"Badger Kart Club runs track backwards during Clean-Up/Fun Day at Dousman"

DOUSMAN, WI - Every year at the end of the championship season, the Badger Kart Club holds their Clean-up/Fun Day. In order to encourage more members to come out and help get the facility ready for winter, the club also holds a number of different "fun" races.

One of the most popular of these "fun" races is the backwards enduro. Karts are still run by class, but instead of running the road course in its regular direction, the karts must run the course in the opposite direction! This provides quite a challenge as months of mental conditioning on brake points and turn-ins goes right out the window! Additionally, the race runs twenty minutes instead of a set number of 6 or 8 laps. So fatigue and conditioning also plays a role. Finally, each driver is required to come in for at least one "pit stop". They must exit the road course and enter the pits, stop at a certain point, push their kart under the flagman's bridge (for safety reasons!) and have a teammate restart them on the other side. If need be, like is usually the case in the Briggs karts, they may also refuel in order to make the longer race time.

Since there weren't as many entries as on a normal day, most of the classes were run with similar classes to reduce the number of races. In Briggs Lite, Alan Stippich ran the Land-X ride and piloted it home to a win. Tom Schroeder made a race of it though and even after the pit stop, Schroeder was right there with Stippich. In Yamaha Heavy, Scott Paape took the win as a long pit stop for Randy Rosenmerkl caused him to give us valuable time. Rosenmerkl was catching Paape, but time just ran out!

In Sr. Sportsman Lite, Mike McGavock demolished the field winning by one-half of a lap. The fight for 2nd place was fierce as Steve Labutski had to hold off Tony Johnson and Kyle Glaser who made numerous attempts at gaining the position. This fight resulted in holding up eventual Sr. Sportsman Heavy winner Mike Weaver. But Weaver was about a third lap ahead of 2nd place Greg Wojtal and managed to take home the checkers regardless.

In Briggs Jr. Stock, season rivals Rachel Neitzel and Shelly Krzewinski battled for the win in the post-season with Neitzel besting the field. Trevor Raisbeck drove a great race to take home the prize in 2-Cycle Jr. Sportsman and Jesse Schwabe won the Jr. SSX can class as the rains halted their heat race early. Schwabe hadn't performed his mandatory pit stop yet, which turned out to be the right strategy as the rains (and hail) came down approximately at the halfway-point. Tyler Wojtal won the Jr. Can race with the same strategy as that class was also on the track at the time.

Once the rains and hail began, the remaining events had to be cancelled. This included the Mechanics Race, the Powder Puff race, the String Race and the Team Race. Officials said there was quite a number of entries in each of these remaining races, but the track just would not dry as showers kept moving in and out throughout the remainder of the day.

Top 3 finishers in each class for Oct 14, 2001:
2-Cycle Jr Sportsman: 1.) Trevor Raisbeck, 2.) Ryan Schwister, 3.) Tom Mussa
Yamaha Lite: 1.) Melisa Mente, 2.) Tony Johnson, 3.) Jesse Staab
Briggs Jr Stock: 1.) Rachel Neitzel, 2.) Shelley Krzewinski, 3.) Nick Faestel
Jr Can: 1. Tyler Wojtal, 2. Jeff Funk, 3. Joe Brenner
Yamaha Heavy: 1. Scott Paape, 2. Randy Rosenmerkl, 3. Wayne Johnson
Jr SSX Can: 1. Jesse Schwabe, 2. Heather Sotello, 3. Rachel Neitzel
HPV Sr: 1. Marty Keck, 2. Nicole Baier, 3. Dennis Borchardt
Sr Sportsman Lite: 1. Mike McGavock, 2. Steve Labutski, 3. Tony Johnson
Sr Sportsman Heavy: 1. Mike Weaver, 2. Greg Wojtal, 3. Oz Karlvik
Briggs Heavy: 1. Jeff Carter, 2. Jerry Smith
HPV Jr: 1. Ronny Graham, 2. Nick Gillette, 3. Zack Emmons
Briggs Lite: 1. Alan Stippich, 2. Tom Schroeder, 3. Ed Koch