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HORSTMAN WINS IN FALL BRAWL

Lake Odessa, MI – Winning his second feature of the season with Great Lakes Super Sprints, Jared Horstman started on the pole and never looked back as he outpaced the stacked field of cars from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Canada for the last race of the season.

Rain has not been the racers friend the second half of this season and a lot of races have been cancelled. But that wasn’t the case at I-96 Speedway Saturday with a sunny blue sky. There was no rain in the forecast, but the air was crisp.

With 7 or 8 GLSS regulars not making the final race, there was still 29 good cars taking the track to put heat in their motors. As the cars lined up for qualifying, we made a slight chance to our normal practice of group qualifying and we single car qualified. Pushing through all 29 cars in just under 20 minutes.

After the qualifying session was over, Ryan Ruhl (Coldwater, MI) was sitting on top of the pack with quick time of 107.2 mph and good enough for a new track record! Jared Horstman (Cloverdale, OH), Shawn Dancer (Delphos, OH), Kyle Sauder (Archbold, OH) and Max Stambaugh (Elida, OH) rounded out the top five qualifiers with only twelve hundredths of a second separating them…or 9 tenths of a mile per hour!!!

With the heat races set, Jared Lamberson (Parma, MI) and Phil Gressman (Helena, OH) lead out the Kistler Engines Heat 1. With a clean start, Gressman powered his way out front and was the one to beat. Ruhl kept him in his sights as Lamberson was fighting to hold off Sauder for 3rd. In the 5th lap Sauder got around Lamberson. As the checkered fell, It was Gressman, Ruhl, Sauder and Lamberson taking the 4 transfer spots to the A-Main.

In the Campbell Performance Heat Race 2, Kobe Allison (Lima, OH) and Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI) brought the group to the chalk line. With the cars 3 wide at the start, officials threw the caution and re-racked the group for a new start. With a clean start, Daggett and Horstman battled through turns 1 and 2 and were side by side coming out of turn 4. Horstman takes first as they past the flag stand and Daggett right with him. Allison battled Stambaugh hard and was able to keep Max behind him for the first 5 laps. But Stambaugh prevailed securing the third spot. As Horstman and Daggett took the checkered flag and Allison and Stambaugh were coming out of turn 4, Stambaughs car started to bicycle, wheelied and flipped bringing out a red flag. Max was okay, but officials scored Allison and Chris Pobaz (Sebewang, MI) as 3rd and 4th and called the race complete.

Brad Lamberson (Parma, MI) and Chase Ridenour (Perry, MI) led the Kistler Racing Products Heat Race 3 around the track. As the green flag dropped, the first two rows were 3, almost 4 wide going into turn 1. Coming out of turn 2, Dancer had a slight lead over Ridenour and Dylan Westbrook (Ontario, CA) was side by side with Lamberson. With one lap complete it was Dancer, Ridenour, Westbrook and Lamberson. Getting pushed from Josh Shantz (Waterloo, CA) and Joe Geibe (Sturgis, MI), Lamberson had to work to not loose his transfer spot. Westbrook got around Ridenour in the 4th lap securing a redraw spot with Dancer, while Ridenour and Lamberson finished 3rd and 4th securing transfer spots to the A-Main.

As the final group rolled out in the Specialty Fuels & Logistics Heat Race 4, Trevor Berry (Clio, MI) and Ricky Peterson (Rawson, OH) led the cars to the start line. With a clean start, Berry held off Gregg Dalman (Bellevue, MI) for the lead the first lap. Then Dalman got around Berry in the second lap giving him the lead. Peterson held the 3rd spot and Jay Steinebach (Hudsonville, MI) was solidly in 4th. Kyle Poortenga (Woodland, MI), who started 6th, worked his way past Ronnie Blair (Troy, OH) for 5th and then in the 4th lap got around Steinebach for 4th. As the checkered flag flew, it went Dalman, Berry, Peterson and Poortenga getting the 4 transfer spots to the A-Main.

Kirk Chaney (Hastings, MI) and Michael Summers (Warsaw, IN) led out 12 cars for the B-Main. The cars came around to the chalk line and got a quick yellow as the cars were warned and the line up re-stacked for a restart. On the second start, Summers had a good run and was able to steer clear of all the movement in the top 5 spots fighting for the 4 final transfer spots. In the 7th lap, Shantz got around teammate, Summers for 1st and with fierce competition to make the final 4 spots, It was a dogfight till the end. At the checkered flag, it was Shantz, Stambaugh, Blair and Steinebach earning those 4 spots and moving on to the A-Main.

Rolling off for the A-Main, Horstman earned the pole with Dancer next to him. As the two of them brought the field around to take the green, 14,000 horse power roared to life and Horstman quickly set the pace. Dancer was trying to keep Horstman reeled in as they started to encounter lapped traffic. In the 7th lap coming out of 4 high, Dancer got into some marbles and quickly hit the front stretch and rolling over on his side bringing out a red flag. Dancer was quickly out of his car and waved to the crowd.

With a single file restart, Gressman had worked his way up and put on quite a show with Westbrook for second. Gressman slid Westbrook coming out of 2, then Westbrook slid Gressman out of 4, back and forth for 2 and ½ laps when suddenly Gressman went over the top of turn one after a rear shot bracket broke, spinning him out and breaking his jacob’s ladder. Pushed into the work zone, the damage was more than the crew could fix and Gressman was out and the field went green.

The remaining 15 laps went green flag to checker. Horstman still up in clean air, took advantage of building his lead. The real battles took place back in the pack. Moving up after transferring from the B-Main, Stambaugh worked his way up to 7th after starting 18th earning the Engler Hard Charger Award for the night. As the cars made their way to the checkered flag, Horstman took home his 2nd GLSS feature win this year. Followed by Westbrook, Ruhl, Dalman and Daggett to round out the top 5.

Other notable moves during the feature was Ronnie Blair, after having a tough heat race and having to transfer through the B-Main, moved up 7 spots finishing 12th. And Peterson and Shantz both moving up 6 spots to finish 6th and 11th respectively.

What a great way to finish our season! We’ve averaged 29 cars per race all season and we got 29 cars Saturday. The racing was great and with some of the best sprint car drivers in the region represented. Thank you to the fans and the local tracks to allow us to come out and play every weekend throughout the summer. Without both of you, non of this would be possible.

Thank you also to the teams and sponsors that have supported Great Lakes Super Sprints as we have now finished our 3rd season of racing.

For complete season results, points and pictures, go to our website at www.greatlakessupersprints.com and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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