Hess Tops Badger Midget Return To Wilmot
By Bryan Gapinski

Wilmot, Wis., June 18 - Mike Hess won a thrilling 30-lap Badger Midget Series feature, Saturday Night at Wilmot Speedway. The event run before a stellar crowd marked the first series appearance at the 1/3-mile track since Aug. 11, 1995.

Danny Stratton quickly moved from third to the lead as the field entered turn one on the opening lap.  With multi-groove racing occurring Hess used the cushion to move into third place on lap four. Three laps later Hess took over second place. Stratton and Hess ran wheel to wheel the next few laps exchanging slide jobs, and using different grooves each lap. Hess took the lead on the 10th lap, three laps later caution appeared for a spun car. 

On the restart third place running Chad DeSelle made contact with another car, and spun. On the next restart Hess and Stratton exchanged the lead several times with Hess leading at the line. Series point leader Davey Ray caught the pair and the trio ran wheel to wheel until Ray retired with engine problems on lap 16.

Stratton led lap 18,but was passed by Hess on the next lap, and spun entering turn two. The final 11 laps saw Hess lead a close pack of cars, until five laps remaining when he increased his lead to 2.83 seconds at the finish. Brandon Waelti finished second followed by Ric Forbes, Scott Hatton, and Kevin Doty. Earlier in the night Hatton set a new one-lap track record in qualifying, and also set a 10-lap record winning the heat race. Hess established a new 6-lap record, winning the trophy dash.
 
SUMMARY
30-lap Feature: 1. Mike Hess; 2. Brandon Waelti; 3. Ric Forbes; 4. Scott Hatton; 5. Kevin Doty; 6.Aaron Fiscus; 7. Craig Carey; 8. Jeff Flesher; 9. Kevin Olson 10. John Jones; 11. Nick Lundgreen; 12. Chad DeSelle; 13. Brad Paris; 14.Bob Schreffler; 15. Kurt Mayhew;  16. Buddy Luebke; 17. Patrick Jones;  18. Jimmy Quin; 19. Danny Stratton; 20. Rick Mueller;  21. Davey Ray; 22. Brian Ramstack.
 
15-lap Semi Feature Winner: Lundgreen.
10-lap Heat Race Winners: Hess, Waetti, Hatton. 
6-lap Heat Race Winner: Jay Mounce.
6-lap Dash Winner: Hess.
FastTime: Hatton, 15.640 seconds (NTR). 
 
Current Badger Points: 1.Davey Ray 620; 2. Brandon Waelti 606; 3. Danny Stratton 545; 4.Brad Kuhn 502; 5. Scott Hatton 502;  6. Rick Mueller 396; 7. Chad DeSelle 360; 8. Dan Boorse 347; 9.Nick Lundgreen 327; 10. Craig Carey 324.

 

Print This Page
<back to previous page>