Another beautiful day in Wisconsin with world class hard racing.

Wisconsin brought another day of clear blue skies and temperatures in the low 70’s. It was a pleasure feeling the warm sun after a cold night.   Our driver’s meeting on Sunday included another draw giveaway with a pair of Bridgestone tires and a pair of MG tires.  After its conclusion practice began with a short break before the prefinals started as there were numerous Jr karts that needed a little extra time to get ready.  The Kid Karts almost doubled in size today going from 7 entries to 12.  That's always a positive sign for Karting as this is one of the feeder classes.  Today's activities have taken a little longer today than yesterday.  A nasty collision in turn 6 during the Yamaha Sportsman Lite prefinal brought out the red flag for an injury to Emily Hurlbert .  I haven't been able to confirm, but was told she was okay.  As I am in the process of typing this we are taking a lunch break before we get set for the finals on this beautiful Sunday afternoon in Dousman, WI.

Our little guys were the first ones out on the track to qualify with Luke Fineis capturing his 2nd pole position this weekend with his best time 1.024 seconds faster than the 2nd place qualifier.  As the green flag waves the Fineis brothers jump out front and take the lead.  Right off the start a couple of karts get hooked together off the start but eventually they all get going again.  Around the half way mark there is a 3 way battle for 5th, 6th, and 7th between Parker  Abed, Brandon Prather, and Jayden Larson.   While in the battle, Larson loops it, but keeps it going.  Nearing the end of the race, Mark runs into a little trouble in turn 10, but gets some assistance to get rolling again.  Zach Preiser is able to close up on Mark and takes a look a few times, but is not able to make the pass.  Brandon spins and has a head on collision with Kyle West who is sent about 6 inches in the air.  Kyle lands on 4 wheels and carries on as he never lifted once. This left Luke taking the win, followed by Mark, and Zach.

After the Fineis brothers lead the pack to the green flag for the start of the final, Seth Hickman finds himself in trouble as he starts to spin.  This is no problem for him as he gets it together and carries on.  One of the only battles Luke Fineis has throughout the day is with his brother on the first couple of laps.  As they cross the start finish line after the 1st lap they are side by side.  Like most older brothers, they are always trying to shake off the little brother.  Within a few laps that's exactly what Luke did.  In the initial segment of their 10 lap final, there were heavy battles amongst different packs of karts.  Jayden Larson, Parker, Zach Preiser, Abed, and Kyle West were in the 1st pack.  The 2nd pack battles were between Colby Horn, Alex Button, Carter Cass, Seth Hickman, Jack Vanderboom, and Brandon Prather.  Eventually they began to spread out, but still have several little battles throughout the race.  As Mark Fineis is coming around turn 12 to get the white flag, he decides to help trim the grass along the front stretch.  This little off course trip allowed Zach to get close and they battle it out until the finish.  Our podium finishers today were Luke in 1st, Mark in 2nd, and Zach in 3rd place.

Our Canadian girl, Dominique Van Wieringen gets her 1st pole this weekend.  As the field takes the green flag, the outside line gets a great run, but Dominique takes the inside line into turn 4 and shuts the door.  Josh Holtz, James Bennett, Joel Jens, and Olivia Beam follow in behind her.  As they complete lap 1, James goes underneath Josh to make the pass and take over the 2nd spot.  Shortly after, Joel also makes the pass on Josh and moves into third.  Jeffrey Bartz is able to get by Olivia putting him in the 5th spot.  Dominique and James are able to break free from the pack and begin to pull away as the pack behind them continue to battle it out.  Josh ends up looping it in the hairpin and everyone is able to get around him, but this moves Josh way back in the field.  The top 5 karts finished within 6 seconds of each other, but no one was able to make any moves and the order remained the same.  Dominique is the 1st to see the checker followed closely by James, Joel, Jeffrey, and Olivia.

As they come around to take the green flag for the final, Dominique has the inside position with James beside her on the outside.  They race side by side through the sweeper, but Dominique leads the way as James tucks in right behind her rear bumper.  Jeffrey slides in underneath Joel Jens and takes over the 3rd spot.  As the leaders enter the boot, James crosses over Dominique and takes over the lead.  This allowed James to lead the 1st lap of the final race.  On the 2nd lap Dominique figured she would return the favor and went inside James on the hairpin to take back the lead.  She was not out of the woods yet as she had James, Jeffrey, and Joel right behind her waiting for an opportunity to advance their positions.  On the 3rd lap Joel gets underneath Jeffrey in No Man's Land to take over the 3rd position.  As the laps tick by, the constant battles with karts behind the leaders only help to increase their lead.  James drives a smart and patient race as he is content at this point to ride behind Dominique as he is well aware that if they start to battle it will slow them down and allow the karts behind to catch up.  This way James will have Dominique all to himself when the time is right to make his move.  Around the halfway mark Jeffrey comes to a halt at the top of the hairpin as he lost his chain.  On Lap 13, Olivia goes underneath Joel to take over the 3rd place position.  Christian Besasie ends his day in No Mans Land on lap 14.  After an impressive, clean race between the two drivers, Dominique crosses the line in 1st with James right behind her in 2nd place.  A distance back, Olivia comes in with the last podium spot in 3rd.

The Rookie class didn't let us down today as they once again provided some exciting racing.  The purpose of this class is more of a stepping stone for racers coming from the Kid Karts or for kids just starting out.  Similar to the Yamaha Sportsman class with the main difference being the 3 hole can which acts as a restrictor and reduces the power of these motors.  What is typical in this class are the various lines used by drivers as they are still all in the learning process.  These variations in lines can lead to some very interesting racing and perhaps some really stressed out parents watching on the sidelines. 

In the prefinal they manage to all have a clean start with Grant Griesbach taking the lead from his pole position start, followed by Alex Bertagnoli and Conner Cass.  The top 3 continue to fight it out throughout the race until Alex  has contact in the hairpin and ends up dropping back to the 4th spot.  This allowed the leader, Grant to pull away from Conner sitting in the 2nd spot.  Riley Yates, Justin Wisniewski, Gregory Della, Jaden Fryer, and Alex has numerous battles together throughout the remainder of the race.  I lost track of how many times these guys were going either 2 wide or 3 wide through the corners and making it work.  In the end, Grant finished in 1st place, with Conner in 2nd, and Riley in 3rd.

The action started as soon as the green flag was waved in the final with karts going 3 and 4 wide through the 1st turn.  This action shuffles the running order leaving Justin taking the lead and Alex, Grant, Conner, and Riley behind after the completion of the 1st lap.  Grant is having troubles with his kart and moves back to the 5th spot by the end of the 3rd lap.  Around the halfway mark the leader, Justin get sideways all by himself and allows Conner to take over the lead.  Both Riley and Grant are able to get around Alex on the 7th lap.  The only other spot Grant is able to get back is the 3rd position which he takes over on lap 14.  With this action packed race final complete, Conner takes the win with Justin taking 2nd and Grant finishing in 3rd.

Mike McAndrews takes control of the prefinal after earning the pole position again today.  He is followed by Hannah Roskopf, Tristan Van Wieringen, Brady Dunn, and Anthony Granata.  Brandon Lemke spins off in the boot and retires from the race.  On the 2nd lap Tristan is able to get by Hannah, but by this time Mike has already stretched out his lead.  On the 6th lap Robbie Linell and Emily Hurlbert have some serious contact in turn 6 that sends both karts off the track.  A  few moments later the red flag is waved and the field is brought slowly to a stop on the front stretch.  Meanwhile, the medical crew are out on the track taking a look at Emily who appears to have problems with her hand.  After a few minutes she gets out of her kart and is brought back to the pits in the golf cart and appears to be okay.  Around the same time as that incident occurred, Brady went off in the boot and had to start from the rear on the restart.  After that was taken care of the race began again with a single file restart.  After the race got going again it was Mike out front with Tristan in tow.  A little ways back was Hannah, Grant, and Anthony who were working at trying to get up to the leaders.  Shortly after, Tristan made a few mistakes and falls back from Mike.  Meanwhile, the group of 3 behind Tristan are working together and are finally able to catch him.  Near the end of the race, Grant tries to get by Tristan who wants no part of that and immediately passes him right back.  The checker flag waves with Mike taking the win, Tristan in 2nd and Grant in 3rd.

Mike leads the field to the green and takes control of the race right from the green flag.  Tristan follows right behind for a handful of laps, then begins to fall off the pace of Mike.  As Mike continues to extend his lead Grant, Anthony, and Hannah are on the charge chasing down Tristan.  A little past halfway they finally catch Tristan and on the 12th lap Grant is able to get by Tristan.  Tristan follows in behind the Grant with Anthony and Hannah behind.  Mike takes his 2nd Yamaha Sportsman win this weekend with Grant coming in 2nd and Tristan on his bumper in 3rd place.

In qualifying, Patrick Olsen took the pole in the Komet class, while Shinya Michimi was given the pole as he was the only entry in the Yamaha class.  Since Shinya was the only entry he chose not run the prefinal or the final for this class.

The start had some action as Scott Kopp and Andrew Hobbs went flying into the bags in turn 1 off the start.  Scott was able to continue, but Andrew was left to retire.  The leaders Olsen and Travis Kosik are nose to tail  as they are able to have a little breathing room behind them.  Behind them sat Matt Stagl who had a gap behind him where Brian Weber, Kyle Gluth, and Nick Stagl were running.  Eventually, Patrick begins to break away from Travis as Matt begins to inch towards him. Kyle and Nick are nose to tail also hunting down Matt.  With a few laps to go, Matt is able to make the pass on Travis as does both Nick and Kyle.  In the end, Patrick took the win with Matt in 2nd and Nick taking 3rd.

This was in my opinion, the best race of the day.  Travis will have to start from the rear of the field due to an engine change.  After the green flag waves, everyone makes it through turn 1 except for Brian Weber after he looses his chain.  Matt jumped into the lead off the start, but on the 2nd lap Patrick gets around him and takes over the lead.  At this point the leader starts to pull away as a 5 kart freight train with Matt, Nick, Kyle, and TJ begins to assemble.  Then on the 5th lap, Nick gets by Matt and takes over the 2nd position.  The next lap, Matt attempts to pass Nick back in turn 1 and isn't successful.  Matt continues to stay inside and then completes the pass and by doing so pushes Nick into the grass.  Nick was not liking this and gets back on track in front of Matt, they make contact and get crossed.  The contact with the brothers as well as the other 3 karts behind them cause Matt to get thrown off the track.  Matt regroups and gets back going only to be pushed back into 6th.  They continue to beat and bang around which initially puts TJ into 3rd as by Kyle and Scott quickly get by him.  On lap 12, Nick looses 2 positions when he is passed by Kyle and Scott.  The following lap Scott makes the pass on Kyle, putting him into the 2nd spot.  This race had lots of passing, beating and banging which made for some great racing.  When the checker finally did wave, Patrick took the win with a healthy gap, followed by Scott and Kyle.  In the end, Kyle was DQ'd due to an illegal pulse which moved Nick into the 3rd spot.

Kyle Kalish took the pole and led the field off the start.  Once the 1st lap was in the books, Olivia Beam, Dominique Van Wieringen, Joel Jens, and Josh Hotz followed in behind Kyle.  On the 2nd lap Jeffrey Bartz got around Josh and took over the 5th spot.  Dominique who started in the 2nd spot, gets passed by both Joel and Jeffrey and moves back to the 5th position after 3 laps.  Joel put up a good fight, but on the 9th lap Jeffrey makes the pass.  The positions remained constant until the finish with Kyle in 1st, Olivia in 2nd and Jeffrey taking 3rd.  Josh was only able to get 4 laps in as he saw the mechanical black flag for a loose bumper.

Olivia jumps into the lead after the  start.  Everyone makes it clean through turn 1, but in turn 2 Warner and Dignam make contact, but both are able to get going.  After the 1st lap the order is shuffled around with Olivia, Kyle, Jeffrey, Joel, and Josh rounding out the top 5 spots.  On the 2nd lap, Dominique gets by Josh and takes over the 5th spot.  The following lap has a couple of position changes as Kyle gets around Olivia and takes over the lead, while Joel is able to get around Jeffrey.   The action heats up a little more around the halfway mark as Olivia and Jeffrey make contact which results in Olivia going off the track in No Mans Land  and when she returns she's back in 8th where she will finish the race.  Jeffrey went all the way back to 7th from the contact with Olivia, but was able to work his way all the way up 3rd place which he took away from Dominique on the last lap.  The top 2 spots stayed fairly consistent throughout the race with Kyle taking the win and Joel coming in 2nd.

This prefinal race took the award for the craziest race of the day.  The field had 8 karts sitting on the grid and only 3 karts finished the race.  Hannah Roskopf took the pole, but was not able to start the prefinal as her engine wouldn't start.  This left Tristan Van Wieringen to lead the field to the green.  On the 4th lap Austin Schaff  has problems putting him out of the race.  Then on lap 5, Tristan ends up in the grass after with contact with Travis Lemay who also ends up retiring early.  The 5th kart to finally exit the race was Anthony Granata who saw the mechanical black flag for his bumper coming off.  This left Robert Murray taking the win with Austin Hobbs finishing 2nd and Brandon Lemke taking the 3rd spot.

This final was another race that was packed full of excitement with at least 9 changes for the lead.  After all the activities that took place in the prefinal the field of racers were content for a little less excitement.  Robert Murray led the field to the green, but Austin Hobbs takes over the lead with Tristan, Robert, Travis, and Hannah following.  Tristan takes his time passing Austin, but sees his chance on the exit of 11 & 12 and makes the pass to take over the lead.  Behind him, Robert, Travis and Hannah follow Tristan and also complete the pass on Austin shuffling him from 1st to 5th in one corner.  On the 2nd lap Travis gets around Robert putting himself in 2nd, while Anthony takes the 5th spot over from Austin.  After following Tristan for a few laps, Travis finally gets around Tristan in turn 1 on the 5th lap.  Just past the halfway mark, Tristan returns the favor to Travis and passes him back in turn 1 to assume the lead with Robert right behind him.  Things get busy the next lap as both Robert and Travis get around Tristan.  Then in 5 & 6 Travis takes back the lead from Robert.  Robert fights back in the next few turns and goes underneath Travis in turn 8.  In doing so, the 2 make contact which allows Tristan, Hannah, and Anthony to get by putting those 3 in the top spots.   The order remains unchanged over the next few laps until Hannah gets around Tristan in the sweeper and takes over the lead.  Brandon is able to take over the 5th spot on lap 14 when Travis calls it a day with what appears to be mechanical issues.  As the leaders pass the white flag Tristan starts looking for an opening to take back the lead.  He doesn't find one until they go through the sweeper and for the 4th time in this race, Tristan is back on the leaderboard.  Hannah and Anthony are quickly looking for a spot to take back the lead, but are unable to find the right spot.  Tristan takes his 1st Regional win followed closely by Hanna in 2nd, and Anthony in 3rd.

Only the Rotax Sr class was run again today due to no entries in the Jr class.  Shinya Michimi also decided not to run the prefinal or final in the Sr class which left 2 drivers to fight it out.  Sam Marmurowicz took the pole but Scott Kopp quickly took over the top spot in the prefinal and never looked back.  Sam put on a good fight for half the race, but eventually fell a few karts lengths back and was never able to make the pass.

To help save time, the Rotax Sr final was run with the Leopard Sr class.  On the 1st lap of the final Sam is able to take the lead over Scott until the 9th lap when Scott gets by and moves into the 1st spot.  Scott and Sam trade spots throughout the race providing the most exciting racing on the track.  Then on the last lap, Sam makes the moves on Scott and takes over the top spot and takes the win.

Jamie Sieracki takes the pole, has fast lap in the prefinal and final, leads every lap in the prefinal and final, and wins both the prefinal and the final.  The only other person who pulled this off today was Luke Fineis in the Kid Kart class.  Something every driver dreams of.  These kinds of drivers make it look so easy when we all know how extremely difficult it is. 

As Jamie took command of the race, Mark Vielgut, Andrew Hobbs, and Dillian Kranz follow in behind.  On the 4th lap Andrew is able to slide under Mark and take over the 2nd position.  Dillian makes several attempts at passing Mark as well, but is never able to pull if off. When the prefinal was complete, Jamie took the win with Andrew taking 2nd and Mark taking 3rd.

Just as expected, Jamie jumps out front taking the lead off the start for the final.  Andrew falls in behind in 2nd with Mark, Brian, and Dillian in tow.  Dillian takes over 4th in the hairpin on the 2nd lap pushing Brian back into 5th.  The following lap, Dillian takes a look under Mark in the hairpin as he loses his drive train and quickly ends his day.  Back out front, Jamie is well in control with what looks like a casual Sunday drive.  A few laps later, Mark gets by Andrew taking the 2nd spot.  They continue to battle and Andrew goes around Mark to take back the spot.  On the last lap Christian Vomir loops it in turn 2 taking Laurentiu Marden along for the ride.  Laurentiu is able to get going, but Christian calls it a day.  So as the checker waves, Jamie takes the victory with Andrew taking the 2nd position and Mark coming in 3rd.

Sunday's racing today was all wrapped up by 3:30 that afternoon.  There was talk in the driver's meeting that morning about adding more laps to the program.  The discussion concluded that while most would have liked the extra laps, it made more sense to finish up a little early giving everyone a bit more time travelling home.  The combination of knowledge and experience between The Badger group and the MWSS group made the day run smoothly and got everyone travelling home at a decent hour.

Throughout the day today, I went back and took a look at the numbers from last year's event at Badger.  This 2009 event was a direct comparison to this year's event except for the exclusion of the 4 stroke entries this year.  When doing my calculations I removed the 4 stroke entries for comparison.  What I did discover surprised me as I was expecting a different outcome.  Here's how the numbers shook out.

Kid Karts = 0

Sportsman = 46

Junior = 50

Senior = 39

Kid Karts = 20

Sportsman = 62

Junior = 38

Senior = 38

As you can see this year's event had 23 more entries than last year.  The additional 23 entries consisted of 20 kid karts, 16 additional sportsman entries, and the reduction of 12 entries in the Junior classes and 1 in Seniors.   This comparison clearly shows the Kid Kart classes are a great asset to the series (for more than this).  I'm willing to bet the drop in the Junior numbers is a reflection of the "participation bonus" for the Man Cup.  The increase in the Sportsman entries is due mainly to the Rookie class addition to the program on both Saturday and Sunday.  Again, I see this Rookie class as a great asset to the series.  Its likely it would do well in the Man Cup if given the proper promotion and attention.

This analysis of course is only a small snapshot of one event and the balance of the season will give us a better idea of the impact this rule change could or could not bring to the Regional level.  Myself and several others are not big fans of this new bonus as we feel participation in the Regional Series should not have any impact on the Man Cup Championships.  The only thing at the National Level that should determine these Championships are results.  Many of us were also not fans of the old Regional Points transfer method.  These transfer points had a huge significance on the overall Championship results.  Perhaps this method would make more sense if there were more Regional Series available in all areas of the country.  Many portions of the country are without a Regional Series making it very difficult to obtain these transfer points.  I don't see either option to be the right answer.  As its always best to part of the solution rather than be part of the problem, I'm at a loss for the right solution.

On another real positive note, anyone that was not at the Badger Raceway this weekend truly missed out on some top quality racing.  For all you drivers that raced this past weekend, please stand up and take a bow.  For all the parents, we should all be very proud our kids as they were outstanding this weekend.  This was a weekend packed full of good, hard, CLEAN racing.  Sure there may have been the odd questionable moment, but that was rare.  This group of MWSS racers are a fine example of how racing can and should be done.  You don't have to be dirty or reckless to win a race.  I saw many races with the 2nd place kart right on the rear bumper of the leader on the last lap.  None of these 2nd place drivers dive-bombed the leader or stuck in when they should have stayed in line.  Nor did you see the lead pack coming across the finish line in the grass.  You didn't see some of the faster drivers coming up through the pack when unfortunate circumstances had them starting in the rear, knocking other karts off the track so they could make their charge to the front must faster.  You didn't see the scary 1st turn and 1st lap wrecks that normally take place in 90% of the Sportsman and Junior classes.

What you did see was good hard racing done right.  You saw drivers racing behind other drivers who were possibly equally as fast, but not forcing the issue and causing accidents.  These drivers were respectful to their competitors and allowed everyone to be able to race.  They respected their mechanics and parents who put in a lot of time and effort and finances in order for them to be racing.  You saw drivers finishing in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th with dignity and class.  On the cool off laps you might have seen drivers racing up to the guys in front of them, only to give them a high five.  At the scales you didn't here the complaints, but saw many drivers jumping to get out of their karts to give their competitors a handshake or a pat on the back.  You saw many parents shaking the hand of other parents all with proud smiles on their faces.  Helping your fellow competitors was also the common theme as people were lending a helping hand in many different ways.  Some were helping tune other fellow competitor's karts or giving one of their spare motors in hopes of helping someone else get a little faster.  At the end of the event people weren't standing around adding up the bill for their damaged karts or thinking about how they may have finished if they hadn't been carelessly knocked off the track.  I didn't leave the track this weekend feeling frustrated with mixed emotions.  How I did leave the track, was feeling proud to be a part of this fabulous MWSS racing series.

-Janine Van Weiringen