Muskegon, MI – Saturday, August 13, 2016 – With 20 cars in the pits and the skies clearing, Chase Ridenour would end the night in the winner’s circle for his 4th feature win in a row!
Great Lakes Super Sprints made our second and final visit to Thunderbird Raceway last Saturday. The weather forecast showed zero percent chance of rain and for the sun to pop out mid-afternoon. As the cars rolled into the pits, a light mist was falling and the sky was still heavily overcast. This posed new problems trying to get the track rolled in and prepared for track owner Tom Sprauge.
By 4;30 pm the skies started to clear and the sun started to come out. The race was on and the Thunderbird staff worked hard to make the best of the hand they were dealt by Mother Nature! In an effort to get the track worked in and dried out, the other classes rolled out for hot laps before the sprints started their qualifying.
Tank Brakenberry, of Pigeon, MI and Bull Dunlap of Wapakoneta, OH rolled out first on the track for qualifying. With all the moisture in the track, it was a little wavy but it looked like qualifying should go well. In the second group qualifying, Dustin Daggett of Portland, MI rolled out and set a Thunderbird Raceway track record average lap speed of 111.5 mph or a lap time of 12.1 seconds.
Daggett was fast qualifier for the night, with Chase Ridenour of Perry, MI was 2nd fast, Jarrod DeLong of Cridersville, OH was 3rd fast, Max Stambaugh of Lima, OH and Dunlap were 4th and 5th fast respectively. Inverting 4, put our top 3 qualifiers starting 4th in each of the 3 heat races.
Leading out Heat 1 on the front row was Mike Astrauskas of Pierson, OH and Gregg Dalman of Bellevue, As the green flag dropped, the drivers had their hands full handling their cars through the corners. The lower part of the track was developing some ruts that were a handful. The drivers taking the high line and staying on the gas seemed to have a better path around the track. This paid off for Daggett and Stambaugh as they finished 1 and 2, while Astrauskas and DJ Lamance of Delton, MI finished 3rd and 4th.
Heat 2 rolled on to the track and was led by Matt Lumbert of Dowling, MI and Linden Jones of Edwardsburg, MI. Similar to Heat 1, Ridenour and Dunlap found success running up high and was rewarded with a 1st and 2nd respectively. Phil Gressman of Helena, OH who started 6th was also rolling well up high and was able to work his way up to 3rd with Jones finishing 4th.
Rooster Dunlap of Wapakoneta, OH and Kyle Poortenga of Woodland, MI led out Heat 3. Starting on the poll, Rooster was starting his 10th race in a winged sprint car. With the challenges the track presented, he held his own and finished 2nd behind DeLong. Finishing 3rd was Poortenga and Tony Bures of Bristol, IN finished 4th. All drivers did a great job handling their cars and putting on a great show. All 3 Heat Races went green flag to checker flag.
Fast qualifier Daggett drew a 3 for the third race in a row, putting him in the 3rd starting spot for the feature with Delong and Ridenour starting in front of him. As the 20 cars rolled out on the track for the 25 lap feature, the track conditions from the wet conditions earlier in the day were starting to show. As the green flag dropped, the drivers would have to be on their game to navigate their cars through all 25 laps in the feature.
As the green flag dropped, Ridenour beat Delong to turn 1 and took the early lead. Delong worked hard on the high side to keep Ridenour reeled in and Daggett off his back. In lap 6 running high out of 4 and with it 3 wide, #18 Lamance hit a rut on the bottom that literally bounced the car up a half a car width and into the path of Delong. Delong did well to control his car as his front left wheel rolled up on Lamance’s right rear. Unfortunately lifting Delong’s front end in the air and hard into the wall next to the flag stand and breaking his right rear shock mount. This brought out the caution and DeLong was able to exit the track and into the pit, but his night was over.
With the field reset, the green flag was thrown and Ridenour and Daggett led the pack down the track. The rut in the bottom of 4 reared its head again 3 laps later as Bures got turned around. Narrowly missing Bures on the high side was Dalman, however unfortunately Joe Geibe of Sturgis, MI who was running on the bottom had nowhere to go and made contact with Bures sending Bures over on its side and bringing out the red flag.
Bures was quick to get out of his car, much to the appreciation of the crowd, and rushed over to check on Geibe. With both drivers ok, the cars were removed and the cars were re-fired, warmed up and put back into order.
With 9 laps in, the green flag drops and Ridenour, Daggett, Stambaugh and Gressman led the freight train down the front stretch. With 2 main grooves in the track, the bottom and the top, there was a definite difference in the speeds being laid down by the field. On the bottom, the cars were having to literally drive through ruts that made the cars look like a 12 ft aluminum boat trying to move across Lake Michigan during small craft advisories. The cars running the top were literally driving 20-30 mph faster.
Thinking we would finish out the race with no more cautions, Jones ended up spinning in lap 22 into a water hole in the infield. Getting Jones out and lined back up, it would be a dash to the finish. There wasn’t much room for error with the leaders running around the top at nearly 110 mph and the bottom cars running 80-90 mph! Daggett was following Ridenour through the traffic and waiting for him to make a mistake so he could take over the lead. With Ridenour patiently weaving through the traffic and not making any big mistakes, he took the checkered flag with Daggett on his bumper and Stambaugh, Gressman and Bull Dunlap rounding out the top 5.
Rooster Dunlap had his best finish this season, finishing 7th behind Jones who got 6th. Dalman and Lukas Smith of Lebanon, IN who started the race 19th and 20th respectively worked their way through the field and finished 10th and 11th moving up 9 spots. Another highlight Saturday night was that we had 4 fathers and their sons that started the race. We also had another 5 teams that were made up of fathers and sons. Check in again soon to read our story on “Fathers and Sons” of GLSS.
Our next race will be at Manistee Fair Grounds on Friday, August 26th and our Championship race (with Ridenour leading Daggett by 20 points) will be at Butler Motor Speedway on Saturday, August 27th. For more information visit our website at www.glss.rocks or visit our Facebook page.
- Barry Marlow on Aug 20, 2016
- Article Date: 8/13/2016 by Barry M. Marlow