By T.J. Buffenbarger
Open wheel racing fans in Michigan will have plenty of options to see a race this weekend. Dirt, pavement, winged, and non-wing sprint cars will all see action Friday and/or Saturday throughout the Great Lakes state.
After an absence of over 15 years the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions returns to I-96 Speedway on Friday. Following a layoff of several years I-96 was the track that brought the All Stars back to Michigan in the early 90’s, holding two or three shows per year before the track sat idle in 2001. Once it reopened the All Stars were not booked until this season. This season promoter Mike Mouch decided this was the season to book an All Star program, doing so with Butler Speedway lined up on Saturday to give Michigan back its traditional two days of All Star action.
I-96 is the only active Michigan track on the All Star circuit that has not had one of its native drivers win a feature. Denny Donaldson has an All Star win to his credit at Butler while Dustin Daggett scored a win at Hartford. Ryan Ruhl and Daggett look to lead the Michigan contingent in defending their home turf against Dale Blaney, Chad Kemenah, and the rest of the All Star invaders. The new 3/8-mile layout has produced some decent sprint car features over the past couple of seasons, and will be the All Stars first event on the new layout.
Michigan has quite a few sprint car fans that travel to All Star events around the Midwest. Going to All Star shows I always run into people from the Great Lakes State. Supporting one or both of these events is important if we don’t want to end up driving three hours or more every time we want to see an All Star program. Hartford’s All Star program
Great lakes notes…
- Danny Smith will be donating all t-shirt sales this weekend to benefit Kevin Swindell, Joshua Jackson, and the family of Jim Campbell, Jr. Swindell and Jackson were severely injured in separate sprint car accidents at Knoxville Raceway and Southern New Mexico Speedway respectively while Campbell lost his life last Friday after an accident in hot laps at Williams Grove Speedway.
- For Kevin Swindell there are a plethora of options to assist at this point. Everything from Dale Earnhardt, Jr’s foundation items on ebay, R&R Enterprises re-prints of Kevin Swindell items, with more popping up every day.
- Nic Rogers will be driving a second entry for Tom Dale this weekend with the All Star Circuit of Champions as a teammate to Ryan Ruhl. Rogers returned to sprint car racing this season following a short hiatus driving his own car at Sprints on Dirt events.
- Merritt Speedway is featuring the Engine Pro Sprints on Dirt presented by ARP, Lane Automotive Michigan Traditional Sprints, Michigan Dirt Cup Modifieds, and lightning sprints for an open wheel extravaganza. Merritt’s event will see several drivers and teams attempting to “double dip” with SOD and MTS on Saturday. Drivers that have indicated they will attempt to race both classes as of Friday include Mike Burkin, Gregg Dalman, Attica/Fremont regular Brian Smith, and possibly a few other teams. Hopefully someone can pick up a modified and/or lightening sprint ride to really up the ante.
- The USAC HPD Eastern and Midwest midget car series travel to Kalamazoo Speedway on Saturday in conjunction with Little Kalamazoo Speedway’s USAC .25 midget national event. With the Eastern and Midwest series combining they should produce a decent field of HPD midgets along with Kalamazoo’s stock car classes. The .25 event draws teams from all over the country and is worth checking out at least one of the three days. Little Kalamazoo is a unique, highly banked .25 midget track that is one of the fastest in the country. The National event will showcase some of the best young up and coming talent in racing during the three day event.
- Hartford Speedway put out on their Facebook page that they are looking at possibly shortening the race track for the 2016 season. Hartford officials are looking at the possibility of cutting the race track in at each end or just at the turn three and four area to create a large 3/8-mile oval. The goal is to make Hartford more sustainable for weekly racing. Nothing is set in stone yet as far as the track distance, but Hartford officials want to make a decision soon so weekly stock car teams can make plans with gearing and other equipment for the change in track distance. You can register your input by clicking here.
- Hartford officials also indicated they have been very happy with their sprint car programs for 2015. There are rumblings about more sprint car racing taking place at Hartford in 2016, but again nothing yet set in stone.
- Must See Racing takes to the Berlin Raceway for their third and final appearance at the Marne, Michigan oval for 2015. Orginally heading to Butler, Must See officials called and asked if I could announce on Saturday due to series’ announcer Jacob Seelman moving back into college this weekend. Being that close to home and willing to help out I obliged, coming out of announcer retirement one more time this year. Must See officials released a 22 car entry list, 21 of which we confirmed as of Thursday with Tyler Roahrig and the Speed Chasers changing plans that day. It should be a nice field of sprint cars on Saturday at one of Michigan’s best short track facilities.