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Badger Kart Club Invades The Milwaukee Mile
July 18, 2004
West Allis, WI
Story by Mike Weaver
The Badger Kart Club hosted its first inaugural kart race at the Milwaukee
Mile this past weekend. The Milwaukee Mile has not run a kart race since
1989. Badger Kart Club and The Milwaukee Mile entered into a multi-year
agreement earlier this year, which would see the Badger Kart Club run at least
one race in 2004 at The Mile and minimally two races per after that.
This race was originally slated to run the newly paved road course. However,
officials from both organizations agreed to let the new asphalt cure and
Badger agreed to run just the oval.
On Saturday, Badger Kart Club hosted an "enduro" style race program,
running several "like" classes together in 6 races. Each race
group got to run an 8-lap heat race and a 20-lap feature! No results are
available at this time.
On Sunday, Badger hosted its regular BKC Bridgestone Tire Championship Points
series races. Again, like classes were combined into 6 race
groups. Gearing was the huge topic throughout the pits, but come race
time, virtually everyone was running the right combination.
Although one would not think drafting was important for karts, drafting and
smart decisions made or broke your race. In the draft, karts were
averaging 4-8 second quicker lap times. Thus, the racing was very similar to
that of the stock cars at Daytona or Talladega. Fall out of line and you
can lose 20 positions or more!
In the 125cc Shifter race, Don Chrzan, Steve Mente, Brian Julien and James
Bennett stayed in line long enough to break away from the pack. Brian
Julien had a slip in Turn 2 and it took everything he had to stay off the
wall. That left Chrzan, Mente and Bennett to race for the win. As
the race wore on, Mente and Chrzan swapped the lead several times. Mente
wanted the win bad as his daughter Melissa had already won the Sportsman Lite
race earlier. At the white flag, Chrzan seemed to almost "let"
Mente by in the backstretch and then used the draft to power by coming out of
Turn 4. At the flag, Don Chrzan won by a foot over Steve Mente in a
great finish to a great race.
In HPV Lite and Heavy, there was a total 18 karts on the track, plus another
30 from other classes. Right from the start, the HPV Heavy class formed
a freight train and ran down the Light class (staged about 50 yards ahead) as
they diced and wrecked their draft. The two classes combined and picked
up a few karts from other classes, which made for a 20-kart "wad",
often seeing 2 to 3 lanes of drafting trains. Terry Thomas started on
the pole for the Heavy class and managed to stay there, as he never moved up
the track to let anyone under him. Drafting was so important that no one dared
to jump out of line and the retired school principal held on for the win,
taking the checkers with his fist in the air! Jon Ellingham, who has had
a dismal season of crashes and mechanical problems, took his first win in HPV
Light, leading a train right next to Thomas.
Other winners included Stephanie Schumacher in Briggs Jr. Sportsman, Tom
Schroeder in Briggs Heavy, the Polacek brothers Spencer and Cody both won,
Brian Valin in Jr. Can and Kodiak Wirtz in Briggs Animal Sportsman.
The Badger Kart Club may return to the Mile yet this year. And they will
definitely run two or more races there in the next several years. Badger
Kart Club will be off next week, as their home track in Dousman will host the
WKA Midwest Sprint Series regional race. This regional series is the
home series for most of the hot-shoes in karting today, so the action will be
hot and furious!
125cc Shifter HPV
Sr. Heavy
1. Don Chrzan 1.
Terry Thomas
2. Steve Mente 2. Jeff
Becker
3. James Bennett 3. Chris Hotz
Sr. Sportsman
Heavy
HPV Sr. Lite
1. Spencer Polacek
1. Jon Ellingham
2. Darrek
Travis
2. Scott Kalish
3. Ted
Goad
3. Dan Mussa
Briggs Jr.
Sportsman
HPV Jr.
1. Stephanie Schumacher 1.
Ryan Graham
2. Geoffe Jeche
2. TJ Koyen
3. Kathya
Lundy
3. Zack Emmons
Jr. SSX
Can
Yamaha Heavy
1. Cody Polacek
1. Mike Fuchs
2. Bianca Schreiber 2. Rob
Hutchinson
3. Patrick
Olsen
3. Mark Wozniak
Sr. Sportsman Lite
Briggs Animal Jr. Sportsman
1. Melissa Mente
1. Kodiak Wirtz
2. Scott Lardin
2. James Bennett Jr.
3. David
Skaggs
3. Travis Sabatka
Briggs Lite
Expert
1. Jim Sarow
1. Paul Stefaniak
2. Steve Ross 2.
Mike Lattos
3. Ryan Wolfert 3. Ryan Chrzan
Yamaha Lite
Briggs Heavy
1. Mark Heinert 1. Tom
Schroeder
2. Wes Steege 2. Brian
Smith
3. Ryan Rutziwski 3. Aron Scalissi
2-cycle Jr.
Sportsman Jr. Can
1. Eric Sutcliffe
1. Brian Valin
2. Chris Lemmer
2. Justin Sund
3.Kyle Schwister
3. Alex Eichorst
Briggs Animal
Jr.
Briggs Animal Sr.
1. Garrett Wescott
1. Regan Vehring
2. Chris Faestel
2. Bob Iverson
3. Mike Stroik
3. Austin Schmitt
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