took the lead on lap 1 and was followed by Durbin and the fast Dan Wheeler from row 2.  Another fast car off the start was Alan Bohlman as he jumped up into fifth behind Andy Jones on lap 3.  Soon after Bohlman was able to move ahead of Jones to fourth a caution flew after a spin in turn 4.  On the restart Durbin made a run at Schweitzer but couldn’t quite get him coming out of turn 2, and while all of this was happening Wheeler took advantage of the battle in front of him and took the lead out of turn 4.  Another caution flew on the next lap as the fourth place car of Bohlman spun in turn 2.  On the following restart Wheeler was able to show his dominance out front and move into a straightaway lead over Durbin.  Schweitzer and Jim White did battle for the third position behind Wheeler and Durbin as the laps clicked down.  Wheeler continued to dominate out front all the way to take the checkered and was followed by Durbin, Schweitzer, White, and Justin Schill.

Next up was the main event, the 5th annual IRA, NOSA, Knoxville 410 Challenge and Jerry Richert Memorial.  Redrawing the front row for the big feature was Donnie Goeden on the inside and Mike Reinke on the outside.  When the green flew Mike Reinke jumped up on the cushion and took the lead out of turn 2, but a breakdown by Dusty Zomer in turn 2 behind the leaders brought out a yellow flag and forced a fresh restart.  On the following restart, Reinke did the same and used the cushion to lead lap 1 over Goeden.  Jerry Richert Jr. used his second row start to jump up into third followed by Wade Nygard in fourth.  As the field began to spread out and Reinke extended his lead, Kerry Madsen took a wild ride as he got upside down on his roof in turn 3 bringing out the red flag.  Madsen did eventually end up on his wheels and was able to walk away ok from the crash.  On the ensuing restart Reinke really flexed his muscle and took off into a straightaway lead over Goeden.  Richert Jr. was right on the rear bumper of Goeden but couldn’t get by him.  On lap 7 as Richert Jr. was trying to come out of turn 2 he got into the outside wall and lost control of his car and turn it over on his roof down the back stretch, a tough ending to the night for Richert Jr. on his father’s memorial.  After the cleanup the field was able retake the green, but not much changed as Reinke took off out front again until another yellow flag on lap 13.  Reinke continued to just shake off the yellow flags and really took off this time and used some lap traffic behind him to move to almost a half lap lead over Goeden by lap 18.  Another breakdown resulted in the yellow flag flying again over the field on lap 20, setting up a 10 lap dash to the checkered.  Lapped traffic starting up front on the restart held up Goeden quite a bit and allowed Reinke to once again take a huge lead over the field.  Goeden was challenged for second by a fast running Mark Dobmier.  Just as it looked like Reinke was finally going to take the checkered, Steve Meyer took the craziest ride of them all as he rolled numerous times down the front stretch on lap 28.  Meyer was ok as he walked away from the wreck ok.  After the cleanup, the field prepared themselves for a green, white, checkered finish.  As he had showed plenty of times Reinke was not fazed by the yellow flag as he took of from the field and took the checkered flag over Dobmier and Goeden.

Check out the website www.cedarlakespeedway.com for track information, upcoming events, news and results.  Also call the toll free number 866-4CLSFUN for directions or race information.  We look forward to seeing you in the grandstand for the next race at the legendary Cedar Lake Speedway.


Results:
DTRA Midwest Mods
Heat 1 winner:  22 Alan Bohlman
Heat 2 winner:  73 Andy Jones
Heat 3 winner:  R1 Dan Wheeler
Feature:  Dan Wheeler, Dane Durbin, Jim Schweitzer, Jim White, Justin Schill, Greg Chesley, Lonnie Louschke, Andy Jones, Bryan Siercks, and Jason Gross.

IRA Sprint Cars
Heat 1 winner: 44 Jason Johnson
Heat 2 winner: 49 Ryan Irwin
Heat 3 winner: 02 Mike Reinke
Feature: Mike Reinke, Mark Dobmeier, Donny Goeden, Kaley Gharst, Travis Whitney, Wade Nygaard, Billy Alley, Scott Neitzel, Todd King, and Dave Uttech