7.16.22 Badger Midgets Results

It’s been nearly three years since Zach Boden last tasted victory with the Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midget Series. The perennial contender had been so close so many times since last crossing the finish line first in 2019 at the Wilmot Raceway.

However, after Saturday night at Plymouth, Boden is the bridesmaid no longer.

Second place starting Aaron Muhle took the lead early in the 25 lap Badger Midget A Main, with Kevin Douglas, RJ Corson and pole-sitter Kyle Koch close behind. 10th starting Boden and series points leader Todd Kluever began their charge through the field as Muhle built an advantage out front by lap 3. After slight contact between Kluever and Dave Collins Jr., Boden cleared those two drivers and soon after took over the second spot with a slide job on RJ Corson’s #15 machine.

Todd Kluever began to follow Boden through the front runners and overtook Kevin Douglas and Corson for the third spot on lap 7. Meanwhile, Boden started to reel in Muhle for the top spot. With 17 laps remaining Boden caught the #24M car of Muhle and almost simultaneously, 7th place Kyle Stark got high off of turn 4 and slapped the front stretch wall and slowed dramatically. Stark was desperately trying to make his way off the racetrack in the turn 3 track exit, and at the same time Boden and Muhle hurtled side by side off of turn 2. Boden split the gap between Muhle and the ailing Stark with a daring move down the back straightaway and ripped the cushion through turns 3 and 4 to take over the lead.

One lone caution flew with 5 laps to go for a spun #10 car of Denny Smith, but Boden would not be denied on the restart and pulled away to capture his first AFS Badger Midget win of 2022. Aaron Muhle held off Todd Kluever to take 2nd, Rj Corson finished 4th and Daltyn England rounded out the top 5 cars.

“It feels amazing after the last couple of weeks we’ve had.” Boden said about the win. “We definitely gave one away at Angell Park earlier this year so to win one like this at this track is just awesome. The track was great tonight and the car felt amazing. Just a really solid night for the whole team.”

Zach Boden nearly swept the night at Plymouth, taking the evening’s Schoenfeld QuickTime Award, the Advanced Racing Suspension’s Hard Charger Award and charging from 8th to 2nd in Simpson Race Products Heat 2 which was won by Aaron Muhle, while last week’s feature winner Kyle Stark took Auto Meter Heat 1. Saturday’s Oliver Motors Last Place Bonus went to Jace Sparks, and Dave Collins Jr. took home the Howard Law Cash Draw.

On Sunday, the AFS Badger Midgets headed south to the Angell Park Speedway for the Salute to Brian Gapinski night at the legendary 1/3-mile oval. Aaron Muhle once again found himself starting on the front row of the A Main, this time on the pole with “The Mad Man” Matt Recheck to his outside. Both Recheck and Muhle call Beaver Dam, WI home and both hail from Modified racing backgrounds.

On the initial start, Recheck flew around the #24M of Muhle and grabbed the top spot, taking the #2 of Kyle Stark with him. The top two cars started to pull away, with Muhle having to defend 3rd place from the #55 of Todd Kluever, and Brandon Waelti’s #3B machine not too far behind.

As the race reached the 20 laps to go mark, Stark pulled right up to the rear bumper of Recheck, but struggled to find a way by until lap 6 as “The Mad Man” got held up by a lapped car and Stark made a bold three wide move to the inside of both cars to take the lead, but it would be all for naught as the caution flag flew for a slowing Brandon Waelti on the front stretch.

The caution put Recheck back into the lead with Stark in 2nd and Aaron Muhle in 3rd. The green flag flew with 19 laps remaining and Recheck got out to another fantastic start as Stark once again had to reel in the #38 car. With 17 laps to go, Stark once again began to hound Recheck for the top spot, trying every line on the technical Angell Park track surface to get by the #38. On lap 13, Stark made another bold move to the inside of Recheck and the lapped car of Harrison Kleven to try and take the top spot but Recheck proved too strong on the top shelf and maintained the lead.

Just three laps later while in thick traffic, Stark and Recheck were forced to split lapped cars in turn one and briefly made nose to tail contact, but both drivers got back up on the wheel and saved their cars as the race hit 9 laps to go. However, the contact brought the #55 of Kluever back into the mix for the lead. Two laps later, Recheck went to the bottom in turn one and Stark seized the opportunity to rip the top and eclipsed the #38 for the lead, but once again the caution flew. This time for the slowing #28 of Jim Fuerst.

On the restart, Recheck ran a bottom to high line in turns one and two and cut off Stark’s run on the top side. Kluever nearly overtook the #2 car for 2nd but Stark held strong on the cushion. With 5 laps to go, the top 3 cars ran nose to tail on the top side of the speedway with Stark and Kluever trying absolutely everything to get by Recheck for the lead, but once again the caution flew this time for 4th running Derek Doerr. The DNF ended a run of three consecutive Top 5 finishes for Doerr.

While under caution, series points leader Todd Kluever pulled his 3rd running #55 car into the infield and retired with an apparent mechanical issue, which handed the 3rd spot over to the #51 of Zach Boden. The green flag dropped with just 4 laps to go, and Recheck pulled away slightly from the #2, but Stark drove into turn one incredibly hard on the final lap in one final attempt to overtake the #38, but Stark biked on the cushion and dropped back. Matt Recheck pulled away to take his first career Badger Midget win.

“It feels unreal to be standing up here.” Recheck said in victory lane. “We struggled all night and made some changes for the feature that really woke the car up. Lapped traffic tried to steal one from us again but we’re standing here in Victory Lane and that’s all that matters.”

Sunday’s Schoenfeld QuickTime Award went to Jeff Zelinski, Auto Meter Heat 1 was won by Aaron Muhle and Daltyn England took the checkered flag in Simpson Race Products Heat 2. Jake Dohner won the night’s Madison Extinguisher Service Last Chance Qualifier. Harrison Kleven went home with the Howard Law Cash Draw, and the Oliver Motors Last Place Bonus went to Jordan Nelson. The Cartopia “Hard Luck Award went to Mike Stroik.

The Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midgets will return this Saturday, July 23rd at the Sycamore Speedway in Maple Park, IL where most recently Todd Kluever went to Victory Lane. Limited Late Models, Street Stocks and Pure Stocks will join in on the action, with opening ceremonies set to get underway at 6PM.

Plymouth Dirt Track 7/16/22 Results
A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:08:13.769 | Advance Fastening Supply

51-Zach Boden[10]; 2. 24M-Aaron Muhle[2]; 3. 55-Todd Kluever[8]; 4. 15C-RJ Corson[6]; 5. 19E-Daltyn England[7]; 6. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[5]; 7. 5K-Kevin Douglas[3]; 8. 59-Kyle Koch[1]; 9. 9S-Mike Stroik[14]; 10. 28-Jim Fuerst[11]; 11. 56-Charles Rufi[12]; 12. 98-Jordan Nelson[17]; 13. 29-Harrison Kleven[15]; 14. 10-Denny Smith[19]; 15. 45KW-Trey Weishoff[13]; 16. 2-Kyle Stark[9]; 17. 8-Jake Goeglein[16]; 18. 40J-Jace Sparks[18]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:05:58.000 | Simpson Race Products

24M-Aaron Muhle[4]; 2. 51-Zach Boden[8]; 3. 15C-RJ Corson[6]; 4. 55-Todd Kluever[7]; 5. 9K-Bryon Walters[5]; 6. 28-Jim Fuerst[3]; 7. 45KW-Trey Weishoff[9]; 8. 29-Harrison Kleven[1]; 9. 10-Denny Smith[2]
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:02:31.000 | Auto Meter

2-Kyle Stark[8]; 2. 19E-Daltyn England[7]; 3. 59-Kyle Koch[1]; 4. 5K-Kevin Douglas[5]; 5. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[6]; 6. 56-Charles Rufi[2]; 7. 9S-Mike Stroik[10]; 8. 8-Jake Goeglein[9]; 9. 98-Jordan Nelson[4]; 10. (DQ) 40J-Jace Sparks[3]
Qualifying 1 100 Laps | Schoenfeld Headers

51-Zach Boden, 00:13.186[12]; 2. 2-Kyle Stark, 00:13.492[14]; 3. 55-Todd Kluever, 00:13.511[13]; 4. 19E-Daltyn England, 00:13.699[7]; 5. 15C-RJ Corson, 00:13.773[11]; 6. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr, 00:13.775[4]; 7. 9K-Bryon Walters, 00:13.802[1]; 8. 5K-Kevin Douglas, 00:13.854[8]; 9. 24M-Aaron Muhle, 00:13.928[18]; 10. 98-Jordan Nelson, 00:13.977[6]; 11. 28-Jim Fuerst, 00:14.344[2]; 12. 40J-Jace Sparks, 00:14.694[10]; 13. 10-Denny Smith, 00:14.785[19]; 14. 56-Charles Rufi, 00:14.790[3]; 15. 29-Harrison Kleven, 00:14.794[17]; 16. 59-Kyle Koch, 00:14.899[15]; 17. 8-Jake Goeglein, 00:15.272[5]; 18. 45KW-Trey Weishoff, 00:15.456[9]; 19. 9S-Mike Stroik, 00:19.000[16]
Angell Park Speedway “Salute to Brian Gapinski” 7/17/22 Results
A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:14:53.000 | Advance Fastening Supply

38-Matt Rechek[2]; 2. 2-Kyle Stark[4]; 3. 51-Zach Boden[9]; 4. 15Z-Jeff Zelinski[10]; 5. 24M-Aaron Muhle[1]; 6. 21K-Kurt Mayhew[3]; 7. 5K-Kevin Douglas[12]; 8. 87-Jake Dohner[16]; 9. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[15]; 10. 56-Charles Rufi[17]; 11. 8-Jake Goeglein[19]; 12. 59-Kyle Koch[13]; 13. 29-Harrison Kleven[20]; 14. 10-Denny Smith[14]; 15. 4-Brad Hensen[21]; 16. 19E-Daltyn England[5]; 17. 45KW-Nicholas Klein[22]; 18. 55-Todd Kluever[6]; 19. 20D-Derek Doerr[7]; 20. 39-Dwight Stefan[23]; 21. 28-Jim Fuerst[18]; 22. 3B-Brandon Waelti[8]; 23. (DNS) 15C-RJ Corson; 24. (DNS) 98-Jordan Nelson
Non Qualifier Race 8 Laps | 00:02:40.000

87-Jake Dohner[1]; 2. 56-Charles Rufi[5]; 3. 28-Jim Fuerst[8]; 4. 8-Jake Goeglein[7]; 5. 29-Harrison Kleven[6]; 6. 4-Brad Hensen[3]; 7. 45KW-Nicholas Klein[4]; 8. 39-Dwight Stefan[2]; 9. (DNS) 98-Jordan Nelson
Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:02:12.000 | Simpson Race Products

19E-Daltyn England[5]; 2. 3B-Brandon Waelti[7]; 3. 15Z-Jeff Zelinski[8]; 4. 55-Todd Kluever[6]; 5. 21K-Kurt Mayhew[4]; 6. 5K-Kevin Douglas[3]; 7. 10-Denny Smith[1]; 8. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[2]
Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:02:15.000 | Auto Meter

24M-Aaron Muhle[3]; 2. 20D-Derek Doerr[7]; 3. 2-Kyle Stark[5]; 4. 51-Zach Boden[8]; 5. 38-Matt Rechek[4]; 6. 15C-RJ Corson[6]; 7. 59-Kyle Koch[2]; 8. (DNS) 9S-Mike Stroik
Qualifying 1 100 Laps | Schoenfeld Headers

15Z-Jeff Zelinski, 00:14.787[13]; 2. 51-Zach Boden, 00:14.805[14]; 3. 3B-Brandon Waelti, 00:14.859[15]; 4. 20D-Derek Doerr, 00:14.897[5]; 5. 55-Todd Kluever, 00:14.917[18]; 6. 15C-RJ Corson, 00:15.012[11]; 7. 19E-Daltyn England, 00:15.175[3]; 8. 2-Kyle Stark, 00:15.264[17]; 9. 21K-Kurt Mayhew, 00:15.291[24]; 10. 38-Matt Rechek, 00:15.548[22]; 11. 5K-Kevin Douglas, 00:15.564[1]; 12. 24M-Aaron Muhle, 00:15.593[7]; 13. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr, 00:16.127[12]; 14. 59-Kyle Koch, 00:16.237[2]; 15. 10-Denny Smith, 00:16.257[8]; 16. 9S-Mike Stroik, 00:16.263[6]; 17. 28-Jim Fuerst, 00:16.386[23]; 18. 8-Jake Goeglein, 00:16.392[21]; 19. 29-Harrison Kleven, 00:16.727[4]; 20. 56-Charles Rufi, 00:16.751[19]; 21. 45KW-Nicholas Klein, 00:17.143[10]; 22. 4-Brad Hensen, 00:17.224[20]; 23. 39-Dwight Stefan, 00:18.124[9]; 24. 87-Jake Dohner, 00:18.560[16]; 25. 98-Jordan Nelson, 00:20.000[25]