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Horstman Holds off Sauder to Take Michigan Opener

Lake Odessa, MI: On a beautiful early spring evening, after a receiving rain 4 of the previous 5 days, Great Lakes Super Sprints rolled into I-96 Speedway for the 2017 Michigan Ice Breaker Opener. It was the first sprint car race in Michigan of the 2017 racing season. The buzz on twitter and Facebook was blowing up on Friday and anticipation was high. The 23 cars that did make the trip, did not disappoint.

Barry Marlow, owner of GLSS, kicked off the drivers meeting at 6:30 pm and heat was put in the engines at 6:45. Qualifying line ups were set and we allowed all the cars out for a quick hot lap session and then right back around for qualifying in groups of 3.

The track was in great shape for sprint cars and was shaping up to be racey. After some technical difficulties and radio mis-communication qualifying was done at 7:45 pm. Dustin Daggett in the #85 rose to the top and posted the fast time of 14.40 seconds or just under 100 mph. Closely behind Daggett was Jared Horstman (#17), at 14.47 second. Kyle Sauder (#2), Devon Dobie (#23) and Chase Ridenour (#11R) rounded out the top 5. GLSS Rookie Lexi Adgate (#91) had some mechanical issues during qualifying and needed to scratch the rest of the evening.

With the Heat Races set, we rolled off with Heat 1 around 9 pm. With Max Stambaugh (#5m) and GLSS Rookie Trevor Berry (#7B) on the front row they brought the field of 8 cars to the start line. Stambaugh pulled out and was leading as they passed the flag stand with Berry and Daggett on his tail. Going into turn 3 there was an opening and Daggett went low passing Berry and sliding out of turn 4 in front of Stambaugh and the lead which he never gave up. Top two finishers for the redraw were Daggett and Stambaugh, with Berry, Dobie and Craig Karazim (#10K) finishing out the top five.

Heat race #2 pushed off led by Joe Geibe (#23) on the pole and Linden Jones (#19J) to his right. As the field passed the line in turn 4, Jones went wide and Horstman moved up and Ridenour went low under Geibe giving the crowd a four wide pass going into turn 4 with Horstman and Jones going into the back stretch with the lead and Ridenour gets around Geibe for third. With clean air out front, Horstman and Jones hold on for 1st and 2nd, and Ridenour, Geibe and Kelsey Ivy (#20i) rounding out the top five.

Heat race 3 rolls out on the track which seems to be getting faster! Robert Huisken (#46) and Ryan Ruhl (#16B) led the group of seven into turn 4 to the chalk line. Huisken took off down the front stretch in front of the flag stand with Ruhl by his side and Gregg Dalman (#49T) and Sauder right behind them. With no one wanting to give any ground, the group of 4 remained in their pairs side by side for the first 2 ¾ laps. Then coming out of turn 3, Huisken went high giving Sauder and Dalman a hole to go around him on the bottom. As the group went into turn 1, Sauder and Dalman were around Huisken and trying to reel in Ruhl who had built a 10 car lead while the three of them battled for 2nd. Ruhl held the lead as Sauder worked through and around some lap traffic. At the end, Ruhl held off Sauder as Dalman, Huisken and Sean Hosey (#6H) rounded out the top 5. GLSS Rookie, Jared Lamberson (27J) ended his night with engine problems.

A redraw was held in the GLSS hauler with the top 2 finishers from each heat race to determine the feature line up. The order of the draw was given to the highest qualifier first. Horstman drew a 1 and Sauder drew a 2, putting Stambaugh, Daggett, Jones and Ruhl in the second and third rows. The rest of the field was filled by their heat race finishes. With the feature line up set the cars were all pushed out on the track at once to be fired on the track. With the great push truck crew on hand, the 21 cars making the call for the feature were fired in less than two minutes and started forming up in their start orders.

Once the line up was correct, Chase Ridenour pulled out and got behind the Roush Performance Engine pace truck as the rest of the field formed the missing man formation in honor of Robert “Bob” Ridenour. Ridenour, who had never missed one of his grandsons races since he started racing, passed away on April 21, 2017. Ridenour was a race fan and supporter of Great Lakes Super Sprints, sneaking out of the hospital back on April 14th, journeying to Ohio to see Chase race in the NRA/GLSS season opener at Limaland.

Sauder and Horstman brought the field around into turn 4 on a good pace and as they came into the front stretch, Sauder took the early lead with Horstman and Daggett right behind. Sauder, Horstman, Daggett and Stambaugh were like a freight train in the early laps with Horstman challenging every lap and Sauder holding him off.

As they caught up to lap traffic, Sauder was pinched by a lapped car high as Horstman took his chance and shot between another lapped car as they all went 3 wide through turn 1 and 2. Coming out of turn 2, Horstman was in the lead for good. With Horstman up front, the passing and battling between 2nd and 16th place was exciting!

At the half way point, as the field was clicking off laps every 15 seconds, Ridenour and a hard charging Berry came into turn 3 with a lapped car in front of them. Ridenour committed to the bottom and Berry took the high line, splitting the lapped car. As Ridenour came under, the lapped car moved up about 3 feet into the path of Berry’s front left wheel, launching him over the turn 4 bank. As the red flag came out and all cars stopped, emergency crews rushed to Berry’s car, which rolled twice then landed on it’s wheels.

As racing resumed, Horstman led with Sauder, Daggett, Stambaugh and Ruhl trying to chase him down, while Ridenour, Dalman, Dobie, Jones, Huisken, Ivy, Hosey and Poortenga where hard on their tales. Coming out of turn 4 in lap 14, Ridenour goes low and gets ahead of Ruhl for the 5th position. As Ruhl goes down the front stretch something slams into the right lower kick panel, hitting his leg. This causes Ruhl to decelerate and pulls off the end of turn 1 and 2 bringing out a caution.

Horstman leads the field around on the restart and the leaders quickly get into lapped traffic in lap 18. As Horstman clears turn 2, a hard charging Sauder gets squeezed off the back stretch by a lapped car. With wheels spinning and the car sliding, Sauder’s car suddenly catches and shoots back out on the track in front of a fast, oncoming Daggett!

Daggett was taking a high line into turn 3 to go above the 2T car of Ralph Brakenberry. When Sauder suddenly popped back on the track, Daggett needed to go low to avoid Sauder and Brakenberry, catching an infield tire with his front left wheel, breaking the steering column bracket and slamming the steering wheel down onto his lap. Daggett’s car came to a stop facing oncoming traffic in the bottom of turn 4.

With 7 laps to go, It only took Horstman 104 seconds to capture his second GLSS victory of the season! Sauder and Stambaugh finished 2nd and 3rd. Ridenour who started 8th moved up to finish 4th, while Craig Karazim (#10K) who started 13th worked his way through a stacked pack to take a 5th place finish. Jay Steinbach (#19S) who started 16th, also gained 8 positions finishing 8th. Other notable moves included Eric Smith (#24) started 20th and finished 14th and Kyle Poortenga (#84) went from 17th to 12th. Dobie, Ivy and Hosey all moved up 4 positions.

Our next race is at Attica Raceway Park, home to “Ohio’s Finest Racing” on Friday, May 12th with the NRA Sprint Invaders.

Medical Update:
• Trevor Berry (#7B) is sore, but will be fine. No medical attention.
• Ryan Ruhl (#16B) received X-rays on his leg, is sore, but should heal fine.
• Dustin Daggett (#85) has sore legs, but will be fine. No medical attention.

Winners Circle pictures taken by: Becky Herrington Photography
Two #7B car in the pits pictures by: Becky Herrington Photography
All other pictures were taken by: Randy Ellen Photography

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