Well, I didn't have the luck I had hoped to have this year. In making my first qualifying attempt, I hit the wall in turns 1 and 2 at around 109mph. Ouch! I walked away and it didn't hurt the sled to bad. After checking things over, I went back out and set the 5th fastest time of qualifying. We ran the new IQ race sled in the race, but again, fate was not on our side. We had a stud go through the heat exchanger and we cooked the motor. Unfortunately, that ended our day of racing. I guess we can now only hope that next year will be better.

Jim Kirts of Bad Frog Racing is still waiting his chance to make a run at the pole for the 40th Annual running of the Soo I-500. Jim has planned attempts for both Tuesday and Wednesday only to be foiled by Mother Nature. Tuesday brought pouring rains in the Soo and Wednesday was a Blizzard which forced the cancelation of qualifying on both days. Jim will again hope to make his run on Thursday. Bill Cryderman, the Bad Frog Crew Chief, says Jim and the sled are ready and very capable of setting on the pole, if not setting a new track record. Jim seems to be as focused as he can be and is ready to make his run. The track took a beating the last couple of days, but Jim and his teammates have helped the Soo crew to whip it back into shape.Good luck to Jim and the Bad Frog Team!

Lincoln Race 

In the first MIRA event of the season, Jim Kirts, Bad Frog racing owner and lead driver, had a pretty eventful day. Jim started off the day well, had a few rough spots in the middle and ended up the day on a good note. In the Pro Super Stock class, Jim finished 3rd in the first heat race. In the second heat race, Jim was battling for the lead and took a pretty good tumble down the back stretch. The sled was ok to go on racing the rest of the day and Jim only suffered a few bumps and bruises. Jim went on to finish 6th in the final. In the Pro Stock class, Jim finished 3rd in both heat races but could only pull out a 5th place finish in the final. In the Pro open class, Jim and his "old faithful" sled showed their stuff. Jim took 3rd in the heat race and then in the final, came from nearly last place passing all but 1 sled to finish 2nd place. The next race is the Soo I-500 where they will start qualifying on Monday. Jim has high hopes of setting his sled on the pole the first day. Good luck Jim!                      

Jim Kirts and Mike Babcock were again the favorites going to the green flag for the Michigan Cat 500. Jim took the green and immediately pulled away from the field. The sled was running and handling the best it had all year. Jim Kirts and Mike Babcock led for at least half of the race. As the 500 lap race began to wind down, it looked as if the Bad Frog's were going to pull off the win. With Mike Babcock in a comfortable lead at 50 laps to go, the sled began to develope a miss. Mike gave it all he had trying to keep the Bad Frog's out in front, but it just wasn't meant to be. With 8 laps to go, the sled died going down the back stretch and had to be towed in. The ignition had failed again, but Mike still had a good enough lead to bring the team home a 3rd place finish. Great day for the entire Bad Frog Team and all of their sponsors. Without the help and support of all of our sponsors, we couldn't keep the Bad Frogs and Tadpoles going. Thank you to all of you!

It seems that the Bad Frog crew were able to find all of the bugs in their Polaris race sled as they were able to capture the pole position for Sundays Lincoln Michigan Cat 500 Enduro race. Jim and Mike qualified almost a full second faster than the 2nd place qualifier.

Again, the Bad Frog Team of Mike Babcock and Jim Kirts put together a good qualifying effort to start 4th for the Kinross Blizzard 300. Jim started the race and made his way to the front. Running 2nd at the 90 lap mark, the Bad Frog sled began to slow down forcing Jim to the pits. The Bad Frog crew of Bill Cryderman, Mike Williams, Tim Lockwood, Andy Kirts, Jake Gerow, Derek Gerow, and a host of others went to work trying to find the problem in the sled. They were able to finally get it running well enough to get Mike Babcock back out on the track under caution. Although they were noe down some 100 laps, Mike rode out the caution a prepared for the restart. When the green flag flew, Mike just couldn't get the sled to go. He finally pulled in to the pits and ended the day for the Bad Frog Team. The team ended up 12th overall.

Jim Kirts and Mike Babcock looked to be the favorites for the Drummond Island 300 enduro race on Sunday. When the green flag flew, Jim Kirts steadily pulled away from the field. After 51 laps, Jim had lapped all but 2nd and 3rd place on the track. However, disaster struck. The ignition system failed and sent Jim and Mike to the side lines for the rest of the day.

Jim Kirts and Mike Babcock piloted their Bad Frog Racing Polaris to the pole starting position for the Drummond Island 300. Jim suffered a bad crash in Friday testing, but the team was able to put the sled back together and capture the pole for Sunday's main event.

Team Bad Frog recently signed a deal with K100 Fuel Treatments. We are pleased to have this exciting new sponsor on board with us and are looking forward to working with them this season. On our mission of winning 4 more MIRA season championships, K100 Fuel Treatment will be a great asset.

Team Bad Frog is pleased to announce the addition of Osiris Shoes to the growing list of sponsors for 2007. We welcome Osiris on board and are looking forward to working with them and promoting their products throughout the racing season.