Wiedemann Still Owns Turtle Creek Park

(Wauwatosa, WI) -- For the third straight year, John Wiedemann has won the Larry Rotter Memorial Grand Prix, and for a record-breaking fifth time, won the "Open class" race at Turtle Creek Park Raceway, breaking out of tie with the race's namesake and others. It was also the second win of the season for the defending Husarsbilt Cup champion, sweeping the "open class" races for the third straight season. 

The members of the FAST alliance teams were feeling confident after practice and qualifying that they had the machines this "open class" event to take the checkers. Hometown hero Joe Heitz broke up the FAST party, taking his season-leading fourth Firestone P1 Award in qualifying, ahead of the #10 of FAST's Dean Strom and FAST II: The Castaway's Matt Hayek in his #15 Honda-Daboiler qualifying third, with Spehert Global's Dan Margetta and Heitz's Good Vibes Racing teammate Mike Kristof rounding out the top five.

The opening heat saw all three members of CBD Racing, Pete Dorn, Bill Black and Brad Core, line up against FAST's Steve Rist. Early one Rist went to the lead but soon lost the handling, while Dorn kept his #6 Chevrolet-Daboiler on track consistently, with Black and Core struggling. Dorn would hold on for his fourth final four appearance of the season. The other three would finish with Rist, sixth for the night, Black seventh and Core eighth.

Longtime teammates and rivals, John Wiedemann and Mike Lack, along with Mike Kristof and Ev Kamikawa would compete in the second heat race. Wiedemann and Lack would quickly take the point and trade the lead throughout, while Kristof struggled to keep pace with the FAST alliance cars, Kamikawa had an evil handling car that eventually crashed and ended the Hall of Fame drivers evening in ninth. Lack would eventually get ahead of Wiedemann to take the heat win and the bonus point, but obviously JW advanced on the transfer spot, while Kristof would settle for a second straight fifth place finish.

The hometown crowd was feeling a little nervous as Joe Heitz and his Splenda Good Vibes Racing Chevrolet-Daboiler was looking shaky at the start, trailing Dean Strom and Dan Margetta, and Matt Hayek in to his Mobil 1 machine. However, early on Strom took too much throttle over the bridge and launched himself out of the event on the sixth lap, finishing dead last on the evening. This seemed like a good sign for Margetta who took the lead and felt confident that he had the measure of Heitz, but before midpoint, Margetta also would crash hard and end his race on lap 34. That left Heitz with only Hayek to challenge him and it looked like the 15 was headed for a win with a chance to help his fellow FAST alliance driver Mike Lack keep his closest pursuer out of the final, but deep in to the second half, the Mobil car used the wings it had painted on it to fly into the bridge entrance wall and crash too heavily to return to the track and with that Heitz inherited the ticket to the final.

With Heitz stunned that he was in the final, his focus seemed shaken, while Wiedemann relished the possibility to once again sweep the "open class" races for the season and win at the track he clearly still considers his own. Mike Lack was competitive early on, hoping to make up ground towards the end. Pete Dorn was never a factor and seemed resigned to a fourth place finish, with Heitz well ahead in third. As time ran down Lack did cut into the lead JW had built, but the #9 PNC Bank Honda-Daboiler was no match for Wiedemann's continuing dominance in this format.

With his second win of the season Wiedemann is still within shot of the championship leaders for a chance to defend his third Husarsbilt Cup championship, but he will need help, see the story below. Lack was able to tack on an additional six points to his lead over Heitz heading into the finale. 

The 33rd running of the HO Indy 500 is Saturday, April 18 at South Shore Superspeedway, all the pomp and circumstance that the biggest race of the season deserves will once again determine a championship.

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Championship Battle Goes to the 500

The battle for the Husarsbilt Cup championship will be decided at the 33rd running of the HO Indy 500 at South Shore Superspeedway. Mike Lack looking to add a record-extending eighth title holds a 16 point lead over 2022-23 Champion Joe Heitz and a 39 point lead over defending champ John Wiedemann. The chart below shows the possibilities for the three and how the results at the 500 will determine the final standings. Unlike the other 16 races on the schedule where only the pole-sitter recieves one bonus point, the HO Indy 500 pays points down to 12th in qualifying.

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