By Quinn McCabe
September 6, 2021- Sun Prairie, WI–. Angell Park Speedway is back! After a season of COVID not allowing competition, 2021 raised questions and concerns about the track’s future. The McKarns family, led by Gregg and Angie jumped in to save the day in late March. Fans and competitors alike have been inspired by the massive crowds returning right alongside the large field of cars. Eighty-five total cars packed the pits for the annual season send-off party, The Fireman’s Nationals.
The Badger Midgets capped off their final doubleheader of the season on Sunday. Thirty-Five Midgets rolled through the gate to test their luck on the historic 1/3rd mile oval. Tyler Baran led things off with quick time in Schoenfeld Headers qualifying. Harrison Kleven then ramped things up a bit by picking up his first checkers of the season with the win in the Madison Extinguisher Service Non-Qualifier race. Heat races went to Thomas Meseraull in the Behlings Race Equipment Heat #1, Andy Baugh in the Simpson Race Products Heat #2, and after rolling his primary car a few weeks ago at Angell Park Speedway, Jeremy Douglas took his new machine to victory lane in the Auto Meter Heat #3 for the first time.
Beaver Dam’s Aaron Muhle took the checkers in the High-Performance Lubricants B-Main to advance, following him into the A-Main was Kyle Stark, Patrick Ryan, Jake Dohner, Kurt Mayhew, and Derek Doerr. Stark was unable to fire off for the A-Main which moved Charlie Kunz into the 24th and final starting position.
Andy Baugh and two-time Fireman’s Nationals champion Scott Hatton would lead the field to green for the 25 lap main event. Baugh grabbed the early advantage and ran for the hills. He built up a straightaway advantage and had begun lapping the tail end of the field when the yellow flew for the first time. With the yellow waving, it allowed the field to erase Baugh’s big advantage and would position San Jose California’s Thomas Messeraull right on his tail tank. Meseraull, fresh off a strong second-place finish in the USAC portion of the show, used what he learned in that race to charge from his eighth-place starting spot to challenge Baugh. On the restart, Baugh’s 6B machine slipped allowing T-Mez to take a look to the outside. Drawing even down the backstretch, T-Mez claimed the lead. A lap later Baugh would bring out the red flag for a rollover when his brake caliper locked up. Zach Boden would now be in line to challenge T-Mez. On the restart with the hard-charging Cody Weisensel up from 11th and Jeff Zelinski up from 9th into the mix as well. When they went back green, Meseraull left no doubt on the table and there was nothing Boden and the field could do but watch him drive off into the distance en route to his second Badger win of the season at Angell Park. The battle for 2nd produced some amazing action as Zelinski slipped by Weisensel and Boden to claim second, Weisensel, Boden, and Adam Taylor rounded out the top five. Derek Doerr was the hard charger of the night moving up fourteen spots to finish with a top 10. With just two races remaining in the 2021 season, the next stop is the Plymouth Dirt Track on September 11 and the season-ending championship event will be Saturday, September 18th at Shadyhill Speedway in Medaryville, Indiana. This will mark the first visit to Indiana for the Badger Midgets in years.
Stay connected by visiting BMARA.com or the BMARA Racing Facebook page for additional announcements and information regarding events for the 2021 season.
Howard Law Cash Draw Winner: Dave Collins Jr
Badger Midget Series Points: 1. Chase McDermand 1791; 2. Zach Boden 1187; 3. Lamont Critchett 1138 4. Kyle Stark 1041; 5. Andy Baugh 958; 6. Kevin Olson 950; 7. Mike Stroik 863; 8. Kevin Douglas 827; 9. Kyle Koch 77; 10. Cody Weisensel 718.
Badger Midgets 35 Entries
Lap Leaders: Andy Baugh 1-13, Thomas Meseraull 14-25
A Feature 25 Laps
1. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[8]; 2. 15Z-Jeff Zelinski[9]; 3. 20-Cody Weisensel[11]; 4. 51-Zach Boden[3]; 5. 5X-Adam Taylor[6]; 6. 55-Todd Kluever[4]; 7. 15C-RJ Corson[12]; 8. 24M-Aaron Muhle[19]; 9. 6-Jeremy Douglas[15]; 10. 20D-Derek Doerr[24]; 11. 5K-Kevin Douglas[18]; 12. 42-Kevin Battefeld[14]; 13. 23-Patrick Ryan[21]; 14. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[16]; 15. 27-Charles Kunz; 16. 21K-Kurt Mayhew[23]; 17. 87-Jake Dohner[22]; 18. 11T-Tyler Baran[10]; 19. 6B-Andy Baugh[1]; 20. 11N-Nick Baran[7]; 21. 14-Lamont Critchett[5]; 22. 3-Justin Grant[17]; 23. 1-Scott Hatton[2]; 24. 71-Kyle Koch[13]; 25. (DNS) 2-Kyle Stark
B Feature | High-Performance Lubricants
1. 24M-Aaron Muhle[2]; 2. 2-Kyle Stark[1]; 3. 23-Patrick Ryan[3]; 4. 87-Jake Dohner[8]; 5. 21K-Kurt Mayhew[4]; 6. 20D-Derek Doerr[7]; 7. 27-Charles Kunz[10]; 8. 3A-Chris Adrien[6]; 9. 29-Harrison Kleven[9]; 10. 8-Jake Goeglein[12]; 11. 76-Mike Unger[11]; 12. 28-Jim Fuerst[5]; 13. 4-Brad Hensen[14]; 14. 92-Dan Kleven[13]; 15. 39-Dwight Stefan[15]
Heat 3 | Auto Meter
1. 6-Jeremy Douglas[1]; 2. 55-Todd Kluever[6]; 3. 1-Scott Hatton[5]; 4. 71-Kyle Koch[2]; 5. 11T-Tyler Baran[8]; 6. 11N-Nick Baran[7]; 7. 2-Kyle Stark[9]; 8. 21K-Kurt Mayhew[3]; 9. 20D-Derek Doerr[4]
Heat 2 | Simpson Race Products
1. 6B-Andy Baugh[5]; 2. 3-Justin Grant[9]; 3. 51-Zach Boden[6]; 4. 15Z-Jeff Zelinski[8]; 5. 5X-Adam Taylor[7]; 6. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[1]; 7. 24M-Aaron Muhle[3]; 8. 28-Jim Fuerst[4]; 9. 87-Jake Dohner[2]
Heat 1 | Behlings Racing Equipment
1. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[8]; 2. 20-Cody Weisensel[5]; 3. 14-Lamont Critchett[7]; 4. 15C-RJ Corson[3]; 5. 5K-Kevin Douglas[9]; 6. 42-Kevin Battefeld[2]; 7. 23-Patrick Ryan[4]; 8. 3A-Chris Adrien[6]
Non Qualifier | Madison Extinguisher Service
1. 29-Harrison Kleven[7]; 2. 27-Charles Kunz[5]; 3. 76-Mike Unger[4]; 4. 8-Jake Goeglein[3]; 5. 92-Dan Kleven[2]; 6. 4-Brad Hensen[1]; 7. 39-Dwight Stefan[8]
Qualifying | Schoenfeld Headers
1. 11T-Tyler Baran, 15.358[7]; 2. 15Z-Jeff Zelinski, 15.389[6]; 3. 7X-Thomas Meseraull, 15.555[26]; 4. 11N-Nick Baran, 15.718[14]; 5. 5X-Adam Taylor, 15.840[22]; 6. 14-Lamont Critchett, 15.862[18]; 7. 55-Todd Kluever, 15.870[24]; 8. 51-Zach Boden, 15.900[13]; 9. 3A-Chris Adrien, 15.900[1]; 10. 1-Scott Hatton, 15.951[12]; 11. 6B-Andy Baugh, 16.066[35]; 12. 20-Cody Weisensel, 16.066[32]; 13. 20D-Derek Doerr, 16.131[16]; 14. 28-Jim Fuerst, 16.256[4]; 15. 23-Patrick Ryan, 16.261[5]; 16. 21K-Kurt Mayhew, 16.279[25]; 17. 24M-Aaron Muhle, 16.293[21]; 18. 15C-RJ Corson, 16.305[30]; 19. 71-Kyle Koch, 16.314[15]; 20. 87-Jake Dohner, 16.342[19]; 21. 42-Kevin Battefeld, 16.354[23]; 22. 6-Jeremy Douglas, 16.363[11]; 23. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr, 16.370[17]; 24. 77-Ken Hanson, 16.444[8]; 25. 2-Kyle Stark, 16.462[20]; 26. 3-Justin Grant, 16.523[9]; 27. 5K-Kevin Douglas, 16.530[28]; 28. 29-Harrison Kleven, 16.539[27]; 29. 31-Shay Sassano, 16.604[33]; 30. 27-Charles Kunz, 16.616[3]; 31. 76-Mike Unger, 16.690[2]; 32. 8-Jake Goeglein, 16.916[29]; 33. 92-Dan Kleven, 17.053[34]; 34. 4-Brad Hensen, 17.192[31]; 35. 39-Dwight Stefan, 19.238[10]