Chase Ridenour of Perry has been racing since he was six years old, and his grandfather has never missed a race.
The 18-year old Perry High School senior has won approximately 20 championships combined in Quarter Midgets and Mini Sprints as well as the title in last year's inaugural Great Lakes Super Sprints season, and Bob Ridenour was there cheering him on for every one of them.
"He broke out of the hospital one week to go to the race track," Ridenour said.
Ridenour will be racing with a heavy heart Friday night when the GLSS returns to the I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa. Bob Ridenour of Haslett died on April 21 at the age of 76, and Friday will mark the first time that Ridenour has taken a green flag without his grandfather there to watch.
"It will be two weeks ago on Friday, and believe it or not, he never missed a single race," Ridenour said. "This will be the first race that he hasn't attended, so we are going in there with vengeance to win it for him. That's our goal.
"It definitely will be different in the pits and around the trailer without him. He had a lot of health problems. He made it a lot longer than expected, so we were blessed to have him longer than what the doctors said. We take the good with the bad. We have to keep the good with the bad and keep digging."
Ridenour races for his father, Rick Ridenour, who serves as the team's crew chief. Rick Ridenour purchased a Quarter Midget for his son 11 years ago, and while the family had no prior racing experience, the Ridenours proved to be quick learners.
Ridenour won four races a year ago and posted 10 top-fives, enabling him to edge out Dustin Daggett of Portland by 20 points to win the championship. Ridenour is back to defend his title.
"We want to win more races than last year, stay consistent and hopefully win another championship," Ridenour said.
Friday's race is the second stop on the GLSS schedule, which features races across Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario. It is the first of four I-96 Speedway stops since the circuit will be returning for races on June 23, July 23 and Aug. 18. The more races at I-96 the better as far as Ridenour is concerned.
"I-96 is one of my favorite tracks," Ridenour said. "It's always fast and racy. The challenge is that it has a weird shape to it. Turns three and four are a little shorter than turns one and two, so that makes it a struggle for some guys. But we have been pretty successful there the last few years. We won there last year, and we feel pretty confident going in there this weekend."
Friday's card will include IMCA Modifieds, Street Stocks and 4 Cylinders. Pits open at 4:30 p.m., main gate at 5:30 p.m., hot laps at 7 p.m. and racing at 8 p.m. Sunday has been designated as a rain date, with racing scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
- Barry Marlow on May 05, 2017
- Article Date: 5/4/2017 by Steve Kaminski, MLive (skaminsk@mlive.com)