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Fifteen Open Wheel Driver Champions headed to Dodge County

Beaver Dam, Wis., May 28— Fifteen drivers who have won an open wheel race series championship make up a star studded line-up for Friday’s 6th annual Sue Thiel Memorial USAC National/Badger Midget series co-sanctioned event at the Dodge County Fairgrounds (WI). The event will also mark the first co-sanctioned event between USAC and Badger since May 29, 1992.

The fifteen drivers have accumlated 38 driving championships in the USAC Silver Crown, National Sprint Car, National Midget, Regional Midget and Ford Focus Series, Badger Midget Series, National Midget Driver of the Year, POWRi Midget Series, UMARA Midget Series, SMRS Midget Series, MSA Sprint Car Series, along with two organizations no longer sanctioning midget racing The Northwest Midget Series and NAMAR.

Former USAC National and Badger Champion Kevin Olson leads all drivers with nine titles in four different series, other champions excepted to compete include: Brad Kuhn (5), Dave Darland (4), Scott Hatton and Chase Scott with three each. Four drivers including Bobby East, Mike Hess, David Gough and Doug Schenck each have two. Jerry Coons Jr., Levi Jones, Davey Ray, Chase Barber, Ryan Durst and Brady Bacon each have one championship.

Coons returns as the defending Thiel Memorial Champion, last year’s event was the first midget auto race at the facility since 1987. It mark the first ever appearance for USAC at the half-mile track, Badger last visited the track on Sept. 12, 1981 with Tim Pangborn scoring the feature victory. Coons driving the Wilke-PAK Motorsports entry finished ahead of Kuhn, Danny Stratton,Nick Lundgreen and Chad DeSelle. Strattons holds the one-lap track record at the track with a lap of 21.768 seconds.

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