Lake City, MI - Ryan Ruhl (Coldwater, MI) survives a couple late cautions and holds on to take the checkered flag in a thriller at Merritt Speedway.
Saturday started out with questions about the weather and whether we would be able to race with rain in the forecast. But as the day gave way to the afternoon the forecasted rain turned into nothing more then light showers at the track and it turned out to be a beautiful northern Michigan evening.
22 cars made the trip north and hit the track for qualifying. Jared Horstman (Cloverdale, OH) topped the field, setting quick time of 12.732 second lap. Following with second quick was Ruhl with a 12.953 second lap. Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI), Frank Neill (Vickery, OH) and Phil Gressman (Helena, OH) rounded out the top 5 qualifiers.
Rolling out for the Engler Machine & Tool Heat 1, last weeks feature winner, Chase Ridenour (Perry, MI) jumped out front at the start and led all 8 laps and held off Horstman.at the checkered flag. Mike Astrauskas (Pierson, MI) finished 3rd, with Jay Steinebach (Hudsonville, MI) and Neill rounded out the top five spots in the heat.
The Kistler Engines & Racing Parts Heat 2 was led and won by our 2018 Rookie of the year, Conner Morrell (Bradenton, FL). Nipping at his heals was Ruhl and Gressman, who finished 2nd and 3rd respectably. Eli Lakin (Buchanan, MI) and Chris Pobanz (Sebewang, MI) finsihed out the top five finishers in the heat
Andrew Scheid (Sparta, MI) took the lead in the Specialty Fuels & Logistics Heat 3 and led all 8 laps and holding off 2nd place finisher Daggett by a second. Gregg Dalman (Bellevue, MI) moved up and secured 3rd. Andy Chehowski (Coldwater, MI) and Doug Stepke (Brooklyn, MI) rounded out the top five.
Rolling out at 10 pm in the last feature of the night at 10 pm, The Engine Pro/PERFIT A-Main was led out by Morrell and Ruhl on the front row. As the green flag dropped, Ruhl moved out front and was the car to beat! Following tightly behind Ruhl was the 16w car piloted by Ridenour. Quickly the leaders got into lapped traffic, but they kept their foot on the peddle. In lap 15 as Ridenour made his move and drove by Ruhl on the back stretch, it appeared Ridenour was going into turn 3 high and hot with lapped traffic heavy in the corner. As Ridenour got into turn 3, he made contact with a lapped car and flipped a couple times and ending his night.
After restacking the line up and with the green flag flying, Ruhl was on the gas and kept his lead in front of Horstman and Daggett. With a couple late yellows with 5 laps to go, Ruhl was able to stay in front the rest of the way to the checkered flag. Horstman would take second and Daggett secured third. Morrel held on for 4th and Andrew Scheid took 5th.
Our Perfit/Engine Pro Lucky Dog was Phil Gressman tonight and RJ Payne (Clio, MI) was our Hoosier Racing Tire Hard Charger tonight, starting 22nd and finishing 16th.
Our next race will be this coming Friday, August 21st at I-96 Speedway, with a double header weekend and a race on Saturday, August 22nd at Butler Motor Speedway. For the most up to date schedule please go to our website www.greatlakessupersprints.com or www.greatlakessprints.com and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@GLSprints),
Thank you to our Series Spoonsor Perfit/Engine Pro and ARP. We'd also like to thank our marketing sponsors Beacon & Bridge Markets, Addvance Heating & Cooling, Midland Steel, Environmental Waste & Recovery Service and our Racing Partners, Engler Machine and Tools, Kistler Engines & Racing Parts, Campbell Performance and Specialty Fuels.
- Barry Marlow on Aug 16, 2020
- Article Date: 8/15/2020 by Barry M. Marlow