Bruns picks up long awaited win at Angell Park
By Zach Tasker
On Sunday night July 14 the Illini Racing Series midgets invaded Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin for the finale of their exciting double header weekend. Less than 24 hours before their visit to one of midget racing's most storied venues, the series was at Sycamore Speedway. Mike Anderson bounced back from adversity to win and was hoping to pull off the double. 19 cars started the 20 lap feature with Scott Koerner and Bob Shreffler on the front row. As always Angell Park Speedway was perfectly groomed and the racing didn't disappoint. Pre race favorite and heat race number one winner Kurt Mayhew would have his race come to a screeching halt six laps in as he would get loose coming off of turn 4 and flip on his lid. Defending champion Patrick Bruns would restart the race in the lead with a hungry pack of drivers behind him.
Ray Seach was one of those drivers, establishing himself as a contender earlier in the night by dominating heat race number two. Seach looked to have a shot at catching Bruns but every time his car would come off of turn 2 or 4 the car would stumble and fall backwards before picking up pace again. It was clear something was a miss with the Laverne Spencer owned midget, but Seach would do his best to salvage a top spot. Meanwhile throughout the whole race the man putting on a show was Buddy Luebke. The Angell Park Speedway veteran started dead last in the 19 car field and had methodically picked off many cars throughout the whole night. The only motorcycle engine powered car in the IRS field was flying. After a lap 17 spin by Jeff Zelinski, Luebke would restart in 2nd position right on the tail on Bruns with a serious shot at winning. Bruns executed the restart perfectly but Luebke was still right on his tail. As the white flag flew the fans went into a frenzy as Luebke dived low and Bruns took to the top side as he had all night. The pair stayed side by side for almost the entire final lap with Bruns just eeking out the victory in a photo finish. The official margin of victory was 0.4 seconds, by far the closest feature margin of victory this season.
This was a statement win for Bruns, as last years IRS champion had yet to see victory lane this year with a new car and engine package. "It means a ton. I think it means a ton to anybody when they win any race. This one especially though for the challenges we have experienced this summer with what we have had to overcome. Those last couple of laps racing with Ray Seach and Buddy Luebke proves that you can race close and hard I can race with those guys like that every single night, that was awesome. That was open wheel racing right there, that was perfect." The driver of the #83 Full Throttle Racing/JET Motorsports/Cains Marine Welding/Tin Cup RV Park/Advanced Financial/Mobil 1/Triple T Car Wash & Lube/Depke Gases & Welding Supplies Beast/Ecotec wasn't about to let his race slip away with a late race restart "I felt pretty confident because I had some good guys behind me and they weren't going to pull any shenanigans so I was really confident and these guys put on a good clean race and I would love to race with Ray Seach and Buddy Luebke like that all night that was fun." The Champaign, Illinois native was wanting to add to his trophy collection as much as possible this summer as his wife is expecting the birth of their second child in the coming weeks.
Fan favorite Buddy Luebke almost did the impossible, starting dead last in the 19 car field and being inches away from winning the feature. The driver of the #43 Ricks East Side Bar & Grill/Acorn Beverage/Out Pace Racing Products Sipel/Suzuki was on a mission "We had a pretty good night tonight. I had my uncle Tom down here and a couple of my cousins helping me out and Toms 30 years plus experience helped on the setup tonight, we were fast. On that last caution when I realized I was in 3rd place I saw the flagman holding the move over flag in his hand and I was worried about the leaders coming behind me. I didn't realize we were running 3rd. We had a really good time tonight. Most of these guys race you real clean and leave you plenty of room and I think you will see more of us."
Ray Seach would end up nursing his car home in 3rd position ahead of Lamont Critchett and Sean Murphy. Normally 3rd would be a good result to go home with but a dejected Seach knew victory could have been his "We just had motor issues, I think it was something electrical. The motor just died by itself. I flipped the switch and pumped the throttle and it would fire back up and take back off but we should have had the win. We had a late yellow with 3 laps to go and the temperature was 240 and if it was a little bit earlier in the race I would have pulled in but I was determined to just throw a slider going into one and hope for the motor stayed running for the last 3 laps. That was all I could hope for, it just didn't turn out that way." The driver of the #24 Manic Racing/A&G Motorsports/DSR Mechanical Stealth/Ecotec was the winner of the nights second heat race after a frantic start in which pole sitter Brian Dobis had motor issues stacking up the field "We just started 4th and got on the outside going into turn 1 and put the peddle down, kept it on the floor and stayed on the cushion and that was enough."
The Illini Racing Series now heads back to the pavement at Rockford Speedway on Saturday night July 20.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS:
Feature (20 L): 1) #83 Patrick Bruns 2)#43 Buddy Luebke 3)#24 Ray Seach 4)#77 Lamont Critchett 5)#5 Sean Murphy 6)#7 Mike Anderson 7)#53 Aaron Schuck 8)‪#‎9k‬ Scott Koerner 9)#54 Jason Allen 10)#52 Mike Gass 11)#21 Bob Shreffler 12)#31 Kourtnay Borman 13)#4 Eric Greenup 14)‪#‎21k‬ Kurt Mayhew 15)#15 Jeff Zelinski 16)‪#‎2a‬ Andrew Hennig 17)#0 Doug Orseske 18)#6 Eddie Sauer 19)#17 Brian Dobis

Heat race #1 (8 L): 1)#21k Kurt Mayhew 2)#83 Patrick Bruns 3)#21 Bob Shreffler 4)#53 Aaron Schuck 5)#7 Mike Anderson 6)#43 Buddy Luebke 7)#77 Lamont Critchett 8)#54 Jason Allen 9)#4 Eric Greenup 10)#2a Andrew Hennig

Heat race #2 (8 L): 1)#24 Ray Seach 2)#5 Sean Murphy 3)#9k Scott Koerner 4)#52 Mike Gass 5)# 15 Jeff Zelinski 6)#0 Doug Orseske 7)#31 Kourtnay Borman 8)#6 Eddie Sauer 9)#17 Brian Dobis