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Pickens Gets First Start And Win Of 2006 At Angell Park
By Bryan Gapinski
Sun Prairie, Wis., July 9 - New Zealand's Michael Pickens made his first
American start of the season a successful one by capturing the 25-lap Badger
Midget Series feature at Angell Park Speedway on Sunday Night. The victory was
the second career feature victory at the track for Pickens.
Rik Forbes jumped into the lead at the start closely followed by Pickens.
After a restart for two spun cars on lap three it took Pickens one lap to
assume the lead. Pickens quickly pulled away and enjoyed a 1.7 second lead at
the midway point when he began lapping slower cars.
Pickens became trapped behind slower cars and saw his lead erased quickly as
Forbes and Scott Hatton closed to the rear bumper of Pickens. Forbes passed
Pickens exiting turn four on the 15th lap for the lead, but was repassed by
Pickens and Hatton the next lap. With five laps remaining the top five cars
were five car lengths apart, when the caution was displayed for Harley
Slotten's spun car.
Pickens driving the Ralph Wilke & Joe Vukelich owned Stealth/Sesco-Mopar
made a nice restart and cruised unchallenged the final five laps finishing
just over one second ahead of Forbes. Hatton, Jimi Quin also from New Zealand
and Chad DeSelle completed the top five.
Series points leader Brad Kuhn suffered mechanical problems in practice and
drove the Michael Quin entry the remainder of the evening but was sidelined
early in the feature. Kuhn now holds a 90 point lead over Hatton heading into
the doubleheader weekend on July 15 at The Raceway at Powercom Park (Beaver
Dam, Wis.) and the July 16 event at Angell Park Speedway.
SUMMARY
25-lap Feature: 1.Michael Pickens; 2. Rik Forbes; 3. Scott Hatton; 4. Jimi
Quin; 5. Chad DeSelle; 6. Dean Erfurth; 7. Doug Schenck; 8. Davey Ray; 9. Joe
Wipperfurth; 10. Aaron Fiscus; 11. Brandon Waelti; 12. Brian Ramstack; 13.
Nick Lundgreen; 14. Rob Keelan; 15. David Gough; 16. Adam Clarke; 17.Bob
Schreffler; 18. Danny Stratton; 19. Harley Slotten; 20. Jeff Flesher; 21. Brad
Kuhn; 22. Brad Loyet.
15-lap Semi Feature Winner: Kuhn.
10-lap Heat Race Winners: Kuhn, Hatton, Lundgreen, Keelan.
6-lap Trophy Dash Winner: Stratton.
Fast Time: Stratton, 15.193 seconds.
Weld Racing National Midget Driver of the Year Point Standings
1. Brad Kuhn 969; 2. Jerry Coons Jr.; 3. Jay Drake 506; 4. Brady Bacon 502; 5. Bobby Santos III 474; 6. Bryan Clauson 436; 7.Mike Hess 398; 8. Dave Steele & Rik Forbes 390; 10. Dave Darland 376.
Badger Midget Series Point Standings
1. Brad Kuhn 809; 2. Scott Hatton 719; 3. Brandon WAelti 668; 4. Danny Stratton 663; 5. Aaron Fiscus 655; 6. Davey Ray 537; 7. Chad DeSelle 522; 8. Nick Lundgreen 520; 9.. Doug Schenck 478; 10. Jimi Quin 463.
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