Maple Park, IL--As the Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midget season draws near its end, two contenders have separated themselves from the rest of the field. Kyle Stark and Zach Boden may be locked in a fierce points battle, but it's been part-time BMARA competitor Adam Taylor grabbing the most wins in the 2022 season, and the Wheatefield, IN driver added another feather to his cap this past weekend at Sycamore Speedway.
Aaron Muhle and RJ Corson started from the front row of the Franklin B. Alexander Memorial, the AFS Badger Midgets’ final A Main of the season at the Sycamore Speedway. Both drivers also find themselves in the Top 5 in points and are hoping for strong finishes to end the year. The green flag dropped on the 25 Lap feature and Muhle grabbed the early advantage over Corson. The field strung out mostly in single file fashion around the bottom of the speedway, except for Taylor and Stark ripping the top and Boden working the middle groove.
By lap 3, Muhle had built a sizable advantage over Taylor who now rode in 2nd, as Boden slid up in front of Stark for 6th. Jake Dohner was surfacing as a potential contender as well as the #87 machine rode in 3rd. By lap 4, both Taylor and Dohner had closed to within striking distance of Muhle, and Taylor ripped the cushion in turns 1 and 2 to take over the top spot on lap 5. On that same lap, Boden had put Corson between himself and Stark, and Stark attempted to charge inside of Corson to keep pace but ended up facing the wrong direction, spinning his #2 machine after contact with both Boden and Corson.
The race got back underway with Taylor still pounding the top side of the track and Muhle catfishing down low with Dohner close behind. Meanwhile, Boden, Matt Rechek and Corson were having a dogfight for 5th, 6th and 7th as the top 3 pulled away. Boden eventually pulled into the 5th position as Rechek, Derek Doerr and Corson continued to battle. Back up front, Taylor had pulled out to a big advantage over Muhle who was coming under heavy fire from Dohner. The Janesville, WI driver first showed a nose to Muhle off of turn 2, and then dove down the inside into turn 3 to take the runner up spot away.
As the laps ticked down and the front-runners started to stretch out their lead, Boden, Rechek and Doerr continued to duke it out for the 5th spot with the #44 of Lamont Critchett waiting in the weeds. Rechek eventually moved clear of the battle as Kevin Douglas and Jeff Zelinski entered the fray. Back up front though, it was all Adam Taylor as the Fusion Engineering #5X cruised to victory at the Franklin B. Alexander Memorial in dominating fashion. Dohner crossed the line in 2nd for his best finish of the 2022 season, Rechek finished in 3rd with Muhle and Critchett rounding out the Top 5.
Saturday’s Schoenfeld QuickTime Award went to Jeff Zelinski, Auto Meter Heat 1 was won by Adam Taylor and Matt Rechek took the checkered flag in Simpson Race Products Heat 2. The Madison Extinguisher Service Non-Qualifier was won by Chris Adrien. Kevin Douglas earned the Advanced Racing Suspensions Hard Charger Award in the A Main with a 20th to 7th charge. Derek Doerr went home with the Howard Law Cash Draw, and the Oliver Motors Last Place Bonus went to Kyle Stark. The Cartopia “Hard Luck” Award went to Jeremy Douglas.
Sunday’s highly anticipated Firemen’s Nationals at Angell Park Speedway were unfortunately lost due to heavy rain showers that saturated both the track and the grounds at the speedway and forced race officials to cancel the event over concern for driver safety. Many attempts were made to both run the track in and dry the grounds and speedway but to no avail.
Stark’s misfortune on Saturday meant Boden was able to close the gap between the two at the top of the standings, and the series will head into its final event of 2022 with just 44 points separating the top 2 competitors. Todd Kluever, RJ Corson and Aaron Muhle round out the top 5 point scorers.
The Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midgets have a weekend off but will return on September 17th at Shadyhill Speedway in Medaryville, IN for the Season Finale event and championship deciding race. Tickets will be available at the track.
Sycamore Speedway “Franklin B. Alexander Memorial” Results 9/3/22
A Feature 25 Laps | 00:09:24.942 | Advance Fastening Supply
- 5X-Adam Taylor[6]; 2. 87-Jake Dohner[3]; 3. 38-Matt Rechek[9]; 4. 24M-Aaron Muhle[1]; 5. 44-Lamont Critchett[5]; 6. 9S-Mike Stroik[4]; 7. 5K-Kevin Douglas[20]; 8. 20D-Derek Doerr[11]; 9. 15Z-Jeff Zelinski[13]; 10. 51-Zach Boden[8]; 11. 15C-RJ Corson[2]; 12. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[15]; 13. 59-Kyle Koch[10]; 14. 10-Denny Smith[17]; 15. 56-Charles Rufi[12]; 16. 29-Harrison Kleven[18]; 17. 3A-Chris Adrien[14]; 18. 34-Blake Beckwith[21]; 19. 5M-Scott Koerner[16]; 20. 2-Kyle Stark[7]; 21. (DNS) 31-Shay Sassano; 22. (DNS) 6-Jeremy Douglas
Non-Qualifier 8 Laps | 00:02:18.612 | Madison Extinguisher Service
- 3A-Chris Adrien[6]; 2. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[4]; 3. 5M-Scott Koerner[5]; 4. 10-Denny Smith[1]; 5. 29-Harrison Kleven[7]; 6. 34-Blake Beckwith[8]; 7. 31-Shay Sassano[3]; 8. (DNS) 5K-Kevin Douglas
Simpson Race Products Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:02:11.979 | Simpson Race Products
- 38-Matt Rechek[2]; 2. 2-Kyle Stark[6]; 3. 15C-RJ Corson[3]; 4. 59-Kyle Koch[1]; 5. 9S-Mike Stroik[4]; 6. 20D-Derek Doerr[5]; 7. 15Z-Jeff Zelinski[7]
Auto Meter Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:02:09.674 | Auto Meter
- 5X-Adam Taylor[6]; 2. 87-Jake Dohner[4]; 3. 51-Zach Boden[7]; 4. 44-Lamont Critchett[5]; 5. 24M-Aaron Muhle[3]; 6. 56-Charles Rufi[1]; 7. (DNS) 6-Jeremy Douglas
Schoenfeld Headers Qualifying 3 Laps | 00:00:49.000 | Schoenfeld Headers
- 15Z-Jeff Zelinski, 00:14.854[3]; 2. 51-Zach Boden, 00:14.970[10]; 3. 2-Kyle Stark, 00:15.098[6]; 4. 5X-Adam Taylor, 00:15.165[14]; 5. 20D-Derek Doerr, 00:15.259[17]; 6. 44-Lamont Critchett, 00:15.434[7]; 7. 9S-Mike Stroik, 00:15.479[20]; 8. 87-Jake Dohner, 00:15.662[8]; 9. 15C-RJ Corson, 00:15.752[22]; 10. 24M-Aaron Muhle, 00:15.770[4]; 11. 38-Matt Rechek, 00:15.865[13]; 12. 6-Jeremy Douglas, 00:15.902[5]; 13. 59-Kyle Koch, 00:15.910[2]; 14. 56-Charles Rufi, 00:16.030[11]; 15. 29-Harrison Kleven, 00:16.121[18]; 16. 3A-Chris Adrien, 00:16.140[16]; 17. 5M-Scott Koerner, 00:16.296[1]; 18. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr, 00:16.326[9]; 19. 31-Shay Sassano, 00:16.413[21]; 20. 5K-Kevin Douglas, 00:16.425[15]; 21. 10-Denny Smith, 00:16.499[12]; 22. 34-Blake Beckwith, 00:17.834[19]
- Loren Kelly on Sep 07, 2022
- Article Date: 9/6/2022 by Loren Kelly