[Gapinski]

BADGER MIDGET SERIES PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Bryan Gapinski

“Daum wins Pepsi Nationals”
“Kuhn, Ecker & Paderta claim Badger championships"

By Bryan Gapinski
Sun Prairie, Wis., Sep. 1---Zach Daum finished off a perfect weekend winning the Pepsi Midget Nationals 50-lap feature Sunday Night at Angell Park Speedway. The event was co-sanctioned by the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget and Stark Automotive Group-Mid-State Equipment Badger Midget Series. The feature win was in second in two days at the track.

Brad Kuhn claimed his fourth career Badger Midget Drivers Championship, while Kuhn’s car owner Bill Ecker emerged with a slim eight-point cushion capturing Badger Midget Car Owners Championship. Matt Paderta finished seventeen points ahead of two-time series champion Chad Bogar, winning the Badger 600 Micro Series Title.

Dalton Armstrong took the lead at the start of the event, third place running Parker Price-Miller stalled on Lap 5 bringing out the caution. Miller restarted at the tail and quickly moved back into contention over the next fifteen laps.
Armstrong crossed the start/finish line on Lap 7 as the leader, immediately slowed, retiring from the event, giving the lead to Darren Hagen on the restart. Hagen pulled away from the field, and began lapping slower cars on Lap 15.

Four laps later Hagen’s straightaway lead was erased when Danny Stratton, came to a stop on the track. Kuhn pitted during the caution to change a right rear tire. Both Kuhn and Stratton rejoined the race. Hagen held a 2.3 second lead at the midway point over Billy Balog, Daum, Price-Miller and Caleb Armstrong. At Lap 30 Hagen’s advantage over Daum was again a straightaway.

With Hagen running in heavy lapped traffic, Caleb Armstrong’s hope of a repeat victory in the event ended as he flipped in Turn 3 on Lap 34. Hagen pulled away from the field on the restart, but flipped entering Turn 3.
Daum inherited the lead on the restart followed by Price-Miller and Balog. Two laps later Tyler Thomas flipped bringing out another red flag. On the restart Kuhn was in sixth place, but began improving his position rapidly passing two cars on the restart, and was in third place on Lap 42, and took over second one lap later.
Meanwhile Daum driving the Dan Daum owned Eagle/Toyota No. 5 went unchallegned over the remainder of the event scoring a 5.88 second victory over Kuhn, Balog, Jake Blackhurst, and Andrew Felker.

“ Its great to pull out the Car Owner title for Bill Ecker and Amy Reisdorf, its been a great season driving for them I really wanted to get the win here tonight” commented Kuhn afterwards. This is a big race to win, and to win three feature this year at Angell Park is so satisfying” said Daum who collected $4,000 for the victory. Kuhn’s teammate Daniel Robinson won the 11th annual 6-lap Dave Schulenberg Memorial Dash, collecting a $500 first prize from a $2,500 purse.

Vance Lein scored his second feature victory of the season winning the 20-lap Badger 600 Micro Series feature.Bogar, Brandon Sletten, Paderta and Norm Ehrke completed the top five. ”Its great to win the championship, we really like running these dirt tracks” commented Paderta, who switched to the series mid-season last year after being involved in several different SCCA Road Racing Series.

SUMMARY
MIDGETS
30-lap Feature: 1. Zach Daum; 2. Brad Kuhn; 3. Billy Balog; 4. Jake Blackhurst; 5. Andrew Felker; 6. Danny Stratton; 7.Parker Price-Miller; Davey Ray; 9. Seth Motsinger; 10. Brandon Waelti; 11. Kurt Mayhew; 12. Cody Weisensel; 13, Bryon Walters; 14. Tyler Thomas; 15. Darren Hagen; 16. Caleb Armstrong; 17. Dalton Armstrong; 18. Garrett Aitken; 19. Daniel Robinson;

10-lap Heat Race Winners: Felker,Thomas, Kuhn.
6-lap Dave Schulenberg Memorial Dash Winner: Robinson.
Fast Time: C. Armstrong, 14.691 seconds.
Cars Present: 22 Feature Lap Leaders: D. Armstrong 1-7, Hagen 8-34, Daum 35-50
* C. Armstrong flipped on Lap 34, Hagen flipped on Lap 34 (restart), Thomas flipped on Lap 36 of feature, no injuries.

600 MICROS
20-lap feature: 1. Vance Lein; 2. Chad Bogar, 3. Brandon Sletten; 4. Matt Paderta; 5. Norm Ehrke; 6. Jason Dull, 7. Trevor McKern, 8. Brian Haugland; 9. Daniel Stefan, 10. Jake Goeglein, 11. Dustin Stefan, 12. Ben Paderta, 13. Dusty Gerrits, 14. Preston Benisch, 15. Scott Crawford, 16. Will Gerrits, 17. Tory Strauss.
10-lap Heat Winners: Ehrke, Lein.
Feature Lap Leaders: Bogar 1-12, Lein 13-20.

Pepsi Nationals Notes:
---Zach Daum's only other Pepsi Nationals start came in 2009, when he finished in 23rd position.
----The win marked the fourth straight Pepsi Nationals victory for engine manufacturer Toyota.
----Bill Ecker used five different drivers: Kuhn, Thomas Meseruall, Casey Shuman, Daniel Robinson and Mike Spencer in Badger competition in the No. 57 car to win the Car Owners Championship.
---Ecker also finished second in last year's event, with Meseruall.
----For the second straight year Dalton Armstrong led the opening lap of the event.
----Eleventh place finishing Kurt Mayhew competed in the first Pepsi Nationals in 1982.
----Six drivers were competing in their first ever Pepsi Midget Nationals, with Balog turning in the best feature finish.

[racenut69]

The Dauminator has had a great week!.....

[johnnythunderhead]

take 2 on this post? first of all congratulations Zach Daum and team/ secondly, a midgets nationals and only 19 cars? where do they hide all the midgets during the racing seasons ? are they allergic to racing outdoors? why is it they never come out until well after the racing season's long over to race em in little indoor facilities????*^*%

[mr nobody]

Central Illinois drivers have been kicking butt as of lately in these big races: Fike winning the Bettenhausen 100, Urish winning the Ted Horn 100 and Daum winning the Pepsi Nationals. Great time to be a race fan in Central Illinois.

[Andrew S. Quinn]

Originally Posted by johnnythunderhead take 2 on this post? first of all congratulations Zach Daum and team/ secondly, a midgets nationals and only 19 cars? where do they hide all the midgets during the racing seasons ? are they allergic to racing outdoors? why is it they never come out until well after the racing season's long over to race em in little indoor facilities????*^*%

Cars Present: 22 Look way up here to read that ^^^^^

You might wanna get your prescription checked on your glasses. Or any other prescriptions for that matter.

[Gapinski]

There was actually 29 different cars that ran during the two days. For the record the most for a Pepsi Nationals was 61 in 1990 with fewest: 17 in 2010.

[johnnythunderhead]

there are only 19 shown as having started the race in the rundown/ my humble apologies, looks as though there were 22/ but hey that's only 3 more than 19

[Vukie]

Originally Posted by Gapinski There was actually 29 different cars that ran during the two days. For the record the most for a Pepsi Nationals was 61 in 1990 with fewest: 17 in 2010.

I was at that 1990 race, SRO that night.

[jdull99]

Was that the one that was on Prime TV?

[hungthrottlepodcast]

As a fan who was there in the stands, it was a great night of racing over all. It was nice to see a lot of cars there in the other divisions as well. And I thought the crowd was good. Hopefully the promoter had a good night between the back gate and the front gate. As a race fan I want Angell Park Speedway to prosper.

As always the midgets put on a heck of a show, whether there are 18 or 30 cars. Daum did a great job of staying smooth the entire race, except for the victory flap jacks.

Maybe somebody could clue me in on the track conditions. It seemed like it was a difficult track. I have never seen the track grade the surface just before the A-main. What was the purpose in doing this and did it make for that giant cushion that guys were having difficulty with?