Etchie Biertzer carries the checkered flag signifying his victory in the
50-lap championship at Hales Corner Speedway.
Franklin, Wis. (September 17, 1960) – Saturday night action at Hales Corner Speedway provided fans with an abundance of racing thrills. Edwin “Etchie” Biertzer of Barton won the 50-lap championship and Greg Krieger of Milwaukee set a new one-lap record in time trials.
The victory was an important one for Biertzer as he earned 300 points towards his season championship standings. Those 300 points, coupled with the 55 points he earned by being third fastest in time trials, moved him 10 points ahead of Miles Melius of Slinger. Biertzer had trailed Melius by 345 points going into the evening’s action. His 10-point lead was earned when Melius failed to appear because of apparent car trouble.
Feature action was stopped twice because of accidents. The first occurred on the fifth lap when Linus Peters of West Bend spun out and caused an eight-car tangle which blocked the west turn.
Norbie Klemp of Fredonia, who had been leading from the first lap, maintained the lead on the restart and held it until the ninth go-round when he spun completely around. He immediately got back into the race, dropping back to second, and giving the lead to John Reimer of Caledonia.
All went smoothly until the field came around for the completion of lap 12. A seven-car entanglement occurred when Arron Solsrud of Brookfield spun, collecting Ken Tiougan and Bill Schwister, both of Milwaukee. Bob Karry of Lake Villa, Ill., driving hard into the corner, hit several of the stalled cars and literally “dove” over them, continuing. However, Karry’s car, having suffered a broken spindle, flipped over one complete time on the west turn, bringing out the red flag.
Schwister performed a remarkable job of coming back to finish fourth in the event. After the second restart, he found himself one lap down but in the remaining 37 laps managed to unlap himself (passing leader Reimer) and charged through the field to finish fourth, less than an 1/8 of a lap behind Biertzer.
As it turned out, the race was a four-car battle for the top spot between Reimer, Biertzer, Klemp, and Billy Johnson of Oconomowoc, from the 32nd lap on, and when Schwister moved into fifth on lap 47, it became a five-way tussle.
Biertzer took over the lead from Reimer on lap 42 and on the 44th circuit, Johnson moved into second. Klemp also got by Reimer for third and Schwister took Reimer for the fourth spot on the white flag lap.
Biertzer’s average speed of 55.62 miles per hour failed to establish a new record because of the accidents. The top five positions all finished within a 1/8 lap of each other and proved to be one of the most competitive 50-lapper seen in quite a while.
Schwister had turned in two record breaking performances in time trials when he shattered the then existing record (17.48 seconds) turning 17.40 and 17.44-seconds on his qualifying runs. Krieger, however, came back to put his name in the record book with a time of 17.35 seconds, for a lap speed of 60.52 miles per hour. Krieger broke an axle in the main event and placed 14th in the final rundown.
Results –
1. Etchie Biertzer, Barton
2. Billy Johnson, Oconomowoc
3. Norbie Klemp, Fredonia
4. Billy Schwister, Milwaukee
5. John Reimer, Caledonia
6. Paul Feldner, Colgate
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