6/13/2020
GLSS-Great Lakes Super Sprints
HORSTMAN HOLDS OFF STACKED FIELD
Lake Odessa, MI –On a beautiful June night, Great Lakes Super Sprints pulled into I-96 Speedway for their opening night of the 2020 season. Jared Horstman (Cloverdale, OH), the 2017 GLSS Champion, held off all chargers to lead wire to wire and take the checkered flag in an exciting A-Main.
On Wednesday, Michigan experienced the effects of tropical storm Cristobal, taking down trees and power lines and dropping large amounts of rain. Fortunately the track was spared from the damages the rest of the state received and was able to withstand the heavy rains. The storms dashed the hopes of at least 7 driverrs racing Friday, but 26 cars did make the call to race last night.
Over nine months since a GLSS car has taken the track, member Jay Steinbach (Hudsonville, MI) took the first official lap, as single car qualifying started around 7:!5. “Mad” Max Stambaugh (Elida, OH) in the Joe and Diane Seeling #97 car, set fast time with an average speed of 110.95 mph. Horstman was about 51 hundreths of a second behind, with Ryan Ruhl (Coldwater, MI), Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI) and Phil Gressman (Helena, OH) rounding out the top 5.
In the Engler Machine & Tool Heat 1, Conner Morrell (Bradenton, FL) our 2019 Rookie of the Year, led wire to wire to take the checkered flag and the heat race win. Morrell held off fast qualifier Stambaugh by besting his time by 2 tenths of a second! Stambaugh, Daggett, Dan McCarron (Britton, MI) and Devon Dobie (Wapakoneta, OH) rounded out the top 5 and transferred to the A-Main.
Chase Ridenour (Perry, MI) our 2016 Champion, took the win in the Kistler Engines & Racing Parts Heat 2 driving his new ride, the Greg Wheeler Racing 16c car. Ridenour beat Horstman to the checkered flag for the win by 7 tenths of a second. Gressman, Kyle Sauder (Archbold, OH) and Steinbach rounded out the top five and punched their tickets to the Feature.
The Campbell Performance Heat was dominated by Sparta, MI native, Andrew Scheid. Gregg Dalman (Bellevue, MI) started 5th and was working on tracking Scheid down, but came up 1.049 seconds short! Ruhl, Linden Jones (Edwardsburg, MI) and Danny Sams III (Northport, FL) rounded out the top 5 and secured their spots in the Main Event.
The top 2 finishers from each heat made it into the redraw, which determines the drivers starting position in the feature. The remainder of the cars are placed in the feature, based on their finishing positions in the heats. The fastest qualifier draws first, the 2nd fastest qualifier draws second and so on. With Stambaugh drawing first, he pulled out a three. Horstman’s daughter Brenley , reached in and pulled out a 1 for her daddy, putting him on the pole! Dalman drew the outside front, Scheid a 4, Ridenour a 5 and Morrell a 6. With the front 7 ½ rows of the feature set, the B-Main rolled out to determine the last 5 cars making the feature.
Quentin Blonde (Concord, MI) led the 11 cars out for the Addvanced Heating and Cooling Last Chance Feature. With Eli Lakin (Buchanan, MI) next to him, Blonde passed the flag stand as the green dropped and beat everyone into turn 1. Blonde seemed to be on cruise control, and then in lap 6 Nathan Barouch (Miami, FL) got loose coming out of turn 4. By the time Barouch turned around to face the oncoming traffic, those cars scattered and miraculously missed him.
He stayed on the wheel and continued around completing the 360 and continued to race, not bringing out the caution. Now in 11th, Barouch was able to get around some cars and moved up to 6th. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough leaving him 1 spot short of a transfer. Blonde on the other hand took the checkered and the win, with Lakin, Josh Shantz (Waterloo, ONT), Andy Chehowski (Coldwater, MI) and Justin Ward (Benzonia, MI) locking in the last 5 spots.
The field of 20 cars pushed on to the track for the nights main event around 11 pm. Firing all the cars in less than a minute, they quickly form up and Jared Horstman leads the field around in a 4 wide salute to the appreciative fans for coming out and spending the evening with us!
As the green flag drops around 11:05, the field thunders down the front stretch 5 wide and charges into turn 1. With everyone clearing turns 1 and 2, Horstman leads the field into turns 3 and 4. We get one lap in and Dalman, Stambaugh, Ridenour. Daggett and Ruhl are doing whatever they can to keep Horstman in their sites. In lap 17, Dalman who was running 2nd, got caught down low behind lap traffic going into turn 1. This gave a pursuing Stambaugh the opportunity to go high and slide right past Dalman for 2nd.
As the cars were finishing lap 20, a caution came out for debris laying in the top of turn 4. On the restart, the cars cleanly get around and just as Horstman should be getting the white flag for one lap to go, the yellow flag comes out again! Sams, who was running 6th, broke a tie rod knuckle at the top of turns 3 and 4 causing him to loop around. Sauder who was running 8th and running the high line had no where to go, and tried to avoid Sams but his left rear tire hit solid spinning Sauder off the track outside of turn 4 ending both their nights with two laps to go. Getting the green flag once again, Horstman had to hold off Stambaugh, Dalman and Ridenour for 2 more laps, which he did, giving him his first feature win of the 2020 Season.
Starting 12th in tonight’s feature, Linden Jones picked his way up to finish 7th and receive the Hoosier Tire Harder Charger Award! Jones, who is used to driving his own family 19j car, was piloting the Rocky Anderson 19 car normally driven by his uncle the Hoosier Rocket, Brett Mann. Mann is temporarily laid up and unable to drive, but it looks like keeping it in the family was a great move!
With many things in the air right now, please follow our facebook and twitter pages for updates on when and where Great Lakes Super Sprints will be racing. At this point we are tentatively planning our next race on Friday, July 3rd at I-96 Speedway.
Thank you to our sponsors that have been very supportive! A big shout out to our presenting sponsors Engine Pro and Arp, along with our Marketing Partners, Beacon and Bridge Markets, Addvance Heating and Cooling, Midland Steel and Specialty Fuels and Logistics. Please support these sponsors along with our race sponsors of Engler Machine & Tool, Kistler Engines and Racing Products, Campbell Performance and Environmental Waste & Recovery Services.
Article Credit: Barry M. Marlow
Submitted By: Barry Marlow
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