Angell Park Speedway Midget Results and Stories

Sunday, May 28, 2006
5/28/06

Angell Park Speedway
Sun Prairie, WI

Memorial Day 50

38 midgets

Jerry Coons Jr. (1st car out to time) set quick time on the 1/3 mile with a lap of 14.754 seconds.  Scott Hatton (8th car out) was second quick, followed by Davey Ray (12th), Danny Stratton (10th), Brad Kuhn (30th), Ryan Durst (5th), Aaron Fiscus (11th), Mike Hess (18th), Jimi Quin (20th) and Dean Erfurth (2nd).  Joe Wipperfurth and Cody Weisensel failed to get a time in.  Weisensel scratched for the night.  A large crowd packed into the stands on a beautiful night for racing.  The hospitality and fan friendly environment displayed were welcomed by this fan, and more tracks should take a cue from Angell Park.

Trophy Dash (started): 1. Kuhn 74 (3) 2. Ray 5 (1) 3. Coons 23 (6) 4. Hatton 15 (4) 5. Stratton 2 (5) 6. Durst 91 (2)

Ray shot out to an early lead in the six lapper.  Kuhn has been hot and took the point after a fierce battle on lap four, leading the rest of the way.  Coons looked good in moving forward to third.

C main (started): 1. Doug Jordan 8 (1) 2. Jim Fuerst 28 (4) 3. Jay Mounce 12J (2) 4. Wipperfurth 99 (5) 5. Harley Slotten 57 (3) / DNS – Weisensel 20

The six lapper transferred five drivers to the B main.  Slotten dropped out immediately and battled motor problems all night. On lap six, Mounce made contact with a faster Fuerst, and the 12J rear-ended into the turn one wall.  The race was checkered at that point.

Heat one (started): 1. Randy Koch 57K (3) 2. Dustin Morgan 17w (6) 3. Brian Ramstack 02R (4) 4. Jason Dull 56 (2) 5. Bob Shreffler 21s (7) 6. Patrick Jones 29 (5) / 7. Lee Beckwith 39 (1) 8. Tucker Caven 87 (8)

The top six qualified for the B main in the “slow” 10 lap heat.  Dull led the race early before Koch took over and pulled away on the second go-around.  On lap three, Shreffler spun collecting the trio of Jones, Beckwith and Caven, who flipped his mount hard between turns one and two.  He was uninjured.  The incident left four cars to finish the event.

Heat two (started): 1. David Gough 82 (3) 2. Brandon Waelti 3 (5) 3. Ray (8) 4. Chad DeSelle 6 (4) 5. Durst 91 (7) / 6. Ryan Kaplan 27 (1) 7. Rik Forbes 95x (2) 8. Quin 43NZ (6)

The top five finishers transferred to the feature in the 10 lapper.  Gough ducked under for the lead as Forbes suffered a rough first lap.  Forbes got over the right rear of the pole-sitter Kaplan, going into one and both were shuffled back.  Forbes then spun after more contact with Kaplan on lap two.  The restart saw Gough leading Kaplan, Waelti, Durst, DeSelle and Quin.  Two more laps were down, when Forbes was charging back through the field.  As he fought Quin for sixth, Forbes punted the 43NZ going into one.  Quin kept control of his mount, but pulled in to his pitstall.  Ray was the man on the move, hitting a cushion ¾ of the way up the track.

Heat three (started): 1. Hatton (8) 2. Doug Schenk 19 (4) 3. Mike Hess 4 (6) 4. Justin Allgaier 86 (3) 5. Nick Lundgreen 41 (5) / 6. Kuhn (7) 7. Jon LeJeune 34J (1) 8. Kurt Mayhew 21K (2)

Schenk ducked under the front row starters for an early lead.  All eyes were on the final transfer, as Lundgreen held it over Hess and Kuhn.  Hatton got a great start on the bottom, and passed five cars immediately.  Hess worked by Lundgreen on lap seven, but Kuhn was mired in sixth on lap 9 when he smacked the nerf bar of Lundgreen and spun.  The restart saw Schenk leading Hatton, Allgaier, Hess, Lundgreen and LeJeune back to a green, white, checker finish.  Hatton waited until the last lap to make his winning pass, while Kuhn came up just short in a frantic bid for the final transfer.

Heat four (started): 1. Coons (8) 2. Stratton (7) 3. Kenny Adams Jr. 17K (3) 4. Erfurth 14 (5) 5. Rob Keelan 17 (1) / 6. Fiscus 7 (6) 7. Bryan Walters 5w (4) 8. Buddy Luebke 43 (2)

Keelan shot to the point, but bobbled over the turn four berm on lap three, handing the advantage to Adams.  Coons was in a class by himself slicing through the field.  He passed both Erfurth and Keelan on lap seven, pulling away to victory.  Stratton followed suit by passing two on the final lap for runner-up honors.

B main (started): 1. Kuhn (1) 2. Fiscus (2) 3. Quin (3) 4. Luebke (5) 5. Forbes (7) 6. Koch (14) 7. Mayhew (6) / 8. Morgan (11) 9. Walters (4) 10. Kaplan (9) 11. LeJeune (8) 12. Wipperfurth (18) 13. Jones (12) 14. Fuerst (17) 15. Dull (15) 16. Ramstack (13) 17. Jordan (16) 18. Shreffler (10) DNS – Mounce, Slotten

Kuhn led the 15 lap distance in dominating fashion.  The only stoppage came for a white flag flip by Ramstack on the backstretch.  He was uninjured.  Shreffler exited on lap two, Jordan did the same on lap ten.  Forbes and Luebke battled throughout, Forbes on the high side and Luebke on the low.  Luebke grabbed the fourth spot on the final go-around.  Fifth through eighth finished within five car lengths.  Koch turned in the drive of the race coming from row seven for a transfer.

A main (started): 1. Kuhn (6) 2. Erfurth (1) 3. Waelti (12) 4. DeSelle (14) 5. Allgaier (16) 6. Ray (8) 7. Fiscus (4) 8. Durst (5) 9. Hess (3) 10. Keelan (21) 11. Gough (17) 12. Luebke (18) 13. Mayhew (19) 14. Forbes (20) 15. Hatton (9) 16. Lundgreen (11) 17. Adams (15) 18. Koch (22) 19. Stratton (7) 20. Schenk (13) 21. Quin (2) 22. Coons (10)

Erfurth rode the inside guardrail to the early lead in the 50 lapper.  Soon Stratton and Hess were in tow.  On lap four, Coons and Quin contacted.  The result was a spin by Quin who also collected Fiscus.  Quin exited, while Coons and Durst went to the work area to fix flats. Durst was the only one to emerge in time for a restart that saw Erfurth leading Stratton, Hess, Hatton and Waelti from row six.  Erfurth protected his groove well until lap 13, when a surging Hatton rode a building cushion by him to take the point.  Hess and a surging Kuhn held down third and fourth.  Five laps later, Schenk stopped in turn four and exited bringing out a caution.  Erfurth held down second despite being under serious siege from Kuhn.  Further back Ray and Stratton were waging a battle for seventh.  Once the race went green again, Hatton pulled away.  At the halfway point, he led Erfurth, Waelti, Kuhn and Hess.  On lap 33, disaster struck for Koch, whose car burst into flames coasting to a stop on the backstretch.  He was transported out by ambulance.  Two laps after the Koch red, Hatton caught a rut in turn one and flipped hard into the catchfence.  He was uninjured, but done for the night.  Kuhn assumed the lead (he had worked by Erfurth) and led the rest of the way.  One final caution came out for Forbes who stopped on lap 39.  He had been braving the cushion, joining Hess as the only other car to try it.  13 cars finished the event.  Allgaier and Keelan shared passing honors.