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Some Surprises, some not at Badger
By Mike “Speed” Weaver
May 4, 2003
Dousman WI
Cooler temperatures greeted racers on Sunday as yet another low-pressure system hit Wisconsin. Even those who practiced on Saturday had to make plenty of adjustments in order to cope with the new cooler weather. These types of radical weather changes tend to favor the veterans who knew enough to adjust for it. This proved to be true as quite a number of veteran drivers won their features continuing their no-loss streak in 2003.
Mike Fuchs in Yamaha Heavy once again crushed the field winning by over 4 seconds. Fuchs is a past champion and has not yet lost a feature this season. Mike Landeck Jr. has accomplished the same in Briggs Heavy. Landeck has won every feature and this week added to his winning streak by beating 2nd place Joe Schaffer by over 6 seconds. Steve Mente also won again in Sr. Sportsman Heavy. However, this week he had pressure from Howie Hanisch who shadowed his every move. However, Mente would drive a flawless race, not allowing Hanisch any opportunity to get by.
In Briggs Jr. Sportsman, last year’s Most Improved Driver winner Tommy Anderson demonstrated why he won the prestigious award. He led from flag-to-flag in the feature, but not without competition. Steven Wirtz was all over Anderson the entire race. But Anderson was able to hold him off and take the checkers for the win.
The big surprise of the day came in HPV Sr. when the field entered turn 3 on the first lap. The leader Jesse Schwabe got turned sideways and collected 2nd place Mike Mueller. This led to a 6-kart pile-up as karts came barreling in two-by-two. Scott Kalish was the only kart in the first 3 rows to miss the melee and it proved to be the winning move. When Kalish crossed the start-finish line for lap 1, he was already 20 kart-lengths in front of 2nd place Dan Mussa. John Skowron was also able to miss the “big one” and ended up in third about 10 kart lengths behind Mussa. When the checkers finally flew, that’s how they finished – Kalish, Mussa and Skowron.
In 125cc Shifter, 2002 champion Alex Schuerrell seemed to be off to another big win. He jumped to a huge lead on lap 1 over Brian Julien. However, on lap 3, Schuerrell began having motor problems forcing him to retire. This allowed Julien to take the lead and never look back. Julien kept pressing and continued to pull away from 2nd place Chris Alby and 3rd place Randy Reichardt. By the time the checkered flag flew, Julien would win his first 125cc feature by over 20 kart lengths over Alby and Reichardt.
One of the better races of the day occurred in the Sr. Sportsman Lite feature. Mark Jung jumped out to an early lead. Regan Vehring and Matt Cota both started near the tail-end of the field due to a heat-race crash. But they quickly made their way through the field. Cota got by Vehring for 2nd with 2 laps to go and set his sites on Jung. As they both came through the last corner, Cota was almost close enough to strike, but just couldn’t get Jung who drove flawlessly out of the last turn. They raced to the checkers with Jung taking the win.
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Jon Ellingham (86) leads Mike Talbott(29) and Scott Kalish into Badger's
"Boot".
Photo by Mike Weaver
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Tommy Anderson won the Briggs Jr. Sportsman feature by holding
off Steven Wirtz (not pictured).
Photo by Mike Weaver
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Mike Fuchs (49) added another feature win to his
credit after dominating Yamaha Heavy all day. Fuchs has not lost a feature race yet in 2003.
Photo by Mike Weaver |
Results
2 Cycle Jr. Sport Briggs Animal Sr. 80cc Shifter Jr.
1 TJ Koyen 1 Erick Heling 1 Josh Lane
2 Ryan Schwister 2 David Koeferl 2 Ronny Graham
3 Joey Adler 3 James Wilhelm
Yamaha Heavy Yamaha Lite 125cc Shifter
1 Mike Fuchs 1 Bye Week 1 Brian Julien
2 Terry Thomas 2 2 Chris Alby
3 Mark Wozniak 3 3 Randy Reichardt
Briggs Heavy Briggs Animal Jr. Sr. Sportsman Lite
1 Mike Landeck 1 Kelsey Bauer 1 Mark Jung
2 Joe Schaffer 2 Caitlin Tannis 2 Matt Cota
3 Tom Schroeder 3 Danny Corcoran 3 Regan Vehring
Briggs Jr. Sport HPV Sr. Sr. Sportsman Heavy
1 Tommy Anderson 1 Scott Kalish 1 Steve Mente
2 Steven Wirtz 2 Dn Mussa 2 Howard Hanisch
3 Jimmy Cline Jr 3 John Skowron 3 Jeff Selz
Briggs Lite HPV Jr. Jr. Briggs
1 Alex Stauber 1 Nick Gillette 1 Derek Crane
2 Brian Weber 2 Zack Emmons 2 Grant Hoffmeister
3 Heidi Olsen 3 TJ Nevels 3 Garret Wescott
Jr Can Jr. SSX Can HPV Jr.
1 Jessica Brannam 1 Joe Brenner 1 Zack Emmons
2 Biance Schrieber 2 Shelley Krzewskinski 2 Nick Gillette
3 Jacob Eggeneier 3 Spencer Polacek 3 TJ Nevels
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