The Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midget Auto Racing Association came into Sunday's race at Angell Park Speedway with high hopes. Thanks to rainouts and a scheduled break, the club had not fired cars in nearly a month when Luke Wackerlin took the checkers on June 30. The forecast of scattered showers put everyone on edge. It was an especially important race as Badger fans, friends and family came from both coasts to witness the first induction class of the newly formed Badger Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame. After the ceremony everyone was looking forward to seeing Badger's cars in action for this Racer's Reunion event.
QUALIFYING
Derek Doerr beat Todd Kluever out by .001 of a second to take the FIVEone Motorsports Fast Time Award to start the night for Badger.
The threat of rain caused some teams to stay home. With 28 cars in the pits the Madison Extinguisher Service Last Chance Qualifier race was not run. The VMS Rod Ends Heat 4 was not necessary either.
THE HEATS
Auto Meter Heat 1, saw Chris Adrien of Joliet, IL jump out to the lead from the pole position. Parker Jones was already charging from the back row and by the time they got to turn-four, Jones blew by Adrien, took the lead and never looked back enroute to a convincing win.
Mike Unger launched from the pole at the drop of the green and paced the first lap of Simpson Race Products Heat 2. He drifted high in the second turn on lap-two allowing Aaron Muhle to take the point. At the half-way stage of the race Matt Rechek had the lead while Muhle was fighting with Kluever, Kyle Stark and a Daniel Robinson. Rechek had a right to feel comfortable as they took the white flag. However as those behind him battled, Stark came down and made contact with Robinson, sending Stark into a spin and bringing out the caution flag.
The restart saw Cale Coon now in the transfer spot as they readied for the green, white, checker finish. This time with one to go, Kluever was on Rechek's tail and Stark was working his way up to a transfer spot. In the end, Kluever powered by Rechek on the last corner while Stark went from last to fourth to make the A-Main.
Behling Racing Equipment Heat 3 had Harrison Kleven lead the first couple of circuits before Brandon Waelti took over and dominated to the end. Point leader Cody Weisensel battled from the nineth starting spot to earn a transfer.
B-MAIN
The High Performance Lubricants B-Main is all about getting into the top seven and advancing to the Lyco Manufacturing A-Main. Colton Anderson and Coon battled from the front early. Eventually Coon enjoyed a sizable lead. As the race progressed, fast qualifier Doerr, who had issues in his heat, came charging into second position with Aaron Fiscus equally comfortable in third.
The contest came down to the coveted last transfer spot. Here, Eric Blumer, Jake Goeglein and Mike Unger went three wide in the first corner. As they shook out coming to the checkers, Goeglein was safe while Blumer just nipped Unger for seventh.
A-MAIN
Lyco Manufacturing Inc. Feature was led by Waelti and Adam Taylor occupying the front row. When the green dropped the duo went side by side at full speed. Jones was on Waelti's tail. On about lap-three, as they went into the first corner Jones caught the tail tank of Taylor sending the Indiana driver into the wall backwards and hard. The red flag came out. Taylor did get out of the car on his own.
Waelti took of on the restart and had a good lead as laps ticked down. Just when Jones got some momentum and was onto the #3 car, the yellow came out due to an entanglement with Trey Weishoff and Jack Routson in turn-four. Weishoff was having a career night running in about the sixth spot at the time. Both were done for the night.
The restart had Waelti ahead of Jones, Robinson, Wackerlin, Stark and Doerr who started started seventeenth. When they took off, Waelti fought a charge from Jones then Robinson was on Jones. Another yellow came out for debris with 15 laps to go.
With about 14 to go, Jones ran past Waelti and started checking out. "The Blue Mounds Bullet," eventually started picking off the back of the pack and by the time he was done with his dominating run, only eight cars were on the lead lap. Wackerlin finished a distant second ahead of Waelti.
In Bank of Sun Prairie Victory Lane, Jones got right to the point in the interview and apologized to Taylor and his Fushion Engineering team taking responsibility for the contact early in the race. He went on to thank his crew and compliment the level of competition in the BMARA.
NOTES
Adam Taylor reported he was pretty sore Monday morning and the car is in tough shape. To paraphrase, he agrees with Jones' assessment of the contact.
Wackerlin took Spankins Motorsports Rookie of the Race honors.
Doerr earned ASM Performance Bob Tattersall Hard Charger award gaining 12 spots on the feature to end up fifth.
In Loving Memory of Addison Dahlke, Goeglein received the Last Place Bonus.
Kluever took the Schoenfeld Headers Invert Draw Award.
The Hammers Auto Service shop Midwest Engine Service Hard Luck Award was not available at press time,
There was a steady flow of former drivers at Angell Park on Sunday including newly minted Badger Hall of Famer Dan Boorse. Dave and Davey Ray were there to honor John Heisdorf and the rest of the inductees, as was Chris "Critter" Malone. Sprint car king Steve Kinser was there in support of his late father in law, Owen Snyder. Former drivers Bill Berg, Ken and Jason Dull, John Bakken, Doug Schenck, Bob Walldan, Skip Norton, Dwight Stefan, Todd Thelen and Robbie Ray were all spotted during the event.
Vintage open wheel cars were on display and most ran on the track during intermission. Among the pilots were Badger Official Bill Bollig in his sprint car and his brother, a former official, Chuck in his 2x4 midget.
But for a couple of sprinkles that never stalled the show, the predicted precipitation stayed away.
The clay of Angell Park Speedway was in fine shape all night, without any reworking or dust.
The AFS Badger Midgets will be in action this Saturday, August 3, Sycamore Speedway.
COMPLETE RESULTS
Advanced Fastening Supply A - Feature (25 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones[5]; 2. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[4]; 3. 3W-Brandon Waelti[1]; 4. 57A-Daniel Robinson[7]; 5. 20D-Derek Doerr[17]; 6. 2-Kyle Stark[3]; 7. 38-Matt Rechek[8]; 8. 20-Cody Weisensel[14]; 9. 24M-Aaron Muhle[12]; 10. 17-Nick Kilian[9]; 11. 68-Eric Blumer[22]; 12. 7F-Aaron Fiscus[18]; 13. 29-Harrison Kleven[13]; 14. 6B-Nathan Crane[19]; 15. 51-Colton Anderson[20]; 16. (DNF) 63-Cale Coons[16]; 17. (DNF) 45-Trey Weishoff[10]; 18. (DNF) 57B-Jack Routson[15]; 19. (DNF) 5X-Adam Taylor[2]; 20. (DNF) 55-Todd Kluever[6]; 21. (DNF) 5K-Kevin Douglas[11]; 22. (DNS) 8-Jake Goeglein
High Performance Lubricants B - Feature (10 Laps): 1. 63-Cale Coons[2]; 2. 20D-Derek Doerr[10]; 3. 7F-Aaron Fiscus[3]; 4. 6B-Nathan Crane[4]; 5. 51-Colton Anderson[1]; 6. 8-Jake Goeglein[5]; 7. 68-Eric Blumer[7]; 8. 67U-Mike Unger[8]; 9. 59-Kyle Koch[6]; 10. 3A-Chris Adrien[9]; 11. (DNS) 51C-Brok Clifcorn; 12. (DNS) 53-Aaron Schuck; 13. (DNS) 40JR-Dave Collins Jr
Auto Meter Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones[8]; 2. 5X-Adam Taylor[7]; 3. 57B-Jack Routson[9]; 4. 5K-Kevin Douglas[4]; 5. 17-Nick Kilian[5]; 6. 7F-Aaron Fiscus[6]; 7. 59-Kyle Koch[3]; 8. 3A-Chris Adrien[1]; 9. (DNS) 51C-Brok Clifcorn
Madison Extinguisher Service Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 55-Todd Kluever[8]; 2. 38-Matt Rechek[5]; 3. 24M-Aaron Muhle[3]; 4. 2-Kyle Stark[7]; 5. 57A-Daniel Robinson[6]; 6. 63-Cale Coons[4]; 7. 8-Jake Goeglein[2]; 8. 67U-Mike Unger[1]; 9. (DNS) 53-Aaron Schuck
Behlings Race Products Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 3W-Brandon Waelti[6]; 2. 45-Trey Weishoff[4]; 3. 29-Harrison Kleven[1]; 4. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[7]; 5. 20-Cody Weisensel[9]; 6. 51-Colton Anderson[2]; 7. 6B-Nathan Crane[5]; 8. 68-Eric Blumer[3]; 9. (DNF) 20D-Derek Doerr[8]
FiveOne Motorsports Fast Time Schoenfeld Qualifying (50 Laps): 1. 20D-Derek Doerr, 00:14.622[25]; 2. 55-Todd Kluever, 00:14.623[14]; 3. 41-Parker Jones, 00:14.720[16]; 4. 73W-Luke Wackerlin, 00:14.781[2]; 5. 2-Kyle Stark, 00:14.993[24]; 6. 5X-Adam Taylor, 00:15.004[10]; 7. 3W-Brandon Waelti, 00:15.051[22]; 8. 57A-Daniel Robinson, 00:15.063[27]; 9. 7F-Aaron Fiscus, 00:15.141[9]; 10. 6B-Nathan Crane, 00:15.183[13]; 11. 38-Matt Rechek, 00:15.214[8]; 12. 17-Nick Kilian, 00:15.375[19]; 13. 45-Trey Weishoff, 00:15.376[12]; 14. 63-Cale Coons, 00:15.568[20]; 15. 5K-Kevin Douglas, 00:15.575[18]; 16. 68-Eric Blumer, 00:15.673[21]; 17. 24M-Aaron Muhle, 00:15.949[5]; 18. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr, 00:16.018[1]; 19. 51-Colton Anderson, 00:16.048[11]; 20. 8-Jake Goeglein, 00:16.116[4]; 21. 59-Kyle Koch, 00:16.185[23]; 22. 29-Harrison Kleven, 00:16.216[7]; 23. 67U-Mike Unger, 00:16.411[26]; 24. 51C-Brok Clifcorn, 00:16.989[15]; 25. 3A-Chris Adrien, 00:17.437[17]; 26. (DNS) 20-Cody Weisensel, 00:17.437; 27. (DNS) 57B-Jack Routson, 00:17.437; 28. (DNS) 53-Aaron Schuck, 00:17.437
Photo by Roy Ophime Photography
Article by Bill Blumer Jr.
- William Blumer on Jul 29, 2024
- Article Date: 7/29/2024