Mt Pleasant, MI - In 2016, in our inaugural season, Great Lakes Super Sprints held our first ever sanctioned race at Mount Pleasant Speedway. Scheduled as the 9th race of the season, we raced at Limaland and Eldora in Ohio with the NRA Sprint Invaders and we raced at Hartford Speedway in a co-sanctioned event with The Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour.
However, the first 5 solo GLSS races were rained out that inaugural season, making the June 16th visit to Mount Pleasant our first! With 22 cars in the pits we started our first night of racing with our new format. Drawing for qualifying order and qualifying for heat race starting position.
Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI) won the first GLSS feature that night, with Chase Ridenour (Perry, MI), Ryan Ruhl (Coldwater, MI), Brett Mann (Goshen, IN) and Gregg Dalman (Bellevue, MI) rounding out the top five!
Ridenour went on to win the Championship that inaugural season with Daggett finishing a close second, just 20 points behind. Jared Horstman (Cloverdale, OH) won the Championship in 2017 and Daggett went on to win the Championship in 2018 and is our current reigning Champion. Phil Gressman (Helena, OH) is our current Points Leader going into Saturdays race.
Since our inaugural season we have had races scheduled at 23 different tracks in 4 different states and we ran at 20 of them. We have completed 68 races through June 22, 2019, and we have had 3 races that were called because of rain over half way thru the program, we've had 16 rain outs and 4 cancellations.
In the 68 completed races we have had 128 different drivers race with us since 2016. We have had a total of 1,756 cars or an average of 25.8 cars per race with a total payout for 68 races of $929,727.13.
Mount Pleasant Speedway has been owned and operated by the Crook Family for 33 years. Betty Crook is the owner/promoter and her son Mario is the Asst Promoter and takes care of all the track prep.
The track is 1,600 feet around the middle groove or roughly a 3/10ths mile track. With the current tire placement at the track, the racing surface is roughly 55 feet wide all around the track. With a short 3 1/2 foot wall starting at turn 4 and running down the front stretch and into turn 1, the remaining 2/3rds of the track is pretty forgiving for drivers that might go over the top.
The main Grandstands seats roughly 2,000 people and there is a fully stocked concession stands, modern restrooms and a merchandise booth. One of my sons favorite items on the menu is Papa Johns Pizza!! On the Pit side of the track, there are bleachers for roughly 600 people and some would argue the best pit hamburgers around!
We are excited to bring Great Lakes Super Sprints, Michigan Traditional Sprints (non winged sprints) and 1,000 cc Lightning Sprints together for a special Saturday night, All Sprint show at Mount Pleasant Speedway.
Celebrating our Veterans, we have teamed up with local Veterans organizations and titled our show in honor of all Vets "Sprints for Veterans". All Veterans and Active Military are welcome and will receive $5.00 off any adult ticket for themselves and a guest. Just present an ID at the ticket booth when you purchase your tickets.
Anyone wanting to receive discounted tickets of your own, you can buy discounted grand stand and pit passes online up until midnight, Friday, June 28th. Just click on the following link to get your tickets today! https://market.myracepass.com/store/tickets/?i=1182546&store=11836
(If you can't get the link to work, go to www.greatlakessupersprints.com and click on the schedule, then scroll down to 6/29 "Sprints for Veterans" and click on the ticket icon.)
Our next race is Friday, June 28th in the Battle of Speed at I-96 Speedway and then Saturday, June 29th for the Sprints for Veterans at Mt Pleasant Speedway.
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 Jun 28, 2019
- Article Date: 6/27/2019 by Barry M. Marlow