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Adam Taylor Wins K.O. Klassic in Thrilling Fashion

Sun Prairie, WI June 27, 2022-- The Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midget Series and Angell Park Speedway had set the stage for an absolutely massive tribute to racing legend Kevin Olson, and all that was left to do was for the drivers to put on a show worthy of “K.O.”

Boy, did they ever deliver.

The 30 lap Advanced Fastening Supply Feature rolled to the green with pole sitter Jeff Zelinski taking the early advantage from Derek Doerr and Jack Routson. Behind the top 3, the rest of the field began a frantic battle to get into the top 5 positions, with Bill Balog, Todd Kluever, Adam Taylor and Brandon Waelti fanning out across the ? mile racing surface. Zelinski led the opening circuit, and Routson used the middle groove to power around Doerr to take the second spot. Todd Kluever then worked around Doerr a few laps later to take the third position, as Routson began to close in on Zelinski for the lead.

On lap 11, Routson saw an opening into turn 3 and slid across the track in front of Zelinski and took the lead in commanding fashion. Kluever and a hard charging Bill Balog began a spirited fight for third, with Balog eventually prevailing and quickly closing in on Zelinski for second. The 7x Badger A Main Winner railed the fast-forming cushion to get close and snatched away the second position and began to reel in his RAB Racing teammate for the lead.

With Routson and Balog mired in thick lapped traffic, Adam Taylor had worked his way into the third spot ahead of Brandon Waelti and Kluever. The 5X of Taylor quickly closed in on the two 57’s out front, and when Balog had his momentum slowed by a lapped car, Taylor pounced and took the second spot away. Waelti nearly followed Taylor through, but Balog ripped the outside groove to stay in third.

With eight circuits remaining, Taylor nearly overtook Routson on the top side in turns one and two, however the 5X car snapped tight in turn 3 and the Wheatefield , IN driver was forced to do the work all over again. Then with four laps to go, Taylor once again nailed the top line in one and two, but this time stuck the bottom in turn three and slid up across the nose of the 57B car to take the lead. As Routson tried to fend off the 57 of Bill Balog for second, Brandon Waelti in the 3B snuck by the RAB Racing cars to grab that second spot. Waelti made a valiant last ditch effort to catch Taylor on the final two circuits, but to no avail. Adam Taylor crossed under the double checkers with his fist pumping out of the cockpit as the winner of the inaugural K.O. Klassic.

“It’s amazing.” A nearly in tears Adam Taylor said in Victory Lane. “We’ve had a very bad start to the year, and to come out and do this at this race, I just have no words. I think we earned this one tonight. I got a big clump of dirt or something in the car coming into three that one lap, and I turned out of it and it cleared up. I thought ‘well, let’s go do it again’ and it worked. I just kept going as hard as I could until I saw the white flag and I just prayed for the car to stay together.”

Somewhat ironically, and some might say fittingly, the “light bulb” style trophy broke in Taylor’s hands in Victory Lane, but seeing as how Kevin Olson was a self proclaimed “light bulb repairman”, he had to be smiling and laughing with the rest of us.

Sunday’s Schoenfeld Quick Time Award went to Bill Balog, Auto Meter Heat 1 was won by Zach Boden, Jeff Zelinski took the checkered flag in Simpson Race Products Heat 2, and Bill Balog took a dominant win in Behling Race Products Heat 3. The night’s Madison Extinguisher Service Non Qualifier race was won by Jim Fuerst. Matt Rechek went home with the Howard Law Cash Draw, the Cartopia “First Out of the Event” Award went to Davey Ray, and the Oliver Motors “First Out of the A Main” was awarded to Bryon Walters. The Badger Midget Auto Racing Association would like to thank each and every business or individual that helped make the K.O. Klassic event a resounding success!

The Advanced Fastening Supply Badger Midgets will head back to Angell Park Speedway on Sunday, July 3rd for a Fireworks Special, also featuring the Wisconsin WingLESS Sprint Series. Tickets will be available at the track or on the Ticket Hoss app, with on track action getting underway at 5PM.

Angell Park Speedway “K.O. Klassic” Results
A Feature 1 25 30 Laps | 00:08:03.514 | Advance Fastening Supply

1. 5X-Adam Taylor[5]; 2. 3B-Brandon Waelti[9]; 3. 57-Bill Balog[10]; 4. 55-Todd Kluever[8]; 5. 20D-Derek Doerr[2]; 6. 15Z-
   Jeff Zelinski[3]; 7. 15C-RJ Corson[12]; 8. 11T-Tyler Baran[6]; 9. 51-Zach Boden[1]; 10. 5K-Kevin Douglas[11]; 11. 38-Matt Rechek[17]; 12. 2-Kyle Stark[14]; 13. 6-Jeremy Douglas[15]; 14. 7-Brian Peterson[19]; 15. 24M-Aaron Muhle[16]; 16. 77-Jack Vanderboom[21]; 17. 9S-Mike Stroik[18]; 18. 8-Jake Goeglein[22]; 19. 11N-Nick Baran[7]; 20. 6B-Andy Baugh[13]; 21.
   9K-Bryon Walters[20]; 22. (DQ) 57B-Jack Routson[4]

B Feature 1 12 Laps | 00:08:38.377 | High Performance Lubricants

1. 24M-Aaron Muhle[4]; 2. 38-Matt Rechek[1]; 3. 9S-Mike Stroik[2]; 4. 7-Brian Peterson[5]; 5. 9K-Bryon Walters[9]; 6. 77-Jack Vanderboom[8]; 7. 8-Jake Goeglein[7]; 8. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[10]; 9. 28-Jim Fuerst[13]; 10. 21K-Kurt Mayhew[19]; 11. 29-Harrison Kleven[12]; 12. 56-Charles Rufi[16]; 13. 45KW-Trey Weishoff[14]; 14. 4-Brad Hensen[15]; 15. 53-Logan
   Seavey[11]; 16. 98-Jordan Nelson[3]; 17. 19E-Daltyn England[6]; 18. 59-Kyle Koch[18]; 19. 39-Dwight Stefan[17]

Non Qualifier 10 Laps | 00:04:44.684 | Madison Extinguisher Service

1. 28-Jim Fuerst[9]; 2. 45KW-Trey Weishoff[6]; 3. 4-Brad Hensen[4]; 4. 56-Charles Rufi[5]; 5. 31-Shay Sassano[8]; 6. 39-Dwight Stefan[1]; 7. 59-Kyle Koch[3]; 8. 21K-Kurt Mayhew[2]

Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:02:51.723 | Behling Race Products

1. 57-Bill Balog[8]; 2. 57B-Jack Routson[5]; 3. 2-Kyle Stark[2]; 4. 5K-Kevin Douglas[3]; 5. 20D-Derek Doerr[4]; 6. 38-Matt Rechek[7]; 7. 24M-Aaron Muhle[6]; 8. 8-Jake Goeglein[1]; 9. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr[9]

Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:02:58.781 | Simpson Race Products

1. 15Z-Jeff Zelinski[5]; 2. 55-Todd Kluever[7]; 3. 11T-Tyler Baran[6]; 4. 6-Jeremy Douglas[1]; 5. 15C-RJ Corson[3]; 6. 9S-Mike Stroik[4]; 7. 7-Brian Peterson[9]; 8. 77-Jack Vanderboom[2]

Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:02:55.346 | Auto Meter

1. 51-Zach Boden[4]; 2. 6B-Andy Baugh[3]; 3. 3B-Brandon Waelti[8]; 4. 11N-Nick Baran[7]; 5. 5X-Adam Taylor[6]; 6. 98-Jordan Nelson[1]; 7. 19E-Daltyn England[5]; 8. 9K-Bryon Walters[2]; 9. 29-Harrison Kleven[9]

Qualifying 1 100 Laps | 00:03:36.543 | Schoenfeld Headers

1. 57-Bill Balog, 00:15.584[17]; 2. 53-Logan Seavey, 00:15.728[7]; 3. 3B-Brandon Waelti, 00:15.979[36]; 4. 38-Matt Rechek, 00:16.001[3]; 5. 55-Todd Kluever, 00:16.035[32]; 6. 11N-Nick Baran, 00:16.099[27]; 7. 24M-Aaron Muhle, 00:16.127[4]; 8. 11T-Tyler Baran, 00:16.166[33]; 9. 5X-Adam Taylor, 00:16.172[6]; 10. 57B-Jack Routson, 00:16.301[21]; 11. 15Z-Jeff Zelinski, 00:16.307[16]; 12. 19E-Daltyn England, 00:16.308[2]; 13. 20D-Derek Doerr, 00:16.356[23]; 14. 9S-Mike Stroik, 00:16.398[18]; 15. 51-Zach Boden, 00:16.454[19]; 16. 5K-Kevin Douglas, 00:16.489[26]; 17. 15C-RJ Corson, 00:16.542[34]; 18. 6B-Andy Baugh, 00:16.576[28]; 19. 2-Kyle Stark, 00:16.640[12]; 20. 77-Jack Vanderboom, 00:16.707[20]; 21. 9K-Bryon Walters, 00:16.781[8]; 22. 8-Jake Goeglein, 00:16.803[10]; 23. 6-Jeremy Douglas, 00:16.803[14]; 24. 98-Jordan Nelson, 00:16.824[31]; 25. 40JR-Dave Collins Jr, 00:16.866[1]; 26. 7-Brian Peterson,
   00:16.908[22]; 27. 29-Harrison Kleven, 00:17.089[24]; 28. 28-Jim Fuerst, 00:17.150[30]; 29. 31-Shay Sassano, 00:17.467[35]; 30. 6P-Davey Ray, 00:17.482[9]; 31. 45KW-Trey Weishoff, 00:17.561[15]; 32. 56-Charles Rufi, 00:17.760[25]; 33. 4-Brad Hensen, 00:17.768[11]; 34. 59-Kyle Koch, 00:18.258[5]; 35. 21K-Kurt Mayhew, 00:19.836[29]; 36. 39-Dwight Stefan, 00:20.013[13]

Photo Credit: Box3 Media

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