The Badger and MARA Midgets brought 37 cars to the Badger opener at Kankakee Speedway on Friday, May 5th. An incredible number of cars considering where Badger was seven years ago. You see, seven years ago Badger was within a vote of going defunct and barely had seven cars left. To put a respectable field of cars together, Badger had to rely on teams from USAC and POWRi. This had not been the case for the majority of Badger’s 80+ year history. Then, in fall of 2015 Badger announced they would change their engine formula requiring production-based engines to reduce cost. They decided to utilize OEM blocks, cyl heads and crankshafts but leave room for performance parts to increase reliability and speed.

The series took a beating from naysayers and even had people conspiring against it behind the scenes. People said the engines would be slow, uncompetitive and would ruin midget racing in Wisconsin among other things. Honestly, I thought they would be slower (but not slow), and I was willing to sacrifice speed for quantity of cars, and to have teams based in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois again. It is well-known that the Badger track record at Angell Park Speedway was set in 1999 by Jerry Coons, Jr in a 155cid Esslinger at 14.1. Not even USAC has been able to break it. However, in just the second night of racing with the new engine formula, the series broke into the 14 second bracket turning laps of 14.9. Since then, the new engine formula has gotten all the way down to 14.4 surpassing everyone’s expectations. The series had the formula right and from there each year has added new cars, teams and drivers.

I implore all of you to please come watch a Badger race in 2023. I started life going to midget races. I raced myself. I was there in the 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000s. When I walk through the pit area of a Badger race today, it feels like I’m transported back to that era. Guys tow with pick-up trucks and have small to average enclosed and even open trailers. The pits are friendly and everyone helps each other where they can. The teams razz each other to get a few laughs and the drivers are respectful to each other on track. You can find at least six different chassis manufacturers represented and there are no less than four different engine makes. Its just good ole grassroots racing amongst guys working 40+ hours a week just to be there again next week. And at the end of the night you might find yourself being offered a beer so you can shoot the bull about what a blast it all was.

You see I don't mind sprint cars, but I love midgets. What Badger has done and is doing with MARA, is preserving midget racing just for people like me.

Check out this highlight video from the Kankakee race https://youtu.be/YPbo16fosrc

Congratulations on a great comeback from near demise. Good luck this season and see you sometime at the track!

I enjoyed my first badger race this past weekend. Great group of welcoming racers to a newcomer with a D-2 car. We made the show and put it in the trailer the way it came out. We will be back when we can!

I should have added that Badger has their own video site called Badger Racing TV as well. If you would like to watch we put all of our events on the web site at http://www.badgerracing.tv For just $10.99 per month or $49.99 per year you can get all the Badger and MARA races on there. We do sometimes do live events as well but those are charged for individually. Badger Racing TV uses the same exact camera equipment that Flo Racing uses, our main videographer worked for Badger before being hired to work for Flo also(he is good), we have scrolling live timing and scoring and the announcer feed is piped into the video as well. It's a professional production.

How does MARA and Badger organization work? Are they the same organization or two series working together?

BMARA (Badger) & MARA are two separate series but BMARA is the sanctioning body for both. Meaning that they have separate schedules, separate points championships, etc. Both use the same rule book and procedures and several of the officials work both series. One thing people don't often realize is that BMARA brings its own officials, radios, timing & scoring equipment, tech equipment, video crew, announcer, tire tuck etc. No different than any other professional racing series. The main difference is the majority of the people are doing it for the love of the sport as a volunteer. Nobody works for the series full time, we all have day jobs.

BMRA has a great thing going I hope they can get a few shows in NE WI. soon. I love watching midgets hopefully they can run more shows at Angel Park with out sprints or lates. Then tend to ruin the track for midgets in my opinion.

Glad to see MARA back. My father ran with MARA in the late 70s and was the 1978 series champ.

We hope to some day have a MARA reunion race and invite all the former drivers, owners, crews, etc to come for a night of racing. We usually have antique cars from years gone by there. We do this for BMARA now once a year at Angell Park. Every five years we do a luncheon and people bring old memorabilia and we take a driver photo of current and past drivers together. Its an awesome thing to be a part of.

I believe this is the formula ARDC is trying to use in the east .