Badger Kart Club racers battle the heat, humidity and the competition By Mike Weaver DOUSMAN, WI (July 28, 2002) - The weathermen predicted another hot humid day for Sunday's racing and that's exactly what the members of the Badger Kart Club got for Round 11 in the BKC Bridgestone Tire Championship points series. Temperatures in the mid-90's with high humidity meant miserable conditions for all. As Badger Raceway quickly approaches its two special events for the summer, practice sessions with sticky-tire classes laid down so much rubber that the track was actually tight. The first group to race was the Briggs Lite class. During the feature, Tom Schroeder was able to jump to the lead, but David Storm reeled him in and by lap 4 had taken over the first position. Schroeder refused to quit though and hung right in there, constantly challenging Storm for the lead and even taking it back once. But with one lap to go, Storm grabbed first place and held on strong for the finish. Briggs Heavy also races at the same time and Mike Landeck Jr. jumped out to an early lead and just pulled away from the field. Aron Scalissi came home second about 10-kart lengths back. In Yamaha Lite, Charlene Jung out-raced pole-sitter Joel Steffen to turn one and took the lead. Jung would stay there the entire race, but not without serious challenges the entire event. For eight straight laps, it was Jung, Steffen, Mark Heinert and Mark Jung all nose-to-tail. Steffen poked his nose under Jung several times but just wasn't able to make it stick. With two laps to go, Steffen was setting up Jung when Heinert made contact with him coming out of the boot. This slowed both karts and Charlene Jung was able to pull away just enough to go unchallenged for the remainder of the race. Senior Sportsman Heavy produced a first-time feature winner when Howie Hanisch crossed the checkers first. With points leader Steve Mente starting near the rear from a heat race problem, Hanisch's only threat came from Bob Jeziorski. But Jeziorski ran over a torsion bar, which lodged itself under his seat. Although he was able to drive for an entire lap with the problem, he finally lost it in Turn One when he was unable to steer through the high-speed turn with debris under him. This opened the door for the hard-charging Mente who caught Hanisch with two laps to go. As the two entered the infield for the final lap, they got together, with their karts getting hooked. Mente broke hard left and separated the two, but this gave Hanisch all the room he needed to secure the win. In other races, Jessica Brannam snatched fast time for the year along with Kasi Graff, Mark Baier, Matt Cota and Mike Landeck. Although Graff grabbed fast time in Briggs Animal Jr., Danny Corcoran took the checkers netting him his 2nd feature win of the year. In Yamaha Heavy, Baier could only manage 2nd even though he achieved fast time for the year. As mentioned earlier, Badger Raceway will be holding two special events in August. First will be the World Karting Association's Midwest Regional race, the Midwest Sprint Series (Aug 3-4). This series contains classes from both WKA's Manufacturer's Cup (2-cycle) and Gold Cup (4-cycle) series. The regional points transfer towards a national championship so the competition will be hot. Additionally, Badger Kart Club will host WKA's George Kugler Manufacturer's Cup Grand Nationals the weekend of Aug 17th. This race will have the nation's top 2-Cycle drivers competing for double-points towards the national championships. Local hot-shoes like Jamie Sieracki, Mark Vielgut, Tommy Mayr, Matt Bryne, Jason Matuszewski, Zack Emmons and more will be running head-to-head with the nation's best in karting! Visit Badger Kart Club's website Here!