This Sunday, July 27, Angell Park Speedway will play host to "Salute to Bryan Gapinski Night." The evening is dedicated to the memory of the longtime Badger Midget Auto Racing Association Media Director who passed away in 2020 due to cancer.
Along with this event, his legacy lives on in the annual Badger Bryan Gapinski Media Award given at the season-ending AFS Badger Midget Series awards banquet. Nationally he is remembered with the Bryan Gapinski announcer's booth at the Chili Bowl Nationals.
One of Gapinski's bigger ventures was his 20 year dedication to the National Midget Driver of the Year program. Here he kept statistics on all of the national midget clubs in the country and used a scoring system to rank all of the nation's midget drivers.
Along with NMDOTY, Gapinski would produce programs for Badger. Supporting and working with him through these projects was his wife Jenna. We are pleased to have Jenna and the Gapinski children Kailey (age 15) and Tyler (age 11), planning on being at the event. Or as Jenna put it, "We wouldn't miss it!"
DASH FOR DEAN BILLINGS SET FOR SUNDAY
A good friend of Gapinski's, who also drove for him when Gapinski owned a midget, was Dean Billings. Billings passed away in July of 2024. His family in consultation with Jenna Gapinski, has organized the first "Dash for Dean."
Harkening back to the days when Badger ran a Trophy Dash, this race tweaks that format a little bit. The top-two finishers in the three Badger heats will run a six-lap dash for cash. The extra money for this special race was put up by friends and family of Billings.
Billings was a popular Badger Midget Series driver who suffered severe head trauma in a flip at Angell Park Speedway almost 25 years prior to his passing. His children Stacy (Mike) Hughes, Lori (Tony ) Ramos and Bryan (Jen) Billings and Dean's seven grandchildren are expected to be at the race.
THE PARKER JONES STREAK AND BOUNTY
The AFS Badger Midget Series races Friday and Saturday night, July 25 and 26 at Beaver Dam Raceway to start the weekend. According to the late Bryan Gapinski, longtime BMARA Media Director and midget racing historian, the current six race run Jones has, ties the six straight feature streak Badger Hall of Famer Landy Scott scored in 1947. Should Jones win on Friday, it would put him as the all-time Badger record holder in consecutive feature wins with seven.
No matter the outcome of the Beaver Dam races, Angell Park's bounty on Jones, now at $2,000, is in effect. At the last Angell Park race, a cool $1,000 was dealt on the right rear of his car in Bank of Sun Prairie Victory Lane to pay the first bounty.
WEEKEND STREAMING COVERAGE
The races will be streaming live with Badger TV handling the coverage on Friday and FloRacing with the duties Saturday and Sunday. The IRA is will Badger on Sunday at Angell Park.
Please see Beaver Dam Raceway's and Angell Park Speedway's media pages for times and pricing.
Article by Bill Blumer Jr.
- William Blumer on Jul 25, 2025
- Article Date: 7/25/2025