By Bill Blumer Jr,
(Sunday, June 2, 2024)
Parker Jones, scored his first Lyco Manufacturing, Inc. feature win of the season and his first at historic Angell Park Speedway in the Fanaktive Three in One Show. He is the reigning Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midget Auto Racing Association, Rookie of the Year and backed up last year’s breakout win at Thunder Hill Speedway.
PRELIMINARY ACTION
It was going to be another tight schedule at Angell Park, with 75 cars equally distributed among the three classes of push-start, open wheel cars in the pits.
In group qualifying, Jones, aka “The Blue Mounds Bullet,” led the way with a fast lap of 15.544, nipping Derek Doerr by less than .02 seconds to take FIVEone Motorsports Fast Time honors.
Auto Meter Heat 1, saw Nick Kilian take the lead from the pole, but that lasted only three-quarters of a lap before six-place starter and fellow Sun Prairie native Brandon Waelti took to the point. Educated fans know that with Badger heats, the real race is for the fifth and final transfer spot. Three laps in, Luke Wackerlin, Mike Unger and rookie, Brok Clifcorn put on a three-wide show for a couple of laps. Once they sorted out, Clifcorn and Kilian battled the last couple of laps for the final transfer position, with Clifcorn locking himself into his first Badger feature. Meanwhile, Waelti scored the win by a straight, over Mitchell Davis.
Doerr took Simpson Race Products Heat 2, with an impressive run, coming from the eighth starting spot. Harrison Kleven paced part of the first lap, before Doerr blew by him en route to a half-straight win over Daniel Robinson.
Behling Race Products Heat 3 went to Jones over Todd Kluever and Cody Weisensel.
FEATURE AND THE CURSE OF LAP-FIVE
With the first feature on the night completed by the MSA Sprint Cars, Badger hustled out to the track, as once again, it looked like the Angell Park show was going to run up against the 10 p.m. curfew.
When the green flew, Waelti took off from his second starting spot and had a comfortable lead over Weisensel and Doerr. Then came lap-five.
Joel Willman was the first to feel the fifth lap’s wrath as he drove over a big berm coming out of turn-four. It upset his car just enough to send him right toward the tractor tires that protect racers from the jersey barriers on the inside of the frontstretch. Willman tagged the tires, sending one flying, while his car went end over end a time or two, coming to a rest beyond the push-off area. Willman walked away.
Once the cars were beginning to be fired off again, a chaotic scene ensued when one of the side by side support vehicles apparently noticed a fire under the hood of Jake Goeglein’s mount as they passed by. That vehicle swung around and frantically tried to stop traffic and elicit fire suppression help. Help did arrive and the flames were put out in short order. The ordeal did bring the field to another complete halt.
With the field rolling once more, the green flew and Waelti took off again, only to have another red flag fly, while the race was still stuck on the fifth circuit. This time, Kyle Stark caught one of the ruts in turn-one, bounced, caught another rut and went over several times. He popped out of the vehicle and appeared to be alright.
When they got going again, Waelti enjoyed several lengths over Doerr. Lapped traffic started playing a big part with about 13 to go. Waelti and Doerr split lappers more than once, with Doerr taking the lead several times, only to have Waelti battle back before the lap was over. At this point, Jones wasn’t even on the radar, running outside the top five.
Not until there were six laps to go did Jones even showed up on the backstretch scoreboard. With three to go, disaster struck for the top two, who were poised to duke it out, as the yellow came out for the stalled car of Trey Weishoff.
The restart had Waelti over Doerr and Jones. Waelti and Doerr went low, Jones took the highside and passed them both. In the last lap and a half he amassed a half straightaway lead for the win over Doerr and Matt Rechek. Waelti faded to eighth.
After the race, Jones had this to say, “I didn’t know where I was running. I dropped back and was having trouble getting around Daniel Robinson and Mitchell Davis. When that last caution came out I was caught by surprise to see I was in third. I thought, ‘Hey I might just have a shot at this thing.’ I couldn’t run the bottom, I was too tight, so I went to the top and just took off.” And with that Jones scored a clean sweep for the night.
It was a special win for Jones as his dad, John, raced with Badger for many years, never taking a feature win. Parker does not recall those days, but when Dad stepped out of the cockpit and became an owner, Parker could be found cleaning the midget every Monday morning to help get it ready for the likes of Davey Ray and Brad Kuhn, two of the Jones Motorsports drivers who did find Victory Lane for the team.
AWARDS ON THE NIGHT
The Madison Extinguisher Service Last Chance Qualifier, VMS Rod Ends Heat 4 and the High Performance Lubricants B-Main were not run at this event.
Goeglein was awarded the Last Place Bonus in Loving memory of Addison Dahlke.
The Advanced Racing Suspensions ASM Performance Bob Tattersall Hard Charger went to Dave Collins Jr.
Luke Wackerlin, on the strength of his impressive fifth place finish (he also qualified fifth fastest), took home the Spankins Motorsports Rookie of the Race.
The sweep was so complete for Jones he even took home the Schoenfeld Headers Invert Draw Award.
The recipient of the Hammers Auto Service Shop and Midwest Engine Service Hard Luck Award was not available at press time.
NEWS AND NOTES:
Brok Clifcorn turned some heads as he performed well in his first ever run in a midget. He traded the Micro he had been running, to a party in Mississippi, for their midget. It was one of those deals where you don’t know what you have until you get on the track. Other than firing it once at home, this was the team’s first chance to really test the car. It looks like the trade was a good one and his Micro experience paid off as Clifcorn finished 14th after starting 24th in the race.
Kyle Stark reports he’s doing fine Monday morning after a nasty turn-one flip. As most onlookers could attest, he caught a rut that sent the car tumbling.
Waelti reported that somewhere around the time of the last restart his right rear wheel spline stripped out, basically not allowing that wheel to spin.
Fans were disappointed, after his epic battle with Waelti at the last Angell Park race, to see Adam Taylor scratched after his heat. Taylor reports either the head or block on his engine obtained a crack. He said the team has a backup and should be ready for next week.
There were some MIA’s on the night including three in the top ten in points, those being Jace Sparks, RJ Corson, Brian Peterson. Among others who were missing was Aaron Muhle who was expected to return after an opening night flip in Kankakee. Just when he thought he might be up for it, he found he was still hurting a bit and felt he needed at least another week of rest.
The Wisconsin wingLESS Sprint Cars hustled out after the Badger feature and completed their main event, beating curfew by two minutes.
During our midweek point update, we’ll try to catch up with Joel Willman and Jake Goeglein.
UP NEXT
The AFS Badger Midget Series is back in action with a doubleheader weekend starting Saturday, June 8, at Sycamore Speedway. This fast 1/3 mile track is Badger’s second home, next to Angell Park. For those who have never been there, Sycamore’s wide track with a bit of banking, allows for three-wide racing throughout a night. For folks coming from Wisconsin, the drive is not as daunting as you might think, mark another track off your list and join us for a fine night of racing.
Then, head back north to Angell Park Speedway where Badger is joined by the Bumper to Bumper IRA Sprint Cars for the Norm Nelson Classic on Sunday, June 9.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
Advanced Fastening Supply A – Feature (25 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones[7]; 2. 20D-Derek Doerr[6]; 3. 38-Matt Rechek[8]; 4. 57A-Daniel Robinson[10]; 5. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[5]; 6. 55-Todd Kluever[4]; 7. 20-Cody Weisensel[1]; 8. 3W-Brandon Waelti[2]; 9. 6B-Mitchell Davis[9]; 10. 29-Harrison Kleven[16]; 11. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[21]; 12. 67U-Mike Unger[13]; 13. 17-Nick Kilian[17]; 14. 51C-Brok Clifcorn[24]; 15. 68-Eric Blumer[11]; 16. 7F-Aaron Fiscus[15]; 17. 5K-Kevin Douglas[19]; 18. 59-Kyle Koch[20]; 19. (DNF) 45-Trey Weishoff[12]; 20. (DNF) 11K-Charles Kunz[18]; 21. (DNF) 2-Kyle Stark[3]; 22. (DNF) 8-Jake Goeglein[14]; 23. (DNF) 90-Joel Willman[23]; 24. (DNS) 5X-Adam Taylor
Auto Meter Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 6B-Mitchell Davis[5]; 2. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[7]; 3. 3W-Brandon Waelti[6]; 4. 67U-Mike Unger[2]; 5. 51C-Brok Clifcorn[8]; 6. 17-Nick Kilian[1]; 7. 5K-Kevin Douglas[3]; 8. (DNS) 53-Aaron Schuck
Madison Extinguisher Service Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 20D-Derek Doerr[8]; 2. 57A-Daniel Robinson[5]; 3. 38-Matt Rechek[6]; 4. 2-Kyle Stark[7]; 5. 45-Trey Weishoff[4]; 6. 29-Harrison Kleven[1]; 7. 11K-Charles Kunz[3]; 8. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[2]; 9. 90-Joel Willman[9]
Behlings Race Products Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones[8]; 2. 55-Todd Kluever[7]; 3. 20-Cody Weisensel[6]; 4. 68-Eric Blumer[4]; 5. 8-Jake Goeglein[1]; 6. 7F-Aaron Fiscus[2]; 7. 1W-Robby Wirth[3]; 8. 59-Kyle Koch[9]; 9. (DNF) 5X-Adam Taylor[5]
FiveOne Motorsports Fast Time Schoenfeld Qualifying (50 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones, 00:15.544[22]; 2. 20D-Derek Doerr, 00:15.561[17]; 3. 73W-Luke Wackerlin, 00:15.593[5]; 4. 55-Todd Kluever, 00:15.691[19]; 5. 2-Kyle Stark, 00:15.777[2]; 6. 3W-Brandon Waelti, 00:15.861[8]; 7. 20-Cody Weisensel, 00:15.907[11]; 8. 38-Matt Rechek, 00:15.998[20]; 9. 6B-Mitchell Davis, 00:16.144[14]; 10. 5X-Adam Taylor, 00:16.261[13]; 11. 57A-Daniel Robinson, 00:16.427[4]; 12. 53-Aaron Schuck, 00:16.451[25]; 13. 68-Eric Blumer, 00:16.794[7]; 14. 45-Trey Weishoff, 00:16.918[23]; 15. 5K-Kevin Douglas, 00:17.029[18]; 16. 1W-Robby Wirth, 00:17.123[1]; 17. 11K-Charles Kunz, 00:17.223[6]; 18. 67U-Mike Unger, 00:17.228[9]; 19. 7F-Aaron Fiscus, 00:17.228[16]; 20. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr, 00:17.240[12]; 21. 17-Nick Kilian, 00:17.334[15]; 22. 8-Jake Goeglein, 00:17.443[10]; 23. 29-Harrison Kleven, 00:17.477[24]; 24. 51C-Brok Clifcorn, 00:17.601[26]; 25. 59-Kyle Koch, 00:17.634[21]; 26. 90-Joel Willman, 00:18.699[3]