By T.J. Buffenbarger
LAKE ODESSA, Mi. (June 23, 2017) – Jared Horstman scored his sixth win of the season winning the Great Lakes Super Sprints / K&L Ready Mix National Racing Alliance feature Friday night at I-96 Speedway. Horstman passed Chase Ridenour for the lead with seven laps to go and raced through slower traffic relentlessly for the victory.
Horstman had to overcome being penalized on the initial start of the race along with fellow front row starter Phil Gressman.
“I put myself behind the eight ball with a jump start,” said Horstman. “I started third and lapped traffic played into my favor.” I just rode it out and waited until (Ridenour) made a mistake coming out of turn four. I had a run down the front stretch and put a slide job on him in middle of one and two. I didn’t know how tight it was, but we made it stick.”
Just after the start was waved off the red flag appeared for Matt Foos flipping in turn three. Foos emerged from the car under his own power.
After two more attempts to start the feature the red flag appeared after one lap was complete for a scary incident involving Craig Karazim flipping high in the air in turn one and going over the catch fence. Thankfully the last cable in the top of the fence caught Karazim’s car before he crashed into the pit area near the grandstands. Karazim emerged from the car under his own power and there were no other reported injuries.
After a 47-minute delay to remove Karazim’s car and make repairs to the fence Ruhl lead Ridenour, who had slipped off turn two and allowed Ruhl to pull away. Behind Ruhl and Ridenour third position was being exchanged between Horstman and Dustin Daggett before Horstman took over the position on lap six.
While the long red flag seemed to negatively impact the handling of several cars, Horstman’s crew too advantage of the open red to make adjustments to their car.
“We just kind of watched the air pressure. The car was a little loose early in the show, so we dumped an extra five gallons of fuel in the car to snug it up and it worked.”
Ruhl and Ridenour continued to race for the lead through slower traffic while Horstman was aggressively trying to make up ground on the lead duo at one point running three wide through the slower traffic on lap 10.
On lap 11 Ridenour got a run on the outside of Ruhl to take the lead off turn two. Horstman followed Ridenour around Ruhl to take over second and was challenging for the lead when the caution appeared on lap 13 for a tangle with D.J. Lamance and Phil Gressman.
During the restart Ridenour and Horstman pulled away from the field while Brett Mann took advantage of the field bottling up behind Dustin Daggett getting sideways to move into third.
With nine laps to go Horstman began to put pressure on Ridenour for the lead. Two laps later Ridenour slipped on the cushion and Horstman pulled a close slide job in turn two. From there Horstman motored away, keeping a frantic pace through slower traffic to increase his advantage over Ridenour.
That pace paid off for Horstman to drive to victory. Ridenour and Mann rounded out the podium.
After the feature Ridenour was not enamored Horstman’s slide job for the lead.
“The lap before I was struggling to get around a couple of lapped cars and in turn four got up in the cushion and made a bobble, and gave (Horstman) the opportunity to catch me,” said Ridenour. “Going into turn two he slid me really hard and luckily I backed out or it would have wadded us both up. It was a little close for him to be doing that, but it is what it is.”
For Horstman the aggressive move was just part of racing hard for the lead.
“When I got into lapped traffic I didn’t know where second place was,” said Horstman. “I race for the win, and I have to do what I have to do to put it in victory lane.”
For Mann, who recently rebuilt his 20-year-old non-downtube Wolfweld chassis after a hard crash at Hartford Motor Speedway was thrilled with a third-place finish even with a motor that was going sour during the final laps.
“Ever since I got back in this car it has the feeling I’ve been looking for and missing for a lot of years,” said Mann. “This car just sticks like glue on these slick race tracks and makes it easy to drive. I’m glad to be back in the Wolfwagon, and its making a lot of people’s new equipment look pretty bad.”
Great Lakes Super Sprints / K&L Ready Mix National Racing Alliance
I-96 Speedway
Lake Odessa, MI
Friday June 23, 2017
Qualifying: 1. 23 – Devon Dobie, 14.364; 2. 49T – Gregg Dalman, 14.428* ; 3. 17 – Jared Horstman, 14.493; 4. 31 – Andy Teunessen, 14.599; 5. 85 – Dustin Daggett, 14.606; 6. 11R – Chase Ridenour, 14.660; 7. 28 – Phil Gressman, 14.756; 8. 16B – Ryan Ruhl, 14.800; 9. 23G – Joe Geibe, 14.901; 10. 27 – Brad Lamberson, 14.981; 11. 46 – Robert Huisken, 15.026; 12. 19 – Brett Mann, 15.061; 13. 10K – Craig Karazim, 15.092; 14. 84 – Kyle Poortenga, 15.101; 15. 37 – Mike Dunlap, 15.168; 16. 19S – Jay Steinbach, 15.199; 17. 19J – Linden Jones, 15.297; 18. 20I – Matt Foos, 15.417; 19. 91 – Alexis Adgate, 15.512; 20. 89 – Chris Pobanz, 15.584; 21. 57 – Noah Dunlap, 15.644; 22. 24 – Eric Smith, 15.673; 23. 17C – Dustin Carl, 15.853; 24. 3T – Ralph Brakenberry, 16.612; 25. 18 – D.J. Lamance, 16.846.
* Dalman did not qualify with his intended group
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps): 1. 16B – Ryan Ruhl, 2. 85 – Dustin Daggett, 3. 49T – Gregg Dalman, 4. 23 – Devon Dobie, 5. 46 – Robert Huisken, 6. 19S – Jay Steinbach, 7. 91 – Alexis Adgate, 8. 24 – Eric Smith, 9. 18 – D.J. Lamance. (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1. 11R – Chase Ridenour, 2. 17 – Jared Horstman, 3. 19 – Brett Mann, 4. 84 – Kyle Poortenga, 5. 23G – Joe Geibe, 6. 89 – Chris Pobanz, 7. 19J – Linden Jones, 8. 17C – Dustin Carl. (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps): 1. 27 – Brad Lamberson, 2. 28 – Phil Gressman, 3. 31 – Andy Teunessen, 4. 10K – Craig Karazim, 5. 20I – Matt Foos, 6. 37 – Mike Dunlap, 7. 3T – Ralph Brakenberry. (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Dash (6 Laps): 1. 17 – Jared Horstman, 2. 28 – Phil Gressman, 3. 16B – Ryan Ruhl, 4. 11R – Chase Ridenour, 5. 85 – Dustin Daggett, 6. 27 – Brad Lamberson. (Finish determined the first six starting positions of the A-Main)
B-Main (12 Laps): 1. 19S – Jay Steinebach, 2. 19J – Linden Jones, 3. 89 – Chris Pobanz, 4. 37 – Mike Dunlap, 5. 18 – D.J. Lamance, 6, 91 – Alexis Adgate, 7. 24 – Eric Smith, 8. 17C – Dustin Carl, 9. 3T – Ralph Brakenberry. (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
A-Main (25 Laps): 1. 17 – Jared Horstman, 2. 11R – Chase Ridenour, 3. 19 – Brett Mann, 4. 85 – Dustin Daggett, 5. 16B – Ryan Ruhl, 6. 19S – Jay Steinebach, 7. 28 – Phil Gressman, 8. 27 – Brad Lamberson, 9. 23 – Devon Dobie, 10. 49T – Gregg Dalman, 11. 19J – Linden Jones, 12. 31 – Andy Teunessen, 13. 84 – Kyle Poortenga, 14. 23G – Joe Geibe, 15. 46 – Robert Huisken, 16. 37 – Mike Dunlap, 17. 18 – D.J. Lamance, 18. 10K – Craig Karazim, 19. 89 – Chris Pobanz, 20. 20I – Matt Foos.