Auburn, MI - Jared Horstman (Cloverdale, OH) not only fought Memorial Day traffic and the rain to get to the track, he held off a late charge of Phil Gressman (Helena, OH), Gregg Dalman (Bellevue, MI) and Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI) to take the checkered flag Friday night at Tri-City Motor Speedway.
Friday morning, the outlook for us racing that night looked pretty bleak! After discussing the weather with track owner, Steve Puvalowski around 10:15 am, it was decided to give the weather another hour and a half so we could get a better feel how this front was going to act. Texting my phone around 11:45 am, Puvalowski said it was breaking up and we were racing tonight!
When registration was over, we had 23 cars signed up to qualify. We group qualified tonight with 3 cars hitting the track in each group. The 5th group rolled out with our 2017 Champion, Horstman and our 2018 Champion, Daggett. When the dust settled, Daggett had set fast time with a 11.11 second lap (ave speed of 121.5 mph) and Horstman finished 2nd over all with a 11.302 second trip around the track. Zane DeVault (Plymouth, IN), Danny Sams III (Northport, FL) and Devon Dobie (Wapakoneta, OH) rounded out the top 5 places in qualifying.
Leading out the Kistler Engines and Racing Parts Heat 1 was Rookie, Garrett Saunders (Lakeville, IN) and Dan McCarron (Britton, MI). Jumping out front at the start, McCarron would take the checkered flag in a quick 100 seconds. Sams would finish just behind him and securing the second redraw spot. Daggett and Gressman battled for 3rd and 4th, while Brad Lamberson (Parma, MI) rounded out the top 5.
Jared Lamberson (Parma, MI) and our 2016 Champion, Chase Ridenour (Perry, MI led out the Campbell Performance Heat Race 2. Performing well with his back up motor in, Ridenour jumped out to the early lead and was able to hold off Horstman till the 6th lap, With Horstman in the lead for good, the battle was between 2nd and 3rd. Dobie, who was running 3rd, was able to get around Ridenour in the final lap to secure the 2nd redraw spot. Ridneour finished 3rd, with Jared Lamberson (Parma, MI) and Andrew Schied (Kent City, MI) rounding out the top 5.
In the Perfit/Engine Pro Heat 3, Kyle Poortenga (Woodland, MI) and Jay Steinebach (Hudsonville, MI) led the field around to the green flag. Dalman was called for a jump, in his first night of racing with his new car, beating Poortenga to the start line. Lining up the cars for a restart found Dalman now in the 3rd row. Steinebach led green flag to checker, with Dalman moving up to 2nd to claim the final redraw spot. Poortenga, Michael Burkin (Clyde, OH) and DeVault rounded out the top 5 spots.
Trying to save time and move the show along tonight, the redraw was held in the GLSS hauler in the pits rather than on the front stretch in front of the fans. The redraw set up the front 3 rows and ended with McCarron and Horstman taking the front row. Sams and Dobie filled row 2 and Dalman and Steinebach filling the 3rd row. If that wasn't a tough enough start to the feature, rows 4 and 5 added Daggett, Dalman, Poortenga and Gressman.
Horstman got out to the early lead with McCarron right behind him. We went 14 green flag laps before Michael Summers (Warsaw, MI) spun at the top of turn 4. With Summers going to the tail and getting the rest of field lined up, we knock out the remaining 11 laps in short order.
When the caution was thrown, Gressman, Dalman and Daggett we charging hard, trying to reel in Horstman. Sometimes a caution is a good thing to bring the leader back in closer to the field. This wasn't the case Friday night, clearing out the lapped cars and giving Horstman a few laps of clean air with no one in front of him.
At the checkered flag, Horstman won the feature with an 2.3 second lead over runner up Gressman, The battle at the line was by Gressman, Dalman and Daggett. Gressman edged out Dalman at the line by one 100th of a second and Dalman edged out Dagget by 34 hundreths of a second. McCarron rounded out the top 5 finishers.
Happy to complete 4 races in a row, we're keeping our fingers crossed that mother nature cooperates to allow us to run Night 2 of our triple header weekend at Crystal Motor Speedway Saturday night. If the weather holds out, we'll be at I-96 Speedway again Sunday, running an all winged sprint show.
Thank you to our sponsors, Addvance Heating & Cooling, Beacon & Bridge Markets, Specialty Fuels and Logistics, Environmental Waste & Recovery Service, Kistler Engines and Racing Parts, Campbell Performance, Perfit/Engine Pro, and Engler Machine & Tool.
- Barry Marlow on May 25, 2019
- Article Date: 5/24/2019 by Barry M. Marlow