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Briggs & Stratton And BKC Join To Host 8-hour Endurance Race
by Mike Weaver
August 16, 2003
Briggs and Stratton, in cooperation with the Badger Kart Club, hosted an
8-hour endurance race at the Badger Raceway in Dousman WI. This race
offered a chance to show off the new Briggs and Stratton World Formula
motors. Each of the fifteen team’s entry fees included a sealed World
Formula Motor and the pieces needed to run it. At the end of the event,
the teams were allowed to keep the motors, which helped to fill up the entry
list quickly.
This race also helped to increase the funds of the Brannam Fund. The
Brannam’s were ex-members of the Badger Kart Club who were recently killed
in an automobile accident with drunk driver. Bob Brannam and his 2 sons
were killed instantly and his wife was severely injured and is just now
getting out of the hospital. Their step-son Joey was not in the car at
the time of the accident. The Badger Kart Club had established a fund to help
out the survivors of the Brannam family. In attendance at the race were
Phil, Ron, Tim and Jessica Brannam to also help the cause of their stricken
family members. All proceeds from the race were given to the fund.
In addition, a collection jar was placed by the free T-shirts for all of the
participants to help out with what they could.
On the Friday before the race, the racers were all greeted by hot and humid
conditions. Coupled with an extremely sticky track, everyone was complaining
about tight karts all weekend. However, no one complained about the
World Formula motors as they ran virtually flawless all weekend. There
were plenty of teams on hand Friday afternoon to try and break in the new
motors and get some seat time in. Already the jawing and teasing was
going on.
On Saturday, the temperatures rose even further, topping off around 90 degrees
in the paddock and around 100 degrees on the asphalt. Teams that still
hadn’t solved their “pushing” problems only saw it worsen.
However, many teams overcame this as practice times got lower and lower with
every lap.
The grid was selected by a computer-generated draw. Once the race
started, the karts quickly began to spread out. Many teams opted to
change drivers every half hour and soon fresh drivers were entering the
race. However, a couple of teams elected to go with 45 minute or even 1
hour stints, thus saving precious time lost in the pits. The crew that
went on to win started with Regan Vehring for the first shift. Vehring
managed to drive well over an hour before having to come in for fuel. Besides
being one of the fastest karts on the track, Vehring also stayed out so long
the team was now several laps up on the next place finisher.
At the halfway point, race officials had decided to throw a mandatory red flag
to come in and let drivers change oil, make changes, etc… After the
break, the karts were lined up by how they crossed the finish line and they
were restarted. Because the bunch was so close together, any slip-up
would be disastrous and that proved to be the case. On the 2nd lap of
the restart, the 2nd place kart spun. As karts checked up and swerved,
one kart ran over the front of Bryce Dunn’s kart, injuring the young drivers
leg. Dunn was taken by his parents to a local hospital to be checked out
and all was fine. He returned later to watch his team finish the race.
Somewhere around the 5-hour mark, the skies opened up with a huge rain.
The rain only lasted for about 20 minutes, but there was standing water
everywhere. A quick driver’s meeting was held to determine how to
finish the race and an overwhelming vote to continue was heard. So
everyone headed out, swept off the track and puddles and with the high
temperatures and wind from the front that moved in, the track was ready to
race in about 45 minutes.
By now, Team Vehring had moved up quite a number of laps and had a dominating
lead. But then Team Vehring driver Jesse Schwabe tangled with another
kart with about 20 minutes left in the race. The resulting incident left
Team Vehring’s kart with a bent axle. Schwabe came into the pits and
the team decided to chance it and finish the race with the bent axle.
Lap after lap, Schwabe drove by with the kart hopping horribly. However, he
was able to hold off long enough to take the checkered flag at 7:00pm to win
the race for Team Vehring.
Afterwards, the exhausted racers stopped to pick up their free T-shirts, pose
for pictures and congratulate the winning team. A big thanks goes out to
Briggs and Stratton and Badger Kart Club for making this event a huge success!
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