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HORSTMAN KEEPS GRESSMAN FROM 2 IN A ROW

Plymouth, IN – Jared Horstman (Cloverdale, OH) was at the Knoxville Nationals, but decided to head home and race at Plymouth Speedway with Great Lakes Super Sprints Saturday night on the way. Phil Gressman (Helena, OH) won at our first visit to Plymouth Speedway in June and had his sights on making it two in a row. Horstman who drew an 8 in the feature, had other ideas…he didn’t just drive 8 hours for tow money!

We lost a couple cars from night 1 of Borders Clash, Andrew Scheid (Sparta, MI) was recuperating from a bruised sternum after a nasty flip going into turn 3 Friday night and Tony Bures (Bristol, IN) discovered some water coming out of the #6 cylinder on his motor. But we still had a strong field of 29 cars for Night 2 of Borders Clash Weekend.

With all the cars registered and the drivers meeting out of the way, the cars rolled out to qualify in groups of 3. Fast qualifier over all was “Mad Max” Stambaugh (Elida, OH) who went out and set a new track record of nearly 110 mph on the 3/8th mile banked track. Randy Hannagan (Pittsboro, IN), Gregg Dalman (Bellevue, MI), Danny Sams III (Northport, FL) and Andy Teunessen (Kalamazoo, MI) rounded out the top 5 over all qualifiers. There were 2 flights for qualifying, Flight A made up of 15 cars which filled the first two heat races and Flight B made up of 14 cars which filled the third and fourth heat races.

In the 5th group of Flight A, 2016 GLSS Champion Chase Ridenour (Perry, MI) was riding the thin cushion in turn 3 when he hit the wall hard at the top of turn 4, flipping the 11R. Ridenour was done qualifying, but was able to get repairs made and made the call for heat 1 where he tagged on the back row.

In the Kistler Engines Heat 1, Jared Lamberson (Parma, MI) and “Joe Dirt” Geibe (Strugis, MI) brought the group around for a clean start. As Lamberson and Geibe remained side by side into turn one, when fast qualifier Stambaugh, got over on 2 wheels and cart wheeled into turn one, flipping twice and hitting the wall at the top of turns 1 and 2. As the cars scattered to avoid the flipping Stambaugh, Matt Foos (Fremont, OH) who was following Mad Max had no place to go, with cars on both sides, got clipped by the flipping 5M as Foos drove under the airborne car and he did a quick snap roll landing hard in the middle of the track facing the wall and done for the night. Both drivers were ok, but understandably sore.

The Kister Engines Heat 1 was restarted and going green flag to checker, Lamberson won the heat with “D3” Sams grabbing the second re-draw spot. Geibe captured a transfer spot as well as Ridenour that worked his way from the back for the 4th and last spot.

Horstman and Mitch Brown (Ontario, CA) lead the Campbell Performance Heat 2 around to the green flag. With a clean start, Horstman beat Brown into turn 1 and led wire to wire. Brown was able to hold off Hannagan for the 2nd transfer spot. Hannagan secured the 3rd transfer spot and Michael Summers (Warsaw, IN) who started 6th was able to lock in the 4th transfer spot to the A-Main.

Brad Lamberson (Parma, MI) and the “Hoosier Rocket” Brett Mann (Goshen, IN) led the Kistler Racing Products Heat 3 around to the chalk line. With another clean start, Gressman charged through a gap between Lamberson and Mann going into turn 1 three wide. Charging out of turn 3 still side by side, Mann beat everyone into turn 3 leading at the flag stand with Gressman, Dalman and Lamberson in tow. Gressman got his chance and past Mann in lap 3 for the lead. In the 6th lap, Dalman gets underneath and around Mann. At the checked flag, Gressman and Dalman capture the re-draw spots and Mann and Lamberson are able to punch their ticket directly to the A-Main.

In the Specialty Fuels & Logistics Heat 4, Kyle Poortenga (Woodland, MI) and Eli Lakin (Buchanan, MI) lead the group around to the start line. On a great start, Lakin finishes the first lap in first. But Poortenga comes out of turn 2 passing Lakin. In the 4th lap, Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI) gets around Lakin. Jake Brown (Ontario, CA) gets around Lakin in the 5th lap. At the checkered flag, Poortenga wins and holds off Daggett who secured the 2nd re-draw spot. Brown and Lakin secure the last 2 transfer spots with 3rd and 4th respectively.

The B-Main rolled out with only 4 transfer spots available. Kobe Allison (Lima, OH) and Teunessen lead the field of 11 cars around to the start. Teunessen gets a good run and takes the lead with Allison staying with him in second. From the 6th spot, Joe Swanson (Etna Green, IN), Swanson gets around Allison in lap 7 and then on a good run, he gets around Teunessen in the 8th lap. At the checkered flag, Swanson takes first, with Teunessen and Allison taking 2nd and 3rd. Trey Smith (St Joseph, MI) was running 4th but never giving up, Andy Chehowski (Coldwater, MI) was standing on the peddle all the way around turn 3 and 4 and takes the 4th transfer spot at the line from Smith by .13 hundreds of a second at the line.

Drawing the poll, Danny “D3” Sams III and Poortenga brought the stacked field of cars around for the main event Saturday night. With a good run, Sams takes the clean air and checks out, leaving Poortenga to fend off Gressman and Dalman. Both get around Poortenga, but he holds on to 4th untill a hard charging Horstman gets around him.

With Hannagan and Daggett working their way up front, a caution comes out in the 13th lap, as Lakin and Jared Lamberson get together in the bottom of 3 and 4. Lamberson was able to refire and Lakin was taken to the work area. With a little wrecker issue, there was a delay on getting the car off the track, but Lakin was able to get repaired and back on the track in his allotted 2 minutes and the field was lined up and back to green flag racing.

Sams lead was washed away with the caution and now the charging Horstman, Gressman, Dalman, Hannagan and Daggett were in his back seat wanting in the front. As the green flag flies, Sams gets a good run and holds on to the lead for one more lap, but after exchanging a couple slide jobs, Horstman moves past Sams and now he has to contend with the crafty “Ohio Gas Man” Gressman. In lap 15 Gressman gets around Sams after going wheel to wheel for a half a lap.

As the field stays green, Hannagan is able to get around Sams in lap 22 with a slider coming out of turn 2. Sams, not willing to give up this late in the game stays on Hannagan and as Hannagan enters turn 3 and rides the cushion into 4, Sams has enough speed to pull a slider back on Hannagan as they come out of 4. Hannagan makes a great cross over trying to duck under Sams and beat him into the bottom of turn 1 but Sams has too much speed and holds on to his spot.

As the checkered flag flies, Horstman cruises across the line with the win with Gressman, Sams, Hannagan, Dalman and Daggett crossing with in 2-3 seconds of Horstman. It was a great race to watch with the driving skill the drivers all displayed, racing clean but racing hard. Watching 16 year old Danny Sams go toe to toe and sandwiched between veterans like Horstman, Gressman, Hannagan, Dalman, Daggett and Mann and knowing we have 10 members under the age of 21 in our series means the future is bright for sprint car racing in the tri-state area!

We will be off this weekend and our next race will be for our last visit this season to I-96 Speedway on Friday, August 17th and then for our only visit this season to Thunderbird Speedway on Saturday, August 18th.

Be sure to like our page on Facebook for all our current information and follow us on twitter. For a complete run down on results, points and our full schedule, go to our website at www.greatlakessupersprints.com.

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