Published: Oct. 30, 2013
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor
Every time West Bend’s Frank Heimerl walks through the
Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame, he remembers many nights of
shooting the breeze until the wee hours of the morning with those already in
the Hall of Fame.
The next time he walks through the museum, it’ll have a new
meaning.
Heimerl is one of 11 people who will be inducted into the
Hall of Fame during a ceremony Saturday at the Wisconsin Auto Museum in
Hartford.
The Hall of Fame has been inducting new members each year
since 2007. Last year, 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion and former
Slinger Nationals winner and track champion Alan Kulwicki was among the
inductees.
Heimerl is now part of a special group of racers at the
short tracks of Wisconsin.
“It’s super great because it’s a place that you go to
respect the veterans (of racing),” Heimerl said. “I’m glad I made it in there.
“It’s a nice place to go and see the history.”
Heimerl, 70, will be inducted with Hartford’s Robert
Ratajczyk, plus Conrad Morgan, Charlie Weddle, Jack Aschenbrenner, Darrell
Dodd, Tom and Jerry Mueller, George Scheffler, Gary Laack and Joe Shear to
bring the total number of inductees to 90.
“I raced with a lot of the drivers that are in there,”
Heimerl said. “A lot of great times; a lot of good times.”
One good time was after a late model race in Plover.
“We shot the breeze until the sun came up,” he said.
Then he realized something. He has to go to work in just a
couple of hours and home was a couple of hours away.
He just barely made it.
“It was just a pile of fun,” Heimerl said.
Heimerl won three track championships in almost 30 years of
racing Wisconsin’s short tracks. He won the Beaver Dam championship in a
modified in 1981 and won two titles at Plymouth in a modified (1983 and 1990).
His racing career began in 1969 after he dabbled with drag
racing. That was the year when former West Bend police officer Ken Johnson told
him to stop doing that so-called racing in a straight line and try his luck
making turns.
Heimerl bought a car from Bob Blank for about $1,000. For
about 10 years, he dazzled area race fans with his no-fear style. As his career
blossomed, he became known as “The West Bender.”
“I just went where there was a track,” Heimerl said.
In the late 1970s, he dreamed of racing at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway.
He started racing with the SCCA in a Corvette, hoping that
was going to be his ticket to get to Indianapolis. What he discovered in just
one season of racing with the SCCA was mind-blowing.
There was no monetary reward for a job well done. It was
just a silver cup or trophy. It didn’t take long for him to realize it was just
an empty cup. Thus it was easy to go back to doing what he knew he was good at
... and got paid for it.
Harry “Schmied” Blank and Etchie Biertzer were two of
Heimerl’s biggest contributors to his racing career.
Blank, a 2010 Hall of Fame inductee, helped him learn the
ropes of racing and was a mastermind with a race car.
“I wish I knew half of what he knew,” Heimerl said. “So many
drivers learned from him. He was a wonderful guy that enjoyed racing, but never
drove a car in his life.”
Biertzer, a 2007 Hall of Fame inductee, was Heimerl’s chief
advisor on his pit crew, following his retirement as a driver in 1982. Biertzer
died in 1984.
Seven years later, Heimerl won a race dedicated to Biertzer,
the Etchie Biertzer Memorial.
“It was very special because Etchie was like King of the
Hill in eastern Wisconsin,” Heimerl said. “He was my toughest competitor and
just a great wonderful guy.”
Biertzer edged Heimerl for the Beaver Dam track championship
in 1980.
Heimerl got into racing for the spirit of competition.
“The challenge of beating the next guy; I loved it,” he said
when asked why he liked racing. “It’s a competitive challenge, but on the other
hand, if I could help someone with something, I’d do it.
“You can’t race by yourself.”
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