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Ridenour/Daggett go 1 and 2, 3 Nights in a Row!

Auburn, MI : Chase Ridenour (11R) sweeps all 3 Great Lakes Super Sprint races this weekend at Tri-City, Merritt and I-96 Speedways! Dustin Daggett (2M) was dialed in as he was fast qualifier all 3 nights, but came up just a little short as Ridenour took home his first GLSS feature win, then 2nd and 3rd. The weekend we anticipated all summer did not disappoint fans that followed GLSS last weekend!

an·tic·i·pate verb. an·tic·i·pat·ed, an·tic·i·pat·ing, an·tic·i·pates 1. a. To see as a probable occurrence ;expect: 1. b. To think of (a future event) with pleasure; look forward to:

Anticipating is what Michigan sprint car fans were doing last week, leading up to Friday July 29th. They were anticipating 7 dirt sprint car races to choose from last weekend!!! Friday, July 29th Hartford Motor Speedway in Hartford, MI had the World of Outlaws Sprint Series rolling into town and Tri-City Motor Speedway in Auburn, MI had the Great Lakes Super Sprints returning for their second and final visit of 2016.
Saturday, July 30th offered fans sprint car racing at Butler Speedway with their weekly show, Silver Bullet in Owendale, MI had Michigan Traditional Sprints (MTS) in town for some wingless sprint car racing, Crystal Speedway in Crystal, MI had Sprints on Dirt (SOD) trying to get a race in that had previously been rained out twice and Merritt Speedway had their “Night of Speed” with GLSS visiting for their one and only visit this year.
Sunday, July 31st there would be a rare sprint car race, on a Sunday, at I-96 Speedway near Lake Odessa, MI put on by Great Lakes Super Sprints.

With 19 cars in the pits at Tri-City Speedway last Friday, GLSS sent cars out for qualifying in front of packed stands. Dagget, Ridenour and Andy Teunessen (31) were the top 3 qualifiers and would be set in Heats 1, 2 and 3.
In Heat 1, Robert Huisken (46) from Marne, MI took the checkered flag with Daggett and Mike “Bull” Dunlap (57) from Wapakoneta, OH chasing him down at the line for 2nd and 3rd.
Heat 2 was dominated by Ridenour with Kyle Poortenga (84) of Woodland, MI and Phil Gressman (28) of Helena, OH battling to the finish line for 2nd and 3rd.
In Heat 3, Teunessen battled off Gregg Dalman (49T) of Bellevue, MI and Mike Astrauskas (3A) of Pierson, MI for the checkered flag.
Running a dash at Tri-City, the top two finishers in each heat went up on the front stretch for kids from the stands to draw for their positions in the Dash (with how they finish the dash, determining their starting line up in the feature). Ironically, our fast two qualifiers drew a 5 and a 6, putting Daggett and Ridenour on the tail of the Dash. After 6 quick laps, Daggett took the checkered flag for the pole with Ridenour, Dalman and Huisken filling out the first two rows for the feature.
Leading out the cars for the feature, Daggett and Ridenour were side by side in the front row. As the green flag dropped, our first race of the weekend was on its’ way. About six minutes and 25 laps later, it was Ridenour, Daggett, Gressman, Dalman and Teunessen leading the pack across the checkered flag.
With Ridenour parking the 11R in the winners circle for the first time this season with GLSS, it tightened the points lead Daggett held from 12 points to only a 4 point lead..

Night two of our triple header landed GLSS at Merritt Speedway for their “Night of Speed”! GLSS did their part providing some speed with 14 of our 18 cars posting sub 13 second laps in qualifying, with Daggett posting the fastest time of the night at 12.046 seconds.
In Heat 1, Fast qualifier Daggett, came from 4th place to take the checkered with Max Stambaugh (16B) of Lima, OH and Huisken following him across the finish line for 2nd and 3rd.
Setting on the pole for Heat 2, Bull Dunlap ran good, but at the end he’d take the checkered for 2nd, not being able to hold off Astrauskas for the win. Gressman who started 4th followed Dunlap across the finish line for 3rd.
Our final Heat of the night had Chris Durand (67) of Port Stanley, ON on the pole. As the green flag came out, Durand was able to get some traction on the bottom and pulled out a green flag to checkered finish. Chasing him down from behind was Ridenour and Joe Geibe (23) of Sturgis, MI taking 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Fast qualifier Dustin Daggett pulled a pill for the invert in the feature. Pulling a 3, we inverted 3 cars which put Ridneour on the pole and Gressman next to him and Daggett and Huisken behind them in the second row.
As one lap was complete, Robert Huisken lost his steering and went off the end of turn 1. Looking like he was okay, no caution was thrown as Huisken’s car came around the back of turn 2 and appeared to be coming back on the track. Unfortunately the 46 car not only lost the steering but the brakes as well and did come back on the track and when it crossed the cushion the car turned left and right into Chris Pobanz (89) of Sebewang, MI who was flying out of turn 2. Hitting Huisken hard and flipping Pobanz on his side and also getting into the wings of Justin Ward of Benzonia, MI, momentarily knocking Justin out.
It was a scary sight to see, but the safety crews and equipment did their jobs and other than some disappointments and frustrations, all drivers were able to make it safely back to their pits. (Justin Ward was able finish the feature, only seeing a few stars…but knowing his name!)
Getting Huisken and Pobanz off the track, the field of 16 remaining cars were fired and lined up to get the Main going again. As Daggett brought the field around to the green flag, the crowd was treated to a quick 24 green flag laps in roughly 5 minutes and 20 seconds. With a lot of good driving by all the drivers, Ridenour was able to get around Daggett with Gressman holding on to 3rd and Stambaugh moving up from 7th to 4th and Durand finished 5th from a 9th place start. A great night of racing putting Ridenour, Daggett and Gressman on the podium for the second night in a row.

Our 3rd stop on our triple header weekend, took us to I-96 Speedway to run our make-up date from getting rained out at our opener on May 13th. As the overcast clouds started to clear and the sun and blue sky poked through, we found 25 sprint cars in the pits.
Qualifying was over quick and the track seemed pretty smooth and fast! Daggett nailed fast qualifier for the 3rd day in a row, followed by Geibe, Ridenour, Teunessen and Brett Mann (19) of Goshen, IN rounnding out the top 5.
Heat 1 rolled on the track, then slid down the track. The sky was blue, the sun was out and fans were lined up getting into the pits, but the track was so wet that the cars were sliding down from the top of the track. Not safe to race on, Heat 2 was rolled out on the track giving us 16 cars to pack and roll in the track. Allowing Heat 1 to leave the track and add fuel and scrape off the 50-100 lbs of mud, we started Heat 2 since they were in place and ready to go.
Linden Jones (j19) of Edwardsburg, MI and Kyle Poortenga (84) of Woodland, MI led Heat 2 around to get the green flag. Jones, went high and led the whole race, not allowing his uncle, Brett Mann to get close enough to pass him. Crossing the finish line was Jones, Mann and Brad Lamberson (27) of Parma, MI to take the top 3 spots.
Rolling on the track for the second time, Stambaugh and Dalman lined up on the front row. Jumping out quick was Daggett leading the race and not giving Stambaugh or Teunessen, who finished 2nd and 3rd any opportunities to get by.
Heat 3 rolled out on the track led by Durand and Kyle Locke (3) of Quincy, MI. As the flag dropped, Ridenour charged up front for the lead. Pushing hard, Durand tried to keep Ridenour close with Jarred Delong (10J) of Cridersville, OH on his tail. Running out of time Ridenour sailed across the finish line with Durand and Delong in tow.
Taking the top 5 from each heat race, the remaining field would have to fight their way in through the B-Main. Mike Astrauskas and Trey Smith (11) of St Joseph, MI started on the front row and led from coast to coast to get their transfer spots into the A-Main. Also racing their ways into the A-Main were Tony Bures (58) of Bristol, IN, Tanner Astrauskas (31A) of Pierson, MI and Eric Smith (24) of Lakeview, MI.
Andy Teunessen and Chase Ridenour led the A-Main out onto the track. Once everyone was lined up, the drivers formed into the 4 wide Sprint Car Fan Salute formation to a very appreciative Sunday afternoon crowd.
As the flag dropped, Daggett went low and passed Teunessen for the lead on the front stretch. Finding speed up high on the cushion, Daggett, Teunessen, Stambaugh and Ridenour were quickly catching up to lap traffic as most of them were running the bottom…but the speed was on top this afternoon!
A caution came out in lap 6 as Lamberson spun out in the bottom of 1 and 2. On the restart, Teunessen was now gone with a flat tire leaving Daggett, Stambaugh and Ridenour battling up front. As a quick 14 laps clicked off Ridenour got around Stambaugh for 2nd and was working hard on reeling Daggett in. With the leaders weaving in and out of lap traffic, Bures spun out in turn 4 with around 5 laps to go. As the field goes green, Ridenour appears to being pulled around the track by Daggett. With 4 laps to go the Daggett/Ridenour train get slowed with a lap car racing hard and forcing Daggett to try and find a way around. While in lap 24, Daggett flys down the back stretch and goes low on the lap car, sliding across turn 3 and up into 4, only to get caught up in the cushion just enough to give Ridenour a window to take the lead as they take the white flag. As Daggett is in hot pursuit of Ridenour and still following the lapped car into the backstretch, Ridenour gives the lapped car a tap, sending him to the bottom and allowing Ridenour and Daggett to fly by and race to the finish line. Coming out of turn 4 it was clear that this weekend belonged to Chase Ridenour as he took the checkered flag giving him his 3rd feature win in 3 nights. A clean sweep of the GLSS Triple Header weekend!

As the sun set on I-96 Speedway, it was an awesome feeling to reflect on the weekend that was so highly anticipated. World of Outlaws race was cancelled, Butler Speedway, MTS and SOD all cancelled. Giving fans in Michigan 3 of the 7 anticipated races. We were fortunate that we got all 3 of the Great Lake Super Sprints races in. The fans that came out to Tri-City, Merritt and I-96 Speedways were treated to great racing on 3 well pre-pared tracks. 3 – 25 lap features at three different tracks, on 3 consecutive nights and only 3 caution flags were thrown. We had 30 different cars race with us last weekend from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Ontario. We had a 17 year old from Perry, MI win not only his first ever GLSS feature this weekend, we got to witness history as he swept the Triple Header weekend with 3 Feature wins.

Anticipation turned to fulfillment and a great weekend of racing for GLSS. Thank you to the fans, race teams and tracks that made this such a special weekend!

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