3/16/2018
GLSS-Great Lakes Super Sprints
COMPLETE 2018 GLSS RACE SCHEDULE
Merrill, MI – In the works for 6 months, Great Lakes Super Sprints is pleased to release our full 2018 race schedule. This year’s goal was to concentrate in our core state of Michigan and to expand our racing into Indiana and we did that adding 3 additional tracks this season.
We kick off our season on Friday, May 4th with our opener at I-96 Speedway near Lake Odessa, MI. I-96 Speedway is one of our driver’s favorite sprint car tracks…wide and fast! Working closely with the new owner Jeff Dice, we have scheduled 5 races there this year. We’re excited about the ideas and plans Jeff has and the opportunity to race at I-96 Speedway and be a part of it. We have built in a rain date for the opener on Friday, May 11th.
We take a little lull in May but get cranked up for our first ever holiday weekend in Michigan since GLSS started. We will kick off Memorial Weekend at the ever-popular Tri-City Motor Speedway, on Friday, May 25th, then make a short trip up north on Saturday, May 26th, to Merritt Speedway and help them celebrate their 50th year of racing! Then to close out the holiday weekend we will travel a little south to Crystal Motor Speedway on Sunday, May27th. For our fans up north, this will be our only visit this year to Merritt Speedway so be sure to mark this one on your calendar.
Taking off the first weekend of June after Memorial Day Weekend, we get rolling south for our first back to back race in Indiana! Working with Jerry Gappens the new promoter at I-69 Gas City Speedway, we are thrilled to be part of the Salute to the Kinser’s “Wings vs Non-Wings” on Friday, June 8th. If that’s not enough fun, follow us on Saturday, June 9th for our first of 2 visits to Plymouth Speedway. Both tracks are new additions on our schedule and this weekend is not one to miss!
Traveling back north, we make our second trip to I-96 Speedway on Friday, June 15th. Saturday, the 16th, we’ll travel west on I-96 to Muskegon, MI for our first visit of the season to Thunderbird Speedway! Going into his 3rd season there as track owner, Tom Sprague has continually worked and improved the facilities and the track. This large 1/3rd mile track is high banked and has gotten better each season we’ve raced there. Looking forward to another great track surface by Tom and his crew!
On Saturday, June 23rd we are making our second and final appearance of the season at Crystal Motor Speedway. Ron Flinn and his staff are always great to work with and were gracious enough to give us another date this year. We can always count on a great crowd to race in front of and if we’re going to have a solo race weekend, Crystal Motor Speedway is a great place to have it!
Friday, June 29th, we will be back to I-96 Speedway for a special race we just hammered out with owner Jeff Dice. Great Lakes Super Sprints and the American Ethanol Late Model Series will be running against each other in the 2018 Dual on Dirt. This will need to be marked on everyone’s calendar, kicking off the fireworks before the 4th of July.
With half the season in the books, we had scheduled the next couple of weeks off. However, after receiving a call from West Virginia back in December about a race, we decided to have a family fun weekend for our members and travel to Beckley Motorsports Park for the Independence Bash in the hills!!! Beckley Motorsports Park will be a similar track to what our guys are used to running… a 3/8th mile track with new clay put on last year. We’re excited about the trip to West Virginia to enjoy the area and put on a sprint car show for the Beckley fans that don’t get to see much sprint car racing!
Coming back from vacation, we’ll travel back to Tri-City Motor Speedway on Friday, July 20th for our second visit of the season with track owners Steve and Erika Puvalowski. We can always be sure of a great track surface and an equally great crowd when we visit Tri-City! The Puvalowski’ s spend so much time working at the track, it’s like they never leave! Saturday, July 21st we will be back at I-96 Speedway for a special Saturday night race! This will be a little out of the norm, since we usually race here on Fridays. We currently have scheduled Sunday, June 22nd as a rain date for the 21st, however there is a chance we may turn this into another race day making the weekend a triple header weekend. With the normal weekly show on Saturday night and a special open wheel show on Sunday. Stay tuned for any new news.
Finishing out July we will travel again to Indiana on Saturday, July 28th to Montpelier Speedway for Border Wars II pitting the NRA Sprint Invaders from Lima, OH against the Great Lakes Super Sprints. Montpelier has been a fun track for our guys to visit. The staff has always been happy we’re there and has always been accommodating. Against the normal school of thought of “not” re-working a track after the night has begun, the Montpelier crew wasn’t happy last year with the surface and asked us if we could give them some time to re-work it. We agreed, and they completely redid the track and they gave us a great surface to run our feature on. Not something I would recommend, but our hats off to the crew at Montpelier for the great job they did for us last year!!!
Normally the first weekend of August we don’t schedule races, however it was the only weekend we could work in a double header race at Hartford Speedway and Plymouth Speedway. Friday, August 3rd we will roll into Hartford Speedway for our first race on the new track surface. Tim and Leah Dibble took the chance after the 2016 season to cut down Hartford from the traditional ½ mile track to a 3/8th mile track. From all reports we have heard, the track is still a fast track and very much a sprint car track! On Saturday, August 4th we will make our last visit to Indiana for the season, racing at Plymouth Speedway. Events Promoter and Race Director Sara Tarlton has worked hard on putting together a great program and we are happy to be a part of it. With a tremendous amount of work on the track, new grandstands and a new scoreboard, fans and drivers alike will have a great experience when they come to Plymouth Speedway.
Our next dual weekend will be our final visits to I-96 Speedway and Thunderbird Speedway. Friday, August 17th we’ll roll into I-96 Speedway for our drivers last chance to set a new track record! Saturday, August 18th we’ll make our last drive to Muskegon, MI and Thunderbird Speedway. If you haven’t made one of our I-96/Thunderbird weekends, you should. The two tracks and the racing are so different…but fun to watch. That’s all I’m going to say, you’ll have to come see for yourself!
Wrapping up our year, we will be having a double header on Labor Day Weekend at Tri-City Speedway. On Friday, August 31st we will be wrapping up our regular season and points race. Then Saturday, September 1st with a car show starting at 2 pm, we will be having the 1st Annual Great Lakes Fall Sprintacular. We will have the Vintage Sprints traveling up to spend the day and night with us and we’ll have the MTS Traditional Sprints and the best 360-winged sprints in the Great Lakes Region.
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Article Credit: Barry M. Marlow
Submitted By: Barry Marlow
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