By Bill Blumer Jr
“The Blue Mounds Bullet” Parker Jones made it three out of four in Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midget Auto Racing Association action as the famed club helped Angell Park Speedway kick off their 2025 season.
This was the third annual Dahlke Memorial race, an event organized to honor the lives of BJ and his daughter Addison Dahlke who perished in an auto crash in 2022. One of the richest such shows in the country, the purse for the Badger portion of the program was over $30,000 with feature starters making no less than $600 each.
The journey to the Lyco Manufacturing A-Main started under sunny skies and pleasant temperatures with Rod End Supply Fast Time honors going to Jones followed by Luke Wackerlin and Derek Doerr.
Soon to be inducted Badger Midget Hall of Famer Father Dale Grubba gave the invocation. In doing so he expressed the importance of the night by sharing thoughts on BJ and Addison. He caught the essence of an Angell Park opening night by mentioning the renewing of old acquaintances which is an important part of the Angell Park and Badger communities.
PRELIMINARY EVENTS
Auto Meter Heat One saw Kyle Koch jump to the lead from his pole starting spot. By the second corner it was Matt Rechek taking to the point. Rechek went on to complete the win. RJ Corson, sporting a new ride, got as close as Rechek’s rear bumper coming out of the second turn on the last lap, but Rechek pulled away and won by four-lengths.
They were three wide at the line on the first lap of Dave Jones Plumbing, HVAC, Fire Protection, Electrical Heat Two, with Harrison Kleven trying to hold off Kevin Douglas and Wackerlin at the start/finish line. By the time they got to the second corner Wackerlin had the point after starting eighth.
Wackerlin went unchallenged for the win with Cody Weisensel a straightaway behind for second at the checkers.
Mike Stroik racing for the first time in a year, was on the pole in a second Kleven car as they took the green for Behling Racing Equipment Heat Three. Trey Weishoff had the lead after lap-one and kept an advantage until a yellow bunched the field. Weishoff did what he could to hold off the charging Todd Kluever but at about lap-three Kluever powered by. Then Kluever was under attack from Jones. The two went side by side for a lap before Jones took one step more toward the clean sweep. Kluever was second followed by Zach Boden who started seventh.
Rookie of the Year contender Brian Strane Jr. walked away with the High Performance Lubricants B-Main in a race that did not see a lot of movement between positions. Mike Unger flipped during the event after tagging a car that spun in turn-three. Unger was uninjured but his hopes of running the Dahlke Memorial were dashed. Koch held off Stroik for the last coveted transfer spot into the main event.
THE DAHLKE MEMORIAL 25
In order to set the lineup for the 25-lap feature, pole sitter Jones had to complete the Schoenfeld Headers Invert Draw first. In doing so he put himself in the best position he could by drawing the number six, marking his starting spot in the field.
The sun hadn’t even set as the Zimbrick Pace Truck led the front row of Kyle Stark and Adam Taylor on their parade laps. When the green flew, Stark, Taylor and Boden went three-wide as they exited the second corner. Stark came out on top and started to put some distance on the field. Jones had moved into second by the third circuit,
Lap-eight was a tricky one for the field. It started with a yellow due to a busted front end on the Rechek machine. Then on the restart Kluever, who was running fifth, had a low hanging oil line catch the curb in turn-three coming to the green. The veteran knew he had a problem and eased it to the infield while the cars behind him were able to dodge his bright blue and yellow number 55 that was dropping oil in its wake.
After some initial pressure on the restart, Jones took off with Stark getting pressured by Brandon Waelti for second. After several laps of swapping the runner-up spot between the two, Stark started to pull away and Taylor began working on Waelti. Next it was Wackerlin in the hunt for Waelti’s third-place spot.
Lap twenty saw a car go up in smoke in turn-one and come to a stop in two. The next car in line swerved to miss the stalled vehicle and got tagged by Weishoff sending the Sun Prairie driver flipping into the turn-two wall. Weishoff was uninjured but his Fanaktive car suffered heavy damage.
With five to go Jones took off once more. Meanwhile, Waelti and Stark changed spots several times for two laps while Doerr waited in the wings. From here the top three cars were running high while Doerr and Weisensel were low. Jones went on the win by half a straight over Waelti, while Stark just held off a charging Doerr for third at the line.
For Jones it was his third win after four Badger races in the 2025 season.
AWARDS AND NOTES
The Hoosier Racing Tires Heat Four and Madison Extinguisher Service Last Chance Qualifier were not run.
Fifteen-year-old Strane Jr. took home three awards on the night. Along with his B-Main win, he was the Spankins Motorsports Rookie of the Race and the Hard Charger also sponsored by Spankins.
Nick Kilian was the recipient of the Last Place Bonus in Loving Memory of Addison Dahlke.
The Rod End Supply Hard Luck Award went to Nick Klein.
Weisensel logged a gutty performance as he drove with ten stitches in his hand that was severely injured in a non-racing incident earlier in the week. He managed a fifth place finish.
Every driver was sure to thank those involved in the fund raising for the Dahlke Memorial in their Victory Lane interviews.
While there is no Smooth Move of the Day Award, if there was it would go to Douglas. During a caution in the A-Main a groundhog popped up on the track along the wall at the start/finish line. As the cars were rolling along slowly, staff chased it so that it ran to the middle of the track into the oncoming path of Douglas and his teammate Aaron Fiscus. The large rodent narrowly missed an early demise as Douglas hit the brakes and swerved toward Fiscus narrowly missing the animal and his team car. The groundhog was eventually captured and released to the far reaches of the property.
Popular photographer Roy Ophime who supplies most of the photo to the BMARA channeled his inner Bob Cruse who was known to work two tracks in one day and bolted from Slinger Super Speedway to shoot the APS event.
UP NEXT
The AFS Badger Midget Series will take Memorial Day weekend off before returning to action June 1 at Angell Park Speedway.
COMPLETE RESULTS
Lyco Manufacturing A – Feature (25 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones[6]; 2. 3W-Brandon Waelti[7]; 3. 2-Kyle Stark[1]; 4. 20D-Derek Doerr[4]; 5. 20-Cody Weisensel[10]; 6. 22S-Brian Strane Jr[16]; 7. 53-Aaron Schuck[11]; 8. 51-Zach Boden[3]; 9. 68-Eric Blumer[18]; 10. 7F-Aaron Fiscus[12]; 11. 5K-Kevin Douglas[19]; 12. 8D-Miles Doherty[8]; 13. 29-Harrison Kleven[21]; 14. 59-Kyle Koch[22]; 15. (DNF) 73W-Luke Wackerlin[5]; 16. (DNF) 15C-RJ Corson[13]; 17. (DNF) 45-Trey Weishoff[14]; 18. (DNF) 8-Jake Goeglein[20]; 19. (DNF) 5X-Adam Taylor[2]; 20. (DNF) 55-Todd Kluever[9]; 21. (DNF) 57A-Matt Rechek[15]; 22. (DNF) 17N-Nick Kilian[17]
High Performance Lubricants B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 22S-Brian Strane Jr[3]; 2. 17N-Nick Kilian[1]; 3. 68-Eric Blumer[5]; 4. 5K-Kevin Douglas[2]; 5. 8-Jake Goeglein[6]; 6. 29-Harrison Kleven[8]; 7. 59-Kyle Koch[9]; 8. 29K-Mike Stroik[10]; 9. 81-Mike Gebhard[12]; 10. (DNF) 7-Brian Peterson[4]; 11. (DNF) 67U-Mike Unger[7]; 12. (DNS) 40JR-Dave Collins Jr; 13. (DNS) 1W-Robby Wirth; 14. (DNS) 17K-Nicholas Klein
Auto Meter Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 57A-Matt Rechek[3]; 2. 15C-RJ Corson[4]; 3. 2-Kyle Stark[7]; 4. 20D-Derek Doerr[8]; 5. 53-Aaron Schuck[5]; 6. 22S-Brian Strane Jr[6]; 7. 8-Jake Goeglein[2]; 8. 59-Kyle Koch[1]; 9. 81-Mike Gebhard[9]; 10. (DNS) 1W-Robby Wirth
Dave Jones Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[8]; 2. 20-Cody Weisensel[5]; 3. 5X-Adam Taylor[7]; 4. 8D-Miles Doherty[6]; 5. 7F-Aaron Fiscus[4]; 6. 5K-Kevin Douglas[2]; 7. 68-Eric Blumer[3]; 8. (DNF) 29-Harrison Kleven[1]; 9. (DNF) 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[9]
Behlings Race Products Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones[8]; 2. 55-Todd Kluever[5]; 3. 51-Zach Boden[7]; 4. 45-Trey Weishoff[3]; 5. 3W-Brandon Waelti[6]; 6. 17N-Nick Kilian[4]; 7. 7-Brian Peterson[2]; 8. 67U-Mike Unger[9]; 9. 29K-Mike Stroik[1]
Rod End Supply Fast Time/ Qualifying (100 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones, 00:14.802[14]; 2. 73W-Luke Wackerlin, 00:14.943[1]; 3. 20D-Derek Doerr, 00:15.085[6]; 4. 51-Zach Boden, 00:15.285[13]; 5. 5X-Adam Taylor, 00:15.356[7]; 6. 2-Kyle Stark, 00:15.437[22]; 7. 3W-Brandon Waelti, 00:15.470[2]; 8. 8D-Miles Doherty, 00:15.535[3]; 9. 22S-Brian Strane Jr, 00:15.689[9]; 10. 55-Todd Kluever, 00:15.820[28]; 11. 20-Cody Weisensel, 00:15.837[27]; 12. 53-Aaron Schuck, 00:15.866[15]; 13. 17N-Nick Kilian, 00:15.899[23]; 14. 7F-Aaron Fiscus, 00:15.916[29]; 15. 15C-RJ Corson, 00:15.936[25]; 16. 45-Trey Weishoff, 00:15.995[24]; 17. 68-Eric Blumer, 00:16.002[8]; 18. 57A-Matt Rechek, 00:16.049[12]; 19. 7-Brian Peterson, 00:16.061[10]; 20. 5K-Kevin Douglas, 00:16.451[26]; 21. 8-Jake Goeglein, 00:16.469[18]; 22. 29K-Mike Stroik, 00:16.478[19]; 23. 29-Harrison Kleven, 00:16.698[16]; 24. 59-Kyle Koch, 00:16.701[5]; 25. 67U-Mike Unger, 00:16.756[20]; 26. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr, 00:17.217[21]; 27. 81-Mike Gebhard, 00:18.144[11]; 28. (DNF) 17K-Nicholas Klein, 00:16.577[4]; 29. (DNS) 1W-Robby Wirth; 30. (DNS) 41J-John Jones; 31. (DNS) 55K-Colin Campbell