8/9/2025
GLSS-Great Lakes Super Sprints
Howl at the Moon! Chase Dunham Wins First Career GLSS Race Friday at Hartford Speedway
Hartford, MI - In a season that has seen Jared Horstman and Max Stambaugh combine for 14 feature wins, a first-time winner didn’t seem to be in the cards. Friday night, with a full moon in the sky, the only thing that was going to keep Dunham for finding Victory Lane with the MacAllister CAT Great Lakes Super Sprints Presented by PERFIT & ARP, was himself.
Starting on the outside of the front row alongside veteran Van Gurley, Jr, Dunham jumped out to a quick lead and put distance between himself and the field in a hurry. That scenario has been done by the No.66 car before, and the end result hasn’t been what he’s been hoping for thus far.
With just six laps on the board, Dunham was working to the inside of lapped traffic at the exit of turn number four when he made contact with the inside wall with his left front tire. Somehow, Dunham was able to continue and didn’t lose much time to Gurley and Stambaugh.
Another potential race-losing moment came inside of 10 laps to go when Dunham’s car stepped completely sideways entering turn three behind a lapped car. Dunham was able to straighten the car out but not before Stambaugh cut the gap down to just four car lengths.
With eight laps to go, the only caution of the race flew for Keith Sheffer, Jr, who caught the wall in turn three and slowed to a stop on the front stretch. The caution was a potential break for Dunham who was falling to the grips of Stambaugh in traffic. However, Dunham revealed in victory lane that the car was overheating throughout that entire race including under caution.
On the restart, Dunham put the No.66 on the top of the race track and set sail, holding off Stambaugh and Jared Horstman, who found the final rung of the podium with a two-for-one deal on Van Gurley and Corbin Gurley in turn two. Dunham successfully navigated lapped traffic for the final five laps and went on to collect his first career GLSS win, his first win since 2021.
“I think it’s about damn time,” Dunham said in victory lane. “We led a couple of weeks ago at I-96 Speedway, we’ve been up front, it just feels like a thousand pounds has been lifted off of me. There’s been no pressure from my dad or any of our sponsors, just me. I tried to give it away. The motor probably isn’t great, I looked under that caution and [the temperature gauge] was about pegged, and [dad] told me to keep going. It’s just me and my dad this weekend, but this is pretty damn cool.”
The next event for the MacAllister CAT Great Lakes Super Sprints Presented by PERFIT & ARP is Saturday, August 9th at Silver Bullet Speedway in Owendale, MI. Racing begins at 7:00 PM. Fans who can’t make the trip can catch every lap on www.GreatLakesSprints.TV.
Chase Dunham set the Ti22 Performance Fast Time with a 14.936.
Jared Horstman won Engler Machine & Tool Heat Race One.
Van Gurley, Jr won Beacon & Bridge Markets Heat Race Two.
Max Stambaugh won Miami Paint Heat Race Three.
Jett Mann was the Operating Engineers 324 Hard Charger advancing eight positions.
Michigan CAT A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 66-Chase Dunham[2]; 2. 71H-Max Stambaugh[3]; 3. 17-Jared Horstman[6]; 4. 85-Dustin Daggett[8]; 5. 12-Corbin Gurley[5]; 6. 7C-Phil Gressman[10]; 7. 13-Van Gurley Jr[1]; 8. 20I-Kelsey Ivy[7]; 9. X-Mike Keegan[12]; 10. 16-Ryan Ruhl[14]; 11. 19-Jett Mann[19]; 12. 70-Eli Lakin[16]; 13. 49T-Gregg Dalman[11]; 14. 33-Jeremy Ferguson[18]; 15. 27K-Zac Broughman[20]; 16. 13T-Andy Teunessen[22]; 17. 3A-Mike Astrauskas[15]; 18. 67-Kevin Martens[21]; 19. 38-Chase Ridenour[4]; 20. 71-Garrett Saunders[13]; 21. 14-Keith Sheffer Jr[9]; 22. 84-Levi Poortenga[17]
Article Credit: Zach Hiser
Submitted By: Zach Hiser
