Montpelier, IN – Jared Horstman (Cloverdale, OH) takes the checkered flag for his 9th win of the season during Border Wars 3 in the Hoosier State!
Rained out for our first visit to Montpelier Speedway in June, Mother Nature blessed us with a beautiful July evening Saturday night. With 10 cars from Ohio and 10 cars from Michigan, Indiana and Canada, we had a full field of cars competing in Border Wars 3.
Rolling out in the first group for qualifying, Horstman quickly laid down a lap time of 12.578 seconds or an average speed of 101.37 mph which was good enough for the evenings fast qualifier and a new track record! Shawn Dancer (Delphos, OH), Devon Dobie (Wapakoneta, OH), Chase Ridenour (Perry, MI) and Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI) rounded out the top five.
In Heat 1, Linden Jones (Edwardsburg, MI) jumped out to a quick lead and was able to hold off fast qualifier, Horstman for the win. Ridenour, Randy Hannagan (Pittsboro, IN) and Joe Geibe (Sturgis, MI) rounded out the top five.
Blasting outfront in heat 2, Phil Gressman (Helena, OH) takes the early lead. Charging hard out of turn 4, Dancer does a 360 degree wheelie and comes to a stop on the front stretch. With Dancer at the back, Daggett starts to reel in Gressman. Going into turn 4 with the white flag out, Daggett is side by side with Gressman when Dancer re-inserts himself in the mix. When the checkered flag flies, Dancer takes the win followed by Daggett, Gressman, Jake Brown (Brantford, Ont) and Alex Nalon (Pittsboro, IN). Unfortunately as the checkered flag was flying and Nalon came out of 4, he kissed the wall and cart-wheeled down the front stretch, coming to rest at the entrance to turn one. Nalon emerged from the car safe but sore.
In Heat 3, Jeff Williams (Belle Center, OH) took advantage of his pole spot and would not be denied a win. Jumping in front of Dobie, Williams set the pace and never looked back. Gregg Dalman (Bellevue, MI), Dobie, Jarrod DeLong (Cridersville, OH) and Kyle Poortenga (Woodland, MI) held their spots and rounded out the top five. Mitch Brown (Brantford, Ont) who was supposed to start on the front row was in the pits with rear end problems and would have to start the feature at the tail.
With the track conditions getting dusty and hard to see, track officials gave the track crew time to re-work the track to make a safer and better track for the features. As the sprints fired off for the feature, the track was looking good and officials had the sprints work in some of the wet spots to be safe. After the 4 wide salute to the fans of Montpelier, pole setter Daggett had to exit the track with a right rear tire going flat. With Daggett going to the tail, that moved the field forward putting Jones on the pole.
As the green flag flew, Dancer was out front in a flash with Jones trying hard to keep him in his sights. Right behind Jones was Williams, Dalman and Ridenour fighting to hold their positions. Coming out of turn 4 in lap 9, Dalman was running 4th and the car slid up into the wall cartwheeling him over the line as Ridenour and Gressman passed him and the 49T car came to a hard stop at the west end of the front stretch bringing out a quick red flag. Dalman emerged from the car ok.
Firing off the cars for a single file restart, Dancer resumed the blistering pace he was on earlier. Jones wasn’t so lucky as the red flag wasn’t as kind to his tires, which were going soft. This allowed Horstman, Ridenour, Gressman and Tim Allison (Cridersville, OH) to get around Jones over the next couple laps.
Back in the pack, Daggett had moved up to 12th and was trying to get around Williams in lap 19 as they both went into turn 1. There was some contact as Daggett caught an infield tire simultaneously as the leader, Dancer, came high into turn 1. As Dancer shot down in the infield to avoid Williams and Daggett, Daggett headed into the infield with steering problems. With Daggett between Dancer and the track, Dancer wasn’t able to shoot back on the track until the back stretch loosing the lead to Horstman.
With Daggett out, and no caution thrown, Dancer tried to reel in Horstman. With the white flag flying, Ridenour was able to get around Dancer, who now had a flat right front tire after making contact with the wall. As the field came to the checkered flag, Horstman held on for the win as Ridneour, Dancer, Gressman and Allison rounded out the top five.
Starting 16th, Tim Allison was able to navigate the field for the night’s hard charger award finishing 5th in a very competitive field. Changing rear ends and overcoming starting 18th, Mitch Brown was able to work his way up to an 8th place finish.
For full results and more information, go to our website www.greatlakessupersprints.com or follow us and current events on Facebook or Twitter @GLSuperSprints.
The NCRA Great Lakes Super Sprints will be back in action at I-96 Speedway near Lake Odessa, MI on Friday, August 18th.
- Barry Marlow on Aug 04, 2017
- Article Date: 7/29/2017 by Barry M. Marlow