Daggett Wins Inaugural GLSS Race
6/17/2016 at Mount Pleasant Speedway
Dustin Daggett, driving the #85 Daggett Family car, was second fast qualifier, spun out in his heat and started fifth in the feature and was able to navigate the field and take home the first ever “solo” Great Lakes Super Sprints race!
Six weeks into the GLSS season, there had been only 3 out of 8 races ran due to rain. Two of those races were ran with the NRA Sprint Invaders and the 3rd race was a co-sanctioned race with Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour. So after all the bad weather, June 17th ended up being the Inaugural race for GLSS.
Friday, June 17th was a beautiful day in Mount Pleasant, MI. By the start of the drivers meeting there were 22 sprint cars in the pits. During registration, drivers drew for qualifying order. Qualifying was done in pairs and #11R Chase Ridenour was fast qualifier, followed by Daggett, #16 Ryan Ruhl and #19 Brett Mann.
Fast qualifier Ridenour won Heat 1, Heat 2 was won by #31 Andy Teunessen, while in Heat 3 twelfth quick qualifier #19j Linden Jones held off a charging Ruhl to win his first ever Heat race!
The top 4 from each heat race filled out the front six rows in the feature and the rest of the field filled in based on their qualifying times. Fast qualifier, Ridenour, drew a pill (between 4-10) to determine the inversion in the A-Main. A 6 was drawn, so the top six cars were inverted and the field was set for our first ever A-Main.
#89 Chris Pobanz started on the pole with #31 Andy Teunessen next to him on the front row. Followed by #19 Brett Mann, Ruhl, Daggett and Ridenour to round out the top six inverted positions.
From the start of the race, Daggett quickly moved up to the front with Ridenour navigating around cars to stay with him. There were a number of cautions, losing 2 car to contact and 3 cars to car issues. One of the first casualties was Pobanz while trying to avoid Ruhl who was doing a 360 degree wheelie avoiding cars in front of him in turn 3 and 4. Fortunately Ruhl was able to keep going but Pobanz was stopped in turn 4 with a broken axle and done for the night.
#37 Rookie Noah Dunlap’s luck ran out in lap 18 when a freight train of 4 cars caught him after he came out of turn 2. While Dunlap held his line, the 4 cars flying out of turn 2 side by side caught up to Dunlap quickly going around him high and low. By the time they had past, #37 had lost his steering when one of the cars inadvertently clipped his front wheel. Fortunately Dunlap rolled into the infield and out of harms way…but out for the race.
#1 Eric Smith pulled off early with an oil pump issue, Teunessen pulled off after blowing his motor and Jones pulled off due to his engine overheating.
As the race neared an end, the top six cars were all within a quarter of a lap. As Dagget charged across the finish line to take the win, Ridenour was a half a car length behind, with Ruhl and Mann coming across the line together and Dalman and #57 Mike Dunlap right behind them.
Check out the full results listed below.
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 85-Dustin Daggett[5]; 2. 11R-Chase Ridenour[6]; 3. 16-Ryan Ruhl[4]; 4. 19-Brett Mann[3]; 5. 49T-Gregg Dalman[12]; 6. 57-Mike Dunlap[9]; 7. 46-Robert Huisken[13]; 8. 3A-Mike Astrauskas[20]; 9. 3-Kyle Locke[11]; 10. 11-Trey Smith[7]; 11. 84-Kyle Poortenga[17]; 12. 4L-Brady Locke[15]; 13. 91L-Alexis Adgate[14]; 14. 6-Tyler Bearden[22]; 15. 2T-Ralph Brakenberry[18]; 16. 4-Craig Karazim[8]; 17. 31R-Phil Rutledge[21]; 18. (DNF) 19J-Linden Jones[10]; 19. (DNF) 37-Noah Dunlap[19]; 20. (DNF) 31-Andy Teunessen[2]; 21. (DNF) 89-Chris Pobanz[1]; 22. (DNF) 1-Eric Smith[16]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11R-Chase Ridenour[4]; 2. 57-Mike Dunlap[1]; 3. 3-Kyle Locke[6]; 4. 19-Brett Mann[3]; 5. 46-Robert Huisken[8]; 6. 91L-Alexis Adgate[2]; 7. 84-Kyle Poortenga[7]; 8. 3A-Mike Astrauskas[5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 31-Andy Teunessen[1]; 2. 49t-Gregg Dalman [3]; 3. 85-Dustin Daggett[4] 4.11-Trey Smith [2]; 5. 1-Eric Smith [5]; 6. 37-Noah Dunlap[6]; 7. 6-Tyler Bearden [7]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 19J-Linden Jones[1]; 2. 16-Ryan Ruhl[4]; 3. 89-Chris Pobanz[3]; 4. 4-Craig Karazim[2]; 5. 4L-Brady Locke[5]; 6. 2T-Ralph Brakenberry[7]; 7. 31R-Phil Rutledge[6];
Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 11R-Chase Ridenour, 14.224[13]; 2. 85-Dustin Daggett, 14.298[11]; 3. 16-Ryan Ruhl, 14.403[4]; 4. 19-Brett Mann, 14.504[7]; 5. 31-Andy Teunessen, 14.521[18]; 6. 89-Chris Pobanz, 14.674[6]; 7. 91L-Alexis Adgate, 14.729[17]; 8. 11-Trey Smith, 14.845[21]; 9. 4-Craig Karazim, 14.872[3]; 10. 57-Mike Dunlap, 14.930[16]; 11. 6-Tyler Bearden, 15.022[8]; 12. 19J-Linden Jones, 15.134[2]; 13. 46-Robert Huisken, 15.142[1]; 14. 49T-Gregg Dalman, 15.164[20]; 15. 4L-Brady Locke, 15.357[12]; 16. 3-Kyle Locke, 15.380[10]; 17. 37-Noah Dunlap, 15.381[9]; 18. 3A-Mike Astrauskas, 15.457[15]; 19. 84-Kyle Poortenga, 15.494[14]; 20. 1-Eric Smith, 15.614[19]; 21. 2T-Ralph Brakenberry, 15.781[5]; 22. 31R-Phil Rutledge, 17.068[22]
- Barry Marlow on Jun 27, 2016
- Article Date: 6/17/2016