From Justin Zoch
He started outside row one and led every lap of the 25-lap feature event but the box score does not even begin to tell how hard Scott Biertzer worked en route to his second career IRA Sprint Car win on Friday night at Cedar Lake Speedway.
The West Bend, Wisconsin, racer blasted by polesitter Bill Balog down the backstretch on lap one and maintained the top spot through a lap three yellow for a spin by Phillip Mock and a lap eight red flag for a series of backstretch barrel rolls by Nick Alden. With each stoppage, Brooke Tatnell worked his way closer and close to the lead from his eighth starting spot.
The Cedar Lake surface, beat hard by heat and wind all day, finally began to turn black towards the twenty lap mark and as Biertzer worked his way around the lapped cars, Tatnell closed the gap with each lap. With just a handful of laps remaining, Biertzer made contact with the lapped car of Scott Uttech, who nearly careened into Tatnell.
The white flag flew and the large crowd, obviously rooting for the underdog Biertzer, followed the top two around the track and exploded when Biertzer grabbed the win, his first at IRA. “I can’t believe we just won the Masters,” exclaimed Biertzer in victory lane before climbing atop the wing to soak in the cheers. Tatnell settled for second while Bill Balog, Mike Reinke and first time Cedar Lake starter Jim Moughan rounded out the fastest five.
Heats for the 29 cars went to Reinke, Tatnell and Kris Spitz while Bill Warren scored the B-feature. Osborne and Sons Trucking qualifications were canceled and drivers used a passing point system to determine lineups throughout the evening. Heat action saw Davey Heskin and Rob Kubli each make hard contact with the concrete in turn two. Both were uninjured but finished for the night.
The IRA Sprints return to Cedar Lake Speeday for night two of the Masters on Saturday night, June 19, 2010.
FULL RESULTS TO FOLLOW SHORTLY
Masters Weekend Night Number 1
25-lap A-Feature
1. Scott Biertzer, 2. Brooke Tatnell, 3. Bill Balog, 4. Mike Reinke, 5. Jim Moughan, 6. Travis Whitney, 7. John Sernett, 8. Bill Wirth, 9. John Haeni, 10. Scott Neitzel,
Heats: Mike Reinke, Brooke Tatnell and Kris Spitz
Behling Racing Products B-main: Bill Warren