Saturday August 30th, 2008

The Firemen's Nationals 50

Presented by Pepsi

$15,000 to win and over $35,000 paid out!!

Brady Bacon Wins the Firemen's Nationals

Thirty-four of the best midgets in the country took shots at qulifying for the Fireman’s Nationals presented by Pepsi on Saturday. At $15,000 to win and a total purse of over $35,000, this was one of the riches midget races in the world.

The day started with a big trophy dash payout, as the six fastest Badger regulars drove for a purse of over $3,000 in the Dave Schulenberg Memorial Dash. Jerry Coons Jr. added his name to the unique trophy of trowels as he lead every lap of the event. Schulenberg was a Sun Prairie High School grad, who owned Dave’s Masonry. He was a regular fan at Angell Park Speedway and a sponsor of Brandon Waelti’s car. He was tragically killed while driving home after a midget race in Illinois and since then his family and friends have supported this race in his memory.

Jim Fuerst lead the first heat race of the night from the outside pole. He was able to hold off Tony Stewart Racing’s driver Levi Jones for two laps, before the much stronger Chevy overtook him. Fuerst, who has only made a handful of races this year, was having an excellent run and early-on it looked like he might race his way into the feature. But just before the mid-point of the race he hit the berm hard in turn four, bolting himself to the left and killing his momentum. Much of the field sped by him and his hope of entering the feature cleanly was dashed. Jones took the win.

Tim Noble, a candidate for Badger’s Most Improved Driver award lead early in the second heat after starting on the pole. He was tailed by his teammate, Aaron Fiscus and Brady Bacon. Noble held off the factory-backed Mopar of Bacon until the middle of the race where Bacon got the advantage and went on to the win.

Visiting for the first time this season, from his Ohio home, Matt Westfall lead the third heat at the drop of the green. In a preview of things to come, most cars were opting for the cushion as their preferred line, including the leader and second place car of Brad Kuhn. The Buckeye had been leading the Indiana driver, when on the sixth circuit, coming through turn two, Kuhn swung low, under Westfall, but didn’t quite have him cleared as he came back high. Westfall didn’t back down and the two made contact. Both continued on, with Kuhn in the lead, but Westfall faded. In the end Kuhn got pressure from Dave Darland in the Hans Lein car, but Kuhn’s Fontana was up to the task and he eked out the victory. Westfall missed the transfer spot due to a last lap pass by Darren Hagen.

The last heat saw Chad DeSelle lead early, but at about lap five he gave way to Tracy Hines in the other TSR Chevy. Hines held on for the win.

The semi-feature started with a scary flip as Sun Prairie’s Joe Wipperfurth caught a rut and vaulted his Imhoff/Davis mount over the turn four wall. Emergency vehicles were quick to the scene and it didn’t take long for track announcer Dave Shannon to project the most eagerly anticipated words in midget racing, "He’s out of the car." Soon thereafter Wipperfurth could be seen waiving from the top of the same billboard he conquered. When racing resumed, Chad Boat ,who rode the turn three wall and flipped in his heat, bested the field from start to finish. A teenager, Boat’s car owner is his father, former Indy 500 pole sitter Billy Boat, who has also competed at Angell Park Speedway.

Part of the allure of dirt track racing is how track conditions can change from day to day and sometimes hour to hour. It offers a much less generic surface for a racing contest. Last week’s racing offered two grooves and three wide racing, over the back to back nights with a cushion nearing the wall. Today, the cushion was only about mid-track wide. It didn’t lend itself to three wide racing by virtue of usable space. As they took off at the drop of the green Brady Bacon tried to change that, it seemed. The Oklahoma driver immediately started cutting a groove above the well marked line of previous races, kicking clay as he went. This worked well for the first ten laps as the rest of the field gave chase. A yellow bunched the field with a restart order of Bacon, Coons, Hagen, Ray, Cole Whitt and Mike Hess.

When they took off again, Coons made easy work of Bacon and within five laps the Arizona driver had the field by half a straightaway. In five more circuits Coons started to encounter lapped traffic and Bacon gained a length or two. Most of the lappers kept to the bottom, but an occasional one would stay on the berm. This made for some textbook practice in the art of the slide job. Both Coons and Bacon received high marks as they forged on.

As Coons was cruising, everyone in the park had to be wondering the same thing. No one expected another malfunction by the Wilke car he was piloting. But still, there had to be a nagging worry that the car would not be up to the task, as it has lead and lost so often of late at the speedway. Lap 24 answered the question as Coons appeared to lose power as he rolled to a stop on the track. His team tried to repair the car and while it fired, he pulled out once the green flag flew.

Bacon was again on the point and enjoyed the buffer of two lapped cars between himself and teammate Brad Sweet along with Hagen, Davey Ray in the Fike car, Hines, Hess and Kuhn. Bacon immediately distanced himself as everyone was running on the berm. By lap 30 the running order was basically the same. Bacon had a straightaway on Sweet who had the same distance on Hagen.

Bacon worked lapped traffic well and he met them on lap 36. On lap 41 the Sweet midget started to smoke. Four laps later Sweet banged the cushion hard coming out of four jolting him to the left and then to the right, toward the wall. He appeared to brush the barrier a bit, but he kept charging.

Bacon continued to keep a comfortable lead as they approached the white flag, when Sweet had a review of his lap 41 run. This time he couldn’t hold it and after hitting the front stretch wall he took a nasty tumble past the flag stand. The car landed upright, facing the crowd. He paused for a moment. He then unstrapped, climbed out and promptly spiked his helmet in disgust.

The restart saw Bacon with four lapped vehicles behind him. Hines was in second place behind them. With Bacon dictating the pace and the rule that there is to be no passing until a driver passes the cone located near the push off area, it seemed unlikely Bacon could lose. It took Hines a lap to clear the lapped traffic and he set his sights on Bacon. Had there been another five laps, it looked as if Hines might have had a shot. But that wasn’t the case and Bacon took home the big prize for Mopar and his Kasey Kahne team. After Hines the top five rounded out with Hagen, Kuhn and Scott Hatton.

News and Notes:

Mike Hess sealed the 2008 Badger Driver’s Championship the night before at a race at the Dodge County Fair Grounds. His owner, Jerry Hardy had to wait until tonight to seal the deal for the owner’s crown, which he did.

To date there appears to be no other dirt track that the top teams have contested at least three times this season. This would seem to make Angell Park Speedway a proving ground of sorts. But it only allowed for questions, as the last three features that highlighted the top teams in USAC saw wins by Fontana, Chevy and Mopar. Toyota, with a new driver, was in the top five on two of those nights and Esslinger made the top five, twice.


Brady Bacon is only 18 years old and appears to be the youngest winner of the Nationals. He joins a list of winners which includes National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame members, Billy Englehart, Rich Vogler, Kevin Olson and Kevin Doty.

Aaron Fike hoped to make a run for the $15,000, but a crash the night before left him still suffering and while he was in the pits, he opted to stay out of the cockpit.

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The track prep crew and Angell Park Speedway would like to thank         John Reinen from Brooks Tractor of Sun Prairie for bringing in the big equipment to help us out during the last two weeks or our season.      Thanks a lot John we really appreciate it!!

Race Track Ronnie and Master grader operator Ron Klock really appreciate your help John!

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