Lake Odessa, MI - Phil Gressman finishes off the 3rd straight night of racing with a win at I-96 Speedway.
Gressman has been close in the first 6 nights of racing with Great Lakes Super Sprints, taking a 3rd last Friday and a 2nd last Saturday when the visiting Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour was in town.
Sunday morning there was rain showers that fell, making the pits wetter than expected. With the forecast showing it clearing off, it was decided to go ahead and run and it was the right call and a beautiful night of racing.
There were 30 cars that qualified with GLSS. Jared Horstman (Cloverdale, OH)set fast time with a 14.196 second lap. Ryan Ruhl (Coldwater, MI) and Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI) put up times of 14.197 and 14.198, an incredible 1/1,000's of a second separating each car! Gressman and Max Stambaugh (Elida, OH) rounded out the top 5. It's notable to point out that the next 14 finishers, 6th through 19th, were only separated by .221 tenths of a second!
In the Kistler Engines & Racing Products Heat 1, Andrew Scheid (Sparta,MI)
walks away with 1st while Horstman, Stambaugh, and Allison make it into the A-Main.
In the Cambell Perfomance Heat 2, Jason Blonde (Litchfield, MI) takes the heat win and Mitch Brown (Ontario, Canada), Chase Ridenour (Perry, MI) and Ruhl all punch their ticket to the A-Main.
The NEEDMETHANOL.COM Heat 3 was won by Brad Lamberson (Parma, MI). Gregg Dalman (Bellevuel, MI, Daggett and Shawn Dancer (Delphos, OH) round out the top 4 making transfer spots to the A-Main.
The Perfit/Engine Pro Heat 4 was won by Jacob "Little Ben" Brown. Gressman, Brett "Hoosier Rocket" Mann, and Kyle Poortenga (Woodland, MI) all transfer to the A-Main.
In the Specialty Fuels & Logistics B-Main, Jay Steinebach, (Hudsonville, MI) walks away with the win. Ricky Peterson (Rawson, OH), Danny Sams (Northport, FL), Conner Morrell (Brandenton, FL), Zane DeVault (Plymouth, IN), Jared Lamberson (Parma, MI), Garrett Saunders (Lakeville, IN) and Micheal Summers (Warsaw, IN) all transferred into the A-Main.
The A-Main rolled out a little late after several red flag situations in the FAST A-Main. Gressman drew a 1 and was on the pole for the feature. As the flag drops, Gressman gets down to business and works out to a nice lead. In lap 10, Scheid's night is done, as the first caution is thrown and Scheid has to be towed off the track.
With a couple minor cautions thrown, we pick up the action in lap 22, when while gaining ground on Gressman, Lamberson slides off the track in turn 4 as his rear end froze up and he was done for the night. Stambaugh, Jacob Brown, Chse Ridenour and Dalman, round out your top five finshes
We are off the first weekend in June, but we will be back in action at Hartford Motor Speedway on Friday and Plymouth Speedway on Saturday.
Thank you to our marketing sponsors, Beacon and Bridge Markets, Addvance Heating & Cooling, Specialty Fuels and Logistics and Hoosier Midwest. Also to our race sponsors, Kistler Engines and Racing Products, Campbell Performance, Perfit/Engine Pro and Engler Machine and Tool.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the current pictures and activities. For our schedule, points and results go to our website at www.greatlakessupersprints.com.
- Barry Marlow on May 27, 2019
- Article Date: 5/26/2019 by Barry M. Marlow