(Sunday, June 22, Sun Prairie, WI)
“The Blue Mounds Bullet” Parker Jones continued his dominance over the rest of the Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midget Auto Racing Association field at Angell Park Speedway on Sunday.
The benefactor of a favorable Schoenfeld Headers Invert Draw, plus a couple of other factors, put the Badger point leader on the outside of the front row for the 25 lap feature.
Miles Doherty was the pole sitter while Jones was on his outside for the start of the A-Main. After a false start, the green flew with Doherty getting the jump. While speeding through the first corner Doherty caught a rut, bouncing and bicycling toward the turn-two wall. The teenager held on and gathered the car. The racers behind him avoided a collision and kept moving while Doherty lost several spots.
By lap-five Jones was checking out and “The Cool Cat” Tommy Colburn, driving the Sober Racing #31 was settling into second place. Behind them an entertaining battle ensued between Brandon Waelti and Kyle Stark for third. After swapping positions several times within a lap, lapped traffic occupied Waelti’s low line and Stark put a bunch of distance between himself and Waelti. Then Zach Boden stared in on Waelti. Jones was still cruising along.
Half way through the race Jones had at least eight cars lapped. About six of them were working hard for position and made it interesting for the lead-lap cars to negotiate through.
With just a couple of laps left, Jones was looking to negotiate the gaggle of lapped cars fighting for position a second time and the tenth place car for the first time. Then disaster struck for Colburn who flipped in turn-three. He could be seen moving immediately and appeared uninjured.
The restart on lap 22 saw Jones ahead of Stark, Waelti, Boden, Todd Kluever and Derek Doerr poised for a three lap shootout. At the drop of the green with Jones running high and Stark low the two were even by turn-two. Coming out of the corner Jones got grip and started to power away from the field again.
Jones took the win by about a half of a lap. In Bank of Sun Prairie Victory Lane Jones continued to hit his marks as he thanked his sponsors and crew, as per usual. After a long, hot day, he still remembered to mention the R.G. Huston Company who sponsored the night. Jones then went on to recall the two Kevins, Doty and Olson who were also being honored, by commenting on how, as a kid, he watch both Badger Hall of Fame drivers compete at Angell Park.
HEAT RACE ACTION
Auto Meter Heat-One saw “Danger” Dave Collins Jr. get the jump protecting the low line. Cody Weisensel braved the top only to quickly learn that the higher you went the farther back you were going to go. Waelti took one groove above the bottom to get around Collins by lap-three and went on for the win.
In Dave Jones Plumbing, HVAC, Fire Protection and Electrical Heat-Two Mike Unger wheeled his Frederiksen-Unger, Lager-Built Honda past pole sitter Kyle Koch as they hit the backstretch on lap-one. About four laps in, Adam Taylor powered past Unger only to have Unger battle back.
The corners were a bit rough with most cars running the lower two lines. Unger caught a rut in turn three and bounced in front of Taylor and Doherty. The resulting accordion caused Taylor to spin and he was subsequently nailed by the charging Aaron Schuck, sending Schuck into a helicopter, midair spin. He never got over, but in an abondance of caution the red light went on. Taylor and Schuck were both alright.
With three to go Unger gave up the bottom coming out of the fourth turn and Doherty snuck under him and sailed to the win leaving Unger to settle for a runner up spot.
Veteran Aaron Fiscus took the lead to start Behling Racing Equipment Heat Three from his pole starting spot. Jones found the same results Weisensel had earlier that the top was not the place to be and quickly filed into the low groove, to third place after starting fifth. As they completed the fourth lap Fiscus washed up high at the line allowing Jones to sneak under him and roll to the lead and win.
Hoosier Racing Tire Heat Four, the High Performance Lubricants B-Main and the Madison Extinguisher Service Last Chance Qualifier were not contested.
THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM
There were two reoccurring themes on Sunday. One was how in the world did Parker Jones get to start the feature on the front row? And the heat.
Some fans questioned how Jones was able to start P2 for the Lyco Manufacturing A-Main. At the risk of over-simplifying it, first understand that a driver’s standings in the points have nothing to do with where they start an A-Main. On race day, where you qualify matters. Locking yourself into the “A” by finishing in the top-five in your heat is critical and then the Invert Draw is the final piece of the puzzle.
In the case of Jones, he did not qualify that well, plus two cars which qualified better, did not finish in the top-five in their heat. Then the Invert Draw was the last piece of the puzzle which placed Jones into P2 to start the race. That’s the “‘Reader’s Digest’ version” of the issue. For further study, the rules are published on the BMARA website.
The prevailing issue was the heat. With a temperature in the 90’s, no cloud cover, some humidity and forecasters calling for a “Heat Advisory,” many fans chose to stay home. Based on the car count between the three divisions on hand, the drivers and their crews did not. Taylor and Doherty did double duty also running in the Wisconsin wingLESS Sprint Car class.
We want to thank Angell Park Speedway, the Sun Prairie Volunteer Fire Department and all three sanctioning bodies for seeing that the show went on. We also thank those who were there to work or volunteer for those groups and our own BMARA auxiliary organizations that were there and help to make a Badger Midget Series event at Angell Park Speedway so special. Everyone’s dedication to this historic series is greatly appreciated.
As to the fans who stayed home, we get it. Everyone had to do what was best for them and we hope to see you this coming Sunday!
TOMMY COLBURN UPDATE
Despite the best efforts of the track prep staff, some ruts in the corners just wouldn’t go away. Colburn caught one and bicycled before hitting the wall. He reports he’s fine but, “Being 6’3″ in a midget, my knees are sore.” He also advised that the car did not seem in too bad of shape.
UP NEXT
The AFS Badger Midget Series will be back in action this Sunday, June 29, for Angell Park Speedway’s popular Fireworks Night.
FULL RESULTS
Lyco Manufacturing A – Feature (25 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones[2]; 2. 2-Kyle Stark[6]; 3. 3W-Brandon Waelti[7]; 4. 51-Zach Boden[5]; 5. 55-Todd Kluever[9]; 6. 20D-Derek Doerr[8]; 7. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[18]; 8. 57-Matt Rechek[11]; 9. 68-Eric Blumer[13]; 10. 45-Trey Weishoff[4]; 11. 17N-Nick Kilian[16]; 12. 29K-Mike Stroik[12]; 13. 67U-Mike Unger[14]; 14. 8-Jake Goeglein[17]; 15. 29-Harrison Kleven[20]; 16. 59-Kyle Koch[19]; 17. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[23]; 18. (DNF) 31-Tommy Colburn[3]; 19. (DNF) 8D-Miles Doherty[1]; 20. (DNF) 7-Brian Peterson[21]; 21. (DNF) 53-Aaron Schuck[24]; 22. (DNF) 5X-Adam Taylor[22]; 23. (DNF) 7F-Aaron Fiscus[15]; 24. (DNS) 20-Cody Weisensel
Auto Meter Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3W-Brandon Waelti[8]; 2. 57-Matt Rechek[4]; 3. 31-Tommy Colburn[6]; 4. 45-Trey Weishoff[7]; 5. 20-Cody Weisensel[5]; 6. 8-Jake Goeglein[3]; 7. 29-Harrison Kleven[2]; 8. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[1]
Madison Extinguisher Service Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8D-Miles Doherty[5]; 2. 67U-Mike Unger[2]; 3. 51-Zach Boden[7]; 4. 20D-Derek Doerr[8]; 5. 29K-Mike Stroik[3]; 6. 17N-Nick Kilian[4]; 7. 59-Kyle Koch[1]; 8. (DNF) 5X-Adam Taylor[6]; 9. (DNF) 53-Aaron Schuck[9]
Behlings Race Products Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 41-Parker Jones[5]; 2. 7F-Aaron Fiscus[1]; 3. 2-Kyle Stark[7]; 4. 68-Eric Blumer[2]; 5. 55-Todd Kluever[8]; 6. 22S-Brian Strane Jr[4]; 7. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[6]; 8. (DNF) 7-Brian Peterson[3]; 9. (DNF) 10-Denny Smith[9]
Fast Time Schoenfeld Qualifying (100 Laps): 1. 55-Todd Kluever, 00:15.214[25]; 2. 20D-Derek Doerr, 00:15.244[15]; 3. 3W-Brandon Waelti, 00:15.246[24]; 4. 2-Kyle Stark, 00:15.566[17]; 5. 51-Zach Boden, 00:15.625[18]; 6. 45-Trey Weishoff, 00:15.712[22]; 7. 73W-Luke Wackerlin, 00:15.748[6]; 8. 5X-Adam Taylor, 00:15.787[7]; 9. 31-Tommy Colburn, 00:15.792[23]; 10. 41-Parker Jones, 00:15.813[1]; 11. 8D-Miles Doherty, 00:15.868[19]; 12. 20-Cody Weisensel, 00:16.004[2]; 13. 22S-Brian Strane Jr, 00:16.028[11]; 14. 17N-Nick Kilian, 00:16.036[26]; 15. 57-Matt Rechek, 00:16.147[5]; 16. 7-Brian Peterson, 00:16.187[21]; 17. 29K-Mike Stroik, 00:16.228[9]; 18. 8-Jake Goeglein, 00:16.406[16]; 19. 68-Eric Blumer, 00:16.477[4]; 20. 67U-Mike Unger, 00:16.493[8]; 21. 29-Harrison Kleven, 00:16.554[10]; 22. 7F-Aaron Fiscus, 00:16.679[14]; 23. 59-Kyle Koch, 00:17.035[20]; 24. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr, 00:17.120[12]; 25. 10-Denny Smith, 00:17.484[3]; 26. (DNS) 53-Aaron Schuck; 27. (DNS) 20R-Chris Adrien