Auburn, MI – Gregg Dalman (Bellevue, MI) won his 2nd feature this season in a photo finish with “Mad” Max Stambaugh (Elida, OH) tonight and secured a 2nd place finish in the Great Lakes Super Sprints Points Championship.
With rain all week, Friday turned out to be a beautiful day at Tri-City Motor Speedway near Auburn, MI. A few cars stayed away, fearing rain, but 33 cars made the pull Friday night from 5 states and Ontario, CA.
The cars rolled out for 3 car qualifying. Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI) posted a 11.57 second lap which was good for fast qualifier overall with an average speed of 116.7 mph. Devon Dobie (Wapakoneta, OH) posted an 11.73 second lap or 115.08 mph. Jake Brown (Ontario, CA), Jared Horstman (Cloverdale, OH) and Stambaugh rounded out the top 5 cars.
In the Kistler Engines Heat Race 1, Stambaugh took the checkered flag over a charging Daggett. Stambaugh and Daggett grabbed the two re-draw spots and Brad Lamberson (Parma, MI) and Jake Brown took the remaining transfer spots. The remaining 5 would move into the B-Main.
Danny Sams III (Northport, FL) wins the Campbell Performance Heat #2 over Dalman. Sams and Dalman would move on to the redraw and Dobie and Horstman would take the final two transfer spots. The other 4 drivers would have to race out of the B-Main.
In the Kistler Racing Parts Heat 3, Jared Lamberson (Parma, MI) easily held off the field for the checkered flag. Scott Hunter (Concord, NC), who pulled 13 hours to be with us tonight, finished 2nd and in the A-Main redraw while holding off Hud Horton (German Town, OH) and Josh Shantz (Waterloo, ON) who filled the last two transfer spots.
Mitch Brown (Ontario, CA) cruises to the win in the Specialty Fuels & Logistics Heat 4 with Trevor Berry (Clio, MI) in tow and locking into the redrawl. Linden Jones (Edwardsbug, MI) and his uncle, Brett “The Hoosier Rocket” Mann (Goshen, IN) grabbed the last two transfer spots into the Feature.
Kyle Poortenga (Woodland, MI) led out the field of 17 cars in the B-Main. At the drop of the green flag, the cars charged into turn 1 and as they were coming out of turn 2, Kyle Sa8der (Archbold, OH) got up high and ended up off the track and bringing out a caution. With a full double file restart, we had another caution thrown as someone spun out. The third time was the charm, Poortenga holding off the field and taking the checkered flag over Brandon Moore (Clyde, OH), Andrew Scheid (Sparta, MI), Conner Morrell (Brandenton, FL), Chase Ridenour (Perry, MSI) and Phil Gressman (Helena, OH) in 15 green flag laps.
With the field set, the top 2 from each heat race, reported to the winners circle, where young fans pull a number out of a hat for their starting spot. With the field of cars set for the A-Main, Danny Sams III will be on the pole with Trevor Berry (Clio) next to Sams on the front row.
As the flag drops, Berry gets out to a fast lead and was widening the gap from the rest of the field when a car gets turned around and the caution comes out with 7 laps in the books. As the green flag drops, Berry continues his run holding the rest of the field off. In the 18th lap, Dalman gets around Berry for good.
Dalman, working the bottom of the track, keeps the high flying Stambaugh, Daggett and a hard charging Horstman at bay. Looking for the white flag to fly, suddenly a caution comes out for Lamberson and Lamberson. Jared Lamberson looped his car in turn 4, while his brother Brad spun out at the top of turn 2.
After getting the track cleared, Dalman would have his work cut out, keeping the high flyers behind him for 2 more laps. Dalman gets on the peddle and brings the field out of turn 4. As Dalman takes the white flag, Stambaugh stands on the throttle and gets a good run on Dalman coming out of turn 2. When the two cars come out of turn 4 side by side, Dalman makes himself as big as he can forcing Stambaugh to go wide around him, which he did. With both cars appearing to cross the finish line at the same time,
Stambaughs car was wide of the transponder loop, so we didn’t get a time. As the video was rewound, Dalman was declared the winner when Dalman passed the line narrowly ahead of Stambaugh!
Our next race will be at Tri-City Motor Speedway, Saturday September 1st for the Great Lakes Fall Sprintacular! If necessary a rain date of Sunday, September 2nd is scheduled. For all the results and postings, follow us on Facebook and Twitter and visit our website at www.greatlakessupersprints.com.
- Barry Marlow on Sep 01, 2018
- Article Date: 8/31/2018 by Barry M. Marlow