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A Tribute to the Career of Jerry Richert by GRP

Researched and written by Greg R. Parent with special thanks to Jerry Richert, Jr. for his help and for providing photos from his family's collection. Special acknowledgement goes to Stan Meissner for his help in uploading this article and the photos on his Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Website. Thanks Stan!

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Jerry Richert Sr. standing beside an early Modified Stock Car

Jerry Richert...The Rim Riding Golden Gopher (A Look Back at a True Minnesota Champion) by GRP.

Back in the days when brave men manhandled dirt-slinging, open-wheeled, open-cockpit big cars on warm summer afternoons around our nation's dirt tracks, a young lad from Forest Lake, Minnesota began his racing career. By the time the sun had set on his racing days, Jerry Richert had amassed well over one hundred feature wins, four IMCA National Championships, and a lifetime of memorable moments to highlight a brilliant and illustrious drive into the annals of sprint car racing history.

In 1953, Jerry began his racing career running in the local stock car class at his uncle's Stillwater Speedbowl located between Stillwater and Lake Elmo in Baytown Township. As the 1950s wore on, Jerry continued racing stocks and later super stocks (modifieds) at various Twin City area speedplants such as Twin City Speedway and Cedar Lake Speedway in cars with colorful names such as the Black Duece. As Jerry once stated, he spent a little more time in the stocks than he should have, but at age 25 he finally moved into the sprint car ranks in 1958 on the tough IMCA fair circuit. IMCA and USAC were at the pinnacle of the sport at the time. As fierce rivals in the sanctioning body business, each group had some of the best drivers in the nation. If you wanted to race against the best, you needed to run with one of the two. IMCA was the route to go. Success was not immediate for Jerry, but his exciting "rim riding" style along with a calculating and patient mindset began to showcase his talents. It was better to finish races and live to race again for victory on another day rather than crash and burn. There were no roll cages and no wings on these machines! Racing helmets were open-faced and generally did not provide a great deal of protection. Jerry knew when to push it and when to back off. The "steer and stab" driving style of the times was not for Jerry Richert. He was destined to become a champion.

Jerry's first IMCA win did however come in his rookie year in the sprints, as he drove the Auto Repair Service #63 to a victory at Hutchinson, Minnesota on September 7, 1958. Although the 1959 and 1960 seasons did not produce any IMCA victories, Jerry continued to learn the tracks, study his competition, and perfect his driving abilities while at the helm of the Auto Repair Service car. In 1961, Jerry got the ride in the potent #69 Bill McDonald Offy. During his three year tenure in this powerful machine, Richert compiled 17 IMCA feature wins but did not claim any national championships (3rd place in the points was his best finish during the 1962 season). When the IMCA schedule allowed, Jerry still continued to run many local area races in the supermodified division throughout the 1960s. It was at one such race that he etched his name in the record books at what would become one of the top sprint car tracks in the country. Driving Ted Ready's lightweight "Offy Killer" Chevy-powered supermodified, Jerry won the 2nd Annual Knoxville National Championship. Jerry is the only Minnesotan (so far) to win this prestigious race, placing his name along side of some of sprint car racing's best over the years.

Still searching for his first IMCA national title though, Richert switched to the Frank Wagner ride in 1964. Along with co-owners Les Johnson and John Wilson, the Bill Brower wrenched WJW sprinter was top-notch all the way. Jerry went on to win 14 IMCA features along with 7 runnerup finishes and garnered his first IMCA National Championship crown. Coming on board the Wagner team in 1965, fellow Minnesotan Jerry "Scratch" Daniels became Richert's teammate for a season. The Wagner team decided to give the USAC circuit a try in the beginning of the 1965 campaign in a car purchased from A. J. Foyt. The team made the long weekend hauls to the Indiana-Ohio based USAC stomping grounds. Meeting with various mechanical gremlins, little success and finally getting fed up with the "politics" involved, Jerry and the team decided to come back and try for a second IMCA title. The only problem, it was now July 24 and the IMCA fair circuit was in full swing. Having missed several races already, Richert accomplished an amazing feat. With Bill McDonald now turning the wrenches, Jerry started off with a win at Minot, ND and just kept on winning, eventually amassing 11 feature victories along with several second and third place finishes. Yes, Jerry Richert had done what many had thought impossible. He had spotted his competitors a lead, overcame the deficit, and went on the claim his second straight IMCA national title!

The strong performances continued in the Wagner-Johnson STP #63 Chevy, as Richert looked to complete the "hat-trick" by winning his third straight IMCA National Championship in 1966. Racing against many of the best in the US, this would be a formible task. Bolstered by yet another 11 win season and coupled with 4 seconds and 4 thirds, The Rim Riding Golden Gopher's quest was realized. Jerry was in the midst of emblazoning his name into the IMCA record books along side of such greats as Gus Schrader, Emory Collins, Frank Luptow, Bobby Grim and Pete Folse. A bit of a blip during the 1967 season saw Karl Busson end Jerry's streak at three. Jerry did win 6 features, but it was not enough. He finished 2nd in the overall point standings. JR was back with a vengeance in 1968 though, as he won 9 IMCA features on his way to winning his fourth National Championship! The 1969 season was not a good one for the Frank Wagner team. Richert only managed one victory and fell to 18th in the point standings while competing in only about a third of the races. Jerry came back strong in 1970 by winning 6 times. But once again, he came up one spot short in the national point standings while watching his long-time rival and fellow competitor Jerry Blundy take top honors. Jerry Richert won two more IMCA features during the 1971 season in the Wagner Chevy. Frank Wagner retired as a car owner at the end of the 1971 tour thus ending an extremely successful pairing. Jerry Richert's last IMCA win came at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on August 22, 1971.

The once-mighty IMCA organization was starting to show signs of coming apart in 1972. Many weekly tracks were flourishing and keeping their drivers at home for the most part. The fair races were also dwindling in numbers. IMCA slowly faded from sprint car prominence during the next three years (1972-1974). Times were indeed changing! The cars now had roll cages, they were getting lighter, faster and more expensive to operate. Jerry started to race locally on a more regular basis once again and no longer followed the IMCA circuit. He was the Cedar Lake Speedway supermodified point champion in 1971 and finished second to Dave Skari in the winged sprint car division at North Star Speedway in 1972 while driving for Dennis Wagner. From 1973 through 1977, Jerry found himself in various rides including Denny Vick's #63 and Tom Wilke's #87. Wins were harder to come by now, as the young lions of the 1970s were eager, aggressive and often times had stout equipment. Of particular interest, Jerry spent several races in the DaBruzzi #22 sprinter and actually claimed a feature win in the car at North Starr Speedway in May of 1978. Three years later in 1981, his son (Jerry, Jr.) claimed his very first win in the same car at Centuria, Wisconsin! Like father, like son.

Teaming up again with Ted Ready in June of 1978, Jerry finished out his stellar career at the helm of the orange #62 sprinter over the course of the following eight seasons. Winning at tracks such as North Starr (twice in 1979), Jackson, Spencer, and Husets, Jerry still had the desire and the fire to keep driving. A wild ride in the #62 sprinter at the Cheaters Day race in Sioux Falls, SD on October 6, 1985 changed that desire though. In his long and storied racing career, Jerry Richert had never sustained any significant injuries. Although the wild gilhooly knocked him unconsious for several moments, JR walked away from the crash but decided to call it a career at the end of the 1985 season. In his early days of racing, when men met the grim reaper with unfortunate regularity, Jerry had survived and prospered. It was now time to let the sun set on his career and watch his son continue on the family sprint car racing tradition. Jerry Richert never raced again, but his accomplishments in the sport of sprint car racing will be forever remembered. He remained a living legend right up until The Good Lord waved the final checkered flag on his storied career and life in November of 1998. Jerry Richert, The Rim Riding Golden Gopher from Minnesota, will always be a sprint car racing champion!

Summary of Jerry Richert's IMCA Sprint Car Racing Career Highlights:

1958 - 1 win, 0 2nds, 0 3rds, 30th in points

1959 - 0 wins, 1 2nd, 2 3rds, 14th in points

1960 - 0 wins, 2 2nds, 1 3rd, 11th in points

1961 - 4 wins, 2 2nds, 2 3rds, 4th in points

1962 - 11 wins, 3 2nds, 4 3rds, 3rd in points

1963 - 2 wins, 4 2nds, 2 3rds, 7th in points

1964 - 14 wins, 7 2nds, 4 3rds, 1st in points

1965 - 11 wins, 4 2nds, 2 3rds, 1st in points

1966 - 11 wins, 4 2nds, 4 3rds, 1st in points

1967 - 6 wins, 4 2nds, 4 3rds, 2nd in points

1968 - 9 wins, 5 2nds, 2 3rds, 1st in points

1969 - 1 win, 0 2nds, 2 3rds, 18th in points

1970 - 6 wins, 3 2nds, 0 3rds, 2nd in points

1971 - 2 wins, 3 2nds, 1 3rd, 12th in points

1972-1974 - Jerry did not race full time with IMCA.

IMCA Career Totals = 78 wins, 42 2nds, 30 3rds, All-time career points leader.

Additional notes:

As previously mentioned, the first documented sprint car feature win came on September 7, 1958 at the McLeod County Fair at Hutchinson, MN. Jerry topped Vern Chamberlain, Marvin Faw, A.J. Shephard and Glen Anderson in the Frank Winkley promoted event. The last documented sprint car feature win came on August 21, 1983 at Husets Speedway near Brandon, SD. It was only fitting that Jerry "rode the rim" the entire race to capture the feature event besting the likes of Keith Frantsen, John Stevenson, Jack McCorkell, Marv DeWall, TJ Giddings, Todd Mack, Randy Droescher, Dean Ward, and Linus Mack in the process.