BMARA engine rules are now D-II
 

Badger Midgets Set For New Engine Rules For 2015
Nine events slated for Angell Park
Sun Prairie, Wis., Jan. 11---Officials of the Badger Midget Auto Racing Association (BMARA), have announced major rule changes, affecting open wheel racing's oldest active sanctioning organization.
After several recent general and Board of Director Meetings, the new "rules package" will be utilized for the 2015 racing season. The rule changes have been made due to diminishing car count in the Wisconsin and Northern Illinois area.
Badger will implement an OEM set of rules for engines currently in place with several organizations. "These rules will implement cost savings to our competitors for years to come and revitalize Badger's future" commented Quinn McCabe.
The rules allow all production passenger car engines, with a maximum displacement of 2.4 liters (146.457 CID). Engines must be four (4) cylinder inline and have no more than four (4) valves per cylinder to compete.
All production passenger car engines must use the original manufacturer's OEM block, an OEM cylinder head, and an OEM crankshaft combination that was produced from the factory.
All current purpose built "National Type" midget racing engines are encouraged to compete, but will be restricted. A complete outline of rules will be released shortly.
Badger has also reached an agreement with Angell Park Speedway (Sun Prairie, Wis.) to run nine events during the 2015 season. The Angell Park dates along with a complete Badger Midget and Badger 600 Micro Series Schedules will be released in late January.

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Is this the start of it all?!?!

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C'mon, Badger; go the distance and give the Chain Gang a little love.
Everybody sing like Aretha: "Chain, chain, chain"...

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This is wonderful news. Finally a group stepping forward and doing something about engine rules.

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Welcome to the twenty first century! We've put several years into developing our Honda motors and look forward to expanding their use beyond the Illini Racing Series. The Ford Mazda 2.3 liter Duratec, the 2.4 liter Chevy Ecotec, the Dodge/Jeep/Hyundai/Kia/ Mitsubishi "World motor" 2.4 liter, and Toyota 2.4 liter, and Subaru 2.3 liter are all worthy of midget use. Most of these motors have "tuner" support for world rally or drag racing use.
It could be another golden age of midget racing like the early 1980s when people built their own VW motors.

This will be a very interesting test, pending of course what their finalized rules come out to be. Playing devils advocate one could say they are almost alienating their current national engine owning members. But the series definitely needs to move in a direction that is in their best interest.

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Finally, the light has come on! Bob

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WOW..... I sure hope they immediately see 30 car fields every time they unlock the gates. Props to Badger for having the sack it takes to make a move like this.

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My desire to be able to race my chain-drive relic is genuine if not somewhat tongue-in-cheek. In all seriousness, however, this could either be the start of a grassroots sea-change, or the opening of Pandora's Box, all hanging on the ability of BMARA (and all other D-II organizations, for that matter) to contain costs and preserve the integrity of the spirit of the rules.
My hope is for the grassroots revolution, even if it forces me to eventually straddle a torque tube...

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Looks like them guys up there have been reading IOW, doesn't it. They are just a tad too far away for us to venture but their are quite a few chain drive midgets from up there that would be more than happy to help them fill out their field.

Some people do not realize just how fast some Mini sprints really are. The best example of this would probably be last summer up at Montpelier Speedway. MMSA had gotten rained out one weekend and we wanted to race. Montpelier had posted a $100.00 bonus for the top finishing division II type Midget. We got there late and Doug had to start the tail of the last heat. After passing 5 or 6 cars in his heat they had someone hike all the way over to the Back straight away pits (God's Country) to make sure we had not slipped in with a National Midget Motor.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

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Hold onto the reins, keep ya feet in the stirrups.... watch...listen and learn....BIG NEWS coming down the pike!!
As dad aka Bill and I have pointed out before:

The chain drives and shaft drives look the same to those PAYING you to entertain them...as long as everyone is competitive and no one inite is dominate over the other. midget racing will become a staple as it use to be back in the day.....This all begins in Feb. at the Gator"DIRT"Nationals in Florida 2015. With over 50 entrants and almost every engine combination within the rules of the Division II Midgets that co-exist within the 9 different clubs/series

We also have several types of engines coming to.race at DuQoin. Looking to have a large field of cars from numerious sportsman midget series and lightning sprint series racing together.

This is great news for midget racing in the midwest. This rules package has already been proven to work and be very competitive with both the chain drive and shaft drive cars. The IMRA midget series, Montpelier midgets, and the allstar midget series have all been combining chain drive midgets and shaft drive midgets in competition with great success and growing car counts. I would like to see everyone get on the same rules package to help the class grow even more. It would be nice to travel to different states and compete knowing everyone's cars are legal. I think this will happen soon. Good job Quinn McCabe and the whole BMARA crew. We look forward to racing our midget with you!

And please help support the duquoin race feb. 7th. This could end up being a huge deal for the class. Who knows,maybe even turn into our own version of the chili bowl down the road!!

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Not much left to alienate, this is a good move and should have happened along time ago. Elections do have consequences, good move. And it's not going to take much to bring the "nationals" to where everyone is competitive.

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I wish midgets would come back to the Michigan area....I'd have one.

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I am also very excited to see this happen. The writing for this has been on the wall for quite a while. I do have some comments:

1. As mentioned earlier, there needs to be a "common" rules package that all of the various groups agree to. Else, we are going to have what we have with the 305's. The more there are different rules the less economical it will be.

2. It will be interesting to see how the fans at Angell Park react. It is such a great place to watch Midgets.

3. It will be interesting to see what happens to the traditional races at Angell Park. The Pepsi Nationals and the Fireman Nationals were always great races. I guess we now know why the POWRi shows at Angell Park were not co-sanctioned with Badger. I wonder if this is the end of Kevin Brown being the Angell Park promoter.

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I wish people would quit putting titles on midgets that happen to run 4 valve overhead cam engines. You are doing a disservice to midget racing by doing so. The Badger Midgets are the Badger Midgets regardless of the engine package. If you want to call midgets in Florida D2 or whatever, that is your prerogative, but don't put a title on something that isn't yours to put titles on!! I see guys run Ecotecs and Hondas with POWRi quite often but people don't point at them and say "hey theres a D2 midget running with other midgets." In fact, if I do recall correctly, a 4 valve overhead cam engine has run in the top 5 in POWRi competition as recent as last year and another won with NEMA as recent as last season.

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I would just call them Midgets also , adding D2 or limited to the name gives the impression it is something other than the real McCoy, waiting to see if EFI & or chain drive is in !

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Roy & Ray

Amen. Midget is just fine. The hot shoes can call themselves something with an adjective in front of it if they wish. It would however be neat to get Speedway Motors as a sponsor. Then we could call this particular class "Speedway Midgets".

As far as national rules, that is a progressive's way of saying bigger is always better. This is a big old country that we are blessed to live in, and customs, available machinery and personal taste may add many options that might not fit everybody's idea of a racing organization. Maybe a standard guide line but any time you put in place a one size fits all rule book you stifle a trait that I value very dearly and that is Competition. Their are many many many people out there with ideas some good some bad. Competition will bring out the best. Then If someone comes up with a really good set of rules others will follow and plagiarizer these rules as their own . It has happened in the past and I suspect it will happen in the future. With the rules as they exist in most of the non National groups we could make a few changes and race with them at our option right now.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

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I wish people like ray3 would quite trying to bust somebody elses balls when it does not pertain to them. Ray3 has come on my facebook and ridicule me there and of course he can't LEAVE it alone so he has to find other outlets. The good thing about it, at least he is leaving someone else alone.....thank you for all the support R.R.

I dont think the intention is to alienate anyone. A "national" engine could easily be restricted by placing smaller I.D. injector stacks on the engine. That would give everyone a more equalized playing field. If the cheaper engines can be competitive or win a few shows, there becomes less reason for a guy to go spend $35k on a brand new engine. Good move I think, I also think USAC is placing themselves in a manner to go down this exact same road. For the record....there arent any $50k midget engines out there, if someone says that, they havent done their research. Also, there are alot of front running, competitive guys that run their engines more than 15-20 nights between rebuilds (also a misnomer by many who speak without really knowing).

Agreed that they should just call them Midgets. All the different variations does nothing to help the sport. It confuses the fans and waters down the "championship titles" that used to be special and coveted. Case in point.....USAC has the ignite series, formerly Ford Focus, how many Champions do they have each year? The answer is, too many for it to mean anything....it has been too watered down. Same thing with the "National Champion." A few years back when Kevin Miller thought by crowning more "Champions" he would increase car counts. So they crowned a pavement, a dirt, and an overall "Champion." What a great idea, car counts continued to drop, point funds were split up to the point of not worth much and there were so many "Champions" the fans were confused and everyone gets a trophy like it is little league.

You all know what a midget is, if you have one, call it a midget. If you dont, dont do the midget world a disservice by calling it one.

Personally speaking, not bashing anyone, I think they need drivelines and no chains at a minimum to be competing on some of these tracks. The chain seems like a safety concern to me.

Good move by Badger to try and rejuvenate racing in a area with such great heritage.

Now, for everyone that has been begging for this to happen, get out there and support these guys.

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Rule Number 1 race on 3/8 mile and below race tracks, in fact make most of them less than a 1/4 mile. With a chance to win $500.00 for winning the main, I don't think we will be traveling a whole lot. I guess the national class would be for the guys that liked to travel and could write off the expenses. When we started out racing Mini Sprints going to Chillicothe Ohio was considered a major road trip. A big cost in running big tracks and pavement is Horsepower, then we are negating the purpose of this class. I don't see any thing inherently dangerous with chain as a drive option I do think with a Z link suspension changing gear ratio is a real pain. Don't run off your competitors the way some groups have already become so good at doing.

Know anybody that has a deal on a Toyota Motor? With restrictors that is for the injectors? Maybe to start out with an old National motors would be OK but when that next $3000.00++ freshen up rolls around why not just get an Echotec and race for a couple of years on it. Granted an under stressed National motor would be much cheaper to maintain and would not require all the high dollar internals to perform in this class.

When USAC decided to have a dirt champion and an pavement champion what happened to the pavement series? Why?

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Again it's hard to say until the actual rules are posted. I just hate to see rule changes made without empirical data to back them up and no matter what happens at least this will help with that. Hopefully this will help them grow either way.

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Kellen

The data is>>>>> they were running out of cars. They have always been a club that did not march to the same drummer as other groups and when they tried the high dollar deal they shot themselves in the foot. I guess you might say that they are going back to their roots.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Chain welcome

I get that part, but at one point everyone wanted the VW gone too and now some wish we were back to those days. I simply mean I would like to see actual dyno comparisons between different motors, injection restrictors have been mentioned before but hardly could be a one size fits all deal I would think. Again I have no doubt they are doing what they feel is in their best interest and that's great for them.

No intake restrictions on the national engines. Make them add weight and maybe a hard RR.

And a rr tire size restriction like montpelier does national motor cars are limited to 10" rr where as minisprints and other motors are allowed 13"

This Ohio State vs Oregon game is awesome!!!

The chains aren't safe? Seriously? Their are many micros, 600s and lightning sprints running around that are chain driven and ain't no chains hurt anybody. I love midgets and I own and drive a lightning sprint cause I cannot afford a midget. If this idea up there is adopted everywhere I could afford a midget. I think the only problem here is the midget owners hate it when they get beat by the chain driven car, and that can and will happen when these cars are run together, on the 1/4 miles.

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Steve we the SSMS have been running both the last 4 years without ANY safety issues at all and a few of those races have been on 4/10 and 1/2 mile tracks.....I WORKS and all e entities Lightning/Focus-Ecotec/(older) 166 midgets (with Harder RR) are competitive racing together

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Actually, at MMS "National" Midgets have to be 1050lbs and run a 10" RR rim, not tire; "Older" and "Stock Block", no minimum weight, 10" rim; Motorcycle Power (1000cc and up the only restriction) no weight limit, 12" rim. Personally, I like the Montpelier "Less is More" rulebook philosophy and it seems to be working.
As far as a safety risk goes, I've heard of a lot more incidents when a torque tube has gotten loose and wrecked a driver's ankles and legs than I have of chains causing any problems. Proper maintenance and setup and a good chainguard should keep things relatively calm. US Mini/Lightning Sprints aside, look at the New Zealand TQ's; almost all of them run a transverse engine and chain drive these days with no issues that I've seen in video from Western Springs. Notice almost all of them run hairpins, which is a big help in matching suspension geometry with the arc of the chain.

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Kellen

The way I remember VW's was one in the car>>>>> one at the shop>>>>>and one somewhere between home and Auto-Craft. I do miss that chirping noise they used to make.

Lets not get too technical, leave that to the racers, we sure don't want Humpey Wheller to come in and talk us into racing 600 Midgets using his parts only to keep us on the up and up.

Go to IRS (Illini Racing Series) racing and read their rules talk about specific, I have read them three times and probably will need a couple of more times to understand them. They do seem pretty comprehensive. They are also right up by Angel Park and would be ready made racers wanting someplace else to race.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Wayne, I was being sarcastic about the chains not being safe, refering to BKuhn's post below where he says the chain is a "safety concern".

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I actually agree with this. Every single time the Illini Midgets were at Angell Park, the fans would go get their concessions/go to the bathroom when they were on the track. Constantly mumbling how they "slow midgets" were on the track. I would always stay and watch because the racing was actually better than the national midgets in most cases. Yes, the speed isnt there, but I am a fan of wheel to wheel racing (part of the huge reason I LOVE Indiana bullrings). I hope they can just call them midgets and not do anything that might deter the speed freaks from coming to watch a show.

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If the Illini cars were on the undercard of a national midget event then it does pose a little brother problem. However, if the Illini group is the only midget program on the card then the casual fan won't notice the slower speeds- just the top notch racing.

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One thing that differentiates the Illini group (and probably slows them down a bit) is that they run Dwarf Car tires. I'm not a fan of that particular rule.

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That's the only way they can make running pavement affordable. So :6:

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Jim Jones

It was once said that the goal of winning any race was to win it at the slowest possible speed. If everybody is racing on them skinny tires the racing is going to be as good or better than racing on tires that allow more horsepower to be delivered to the race track.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

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Jim Gardner

First thing off the bat>>>> Happy Birthday kiddo.:):)

I questioned their choice in restrictor sizing and method for determining the proper size of restrictor but then I looked at the tracks that they race on and most of them are just big old Dynamometers anyhow. I guess in 20+ years of racing they should know what works for them.

With this engine rule package and tire requirements, a guy could race with them all year long with a National Midget motor and then if he wished could remove the restrictors and tires and race with the National Bunch, when they came to town.

On the other hand a guy could take an Echotec powered car and install a modified head package and race it with the National bunch also if they would allow a stock block 2.4 liter x 4 valve engine to compete.

Honest Dad himself:6::6: