By T.J. Buffenbarger
When looking at races to cover this season I wanted something close to home the second week of July due to the Kings Royal expanding to three the following week. When all of the schedules were finalized I noticed an anomaly with the Auto Value Super Sprints at Berlin Raceway and the Engine Pro Sprints on Dirt presented by ARP at Thunderbird Raceway on the same day. Knowing the tracks were only 30 minutes apart and seeing how early Thunderbird’s Great Lakes Super Sprint program ended earlier in the season I started to hatch the plan of going to both places.
Not completing a double since the final race at 16th Street Speedway during the day and Indianapolis Raceway Park at night I’ve been longing to attempt this. Normally I wouldn’t leave a race at Berlin. The facility is palatial, the racing is really good, and its 20 minutes from my front door. Thunderbird used be the furthest thing from palatial. Even though I enjoyed the race track the facility and atmosphere was a large turn off and I had not returned since the mid-2000’s
My return to Thunderbird was facilitated by one person, Tom Sprague.
Sprague is a former stock car racer that elevated Winston Motor Speedway from a facility I would not attend to a place I genuinely looked forward to going to. After selling Winston and talking to him at Berlin several years ago I thought Sprague might not return to the race track business. That was until the right situation came up at his home track, Thunderbird Raceway.
Being closed for four years and being located in a township that was less than thrilled about having a race track in its borders was a daunting challenge, but Sprague knew his home track was capable of a better existence. It’s likely that if anyone else had attempted opening Thunderbird other than Sprague it would remain dormant. Not only was Sprague able to convince the township to allow him to re-open Thunderbird but during a brisk off season program managed to build a new ticket booth, concession stands, bathrooms, and greatly improve the main driveway into the facility.
Knowing what Sprague did to improve Winston and hearing how well the GLSS program went there I was intrigued. By Thursday I had my mind made up that the double was going to happen.
Race days at Berlin start early with practice rolling off at 3:00. I saw the first practice hit the track on race monitor and left home to start my busy day. The double was nearly put in jeopardy arriving at Berlin Raceway without any camera batteries right before the second set of practice at Berlin. Thankfully I did this at the one race track I live close to and quickly drove home and returned just in time for sprint car qualifying.
Derek Snyder blistered Berlin’s 7/16-mile with a lap of 13.074 seconds. After taking photos of qualifying I said a couple of quick hellos before jumping in my car and making the 30 minute drive up to Thunderbird. Both Berlin and Thunderbird start racing at 6:30 p.m., so there was no time to lose. Thankfully due to not having to contend with traffic I arrived at Thunderbird about 30 minutes before race time so I could shoot heat races for SOD.
Based on the GLSS program and knowing the Sprint Cars would close the night at Berlin I thought if SOD was early enough on Thunderbird’s program I’d have a shot at catching the Sprint Car feature at Berlin. That was thwarted though by not as many support division cars at Berlin and SOD being third on the program at Thunderbird. Both features pushed off about the same time and were pretty good based on what I saw at Thunderbird and seeing Berlin had three lead changes.
Thunderbird is still rough around the edges, but you can already see the difference Sprague is making not only in the facility changes but how the program is run. While the facility is still very rough around the edges Thunderbird is clearly headed in the right direction. Previous to Sprague’s ownership I wouldn’t have considered going on Saturday, but under Sprague’s guidance I can see in a couple of years Thunderbird’s Sprint Car races will be a must see for all fans in Michigan.
Two tracks, two series, two pretty decent events, both done before 10:00. Nights like Saturday remind me why running TJSlideways.com is the best gig in all of motorsports.
Notes:
- Apparently the hot setup for the new SOD rules configuration is a 20+ year old 410 engine that used to belong to Frankie Kerr. Seeing Brian Smith race throughout his career, mostly with a minuscule budget, the rules package appears to fit right in Smith’s wheelhouse. The way the car needs to be driven in the RPM range is exactly what Smith’s program does at every track they go to. Smith is careful turning RPM’s far below his competitors and relies on being smooth and steady.
- While Smith has been dominant the most impressive driver I witnessed on Saturday was Thomas Schinderle. The Berkley, Michigan drive showed some speed and moxie with this 305 powered car moving through the pack up to a third place finish. Had Schinderle started close to the front it would have been interesting to see if he could have stayed close to Smith through slower traffic. I’ll predict now that Schninderle will get a SOD win before the end of 2016.
- Even with a car count of 14 cars at Berlin there were some positives including a good feature. There were a couple of teams absent with mechanical issues, but it is strange that there were several cars missing that ran the series a month ago at Toledo including winner Ryan Gillenwater that were absent on Saturday. If event ¾ of the cars that have run at least one show this year would show up at a race there would be a full field of cars. Hopefully there is more incentive and ability for teams to show up to help fill out the field.
- Alex Hill was a surprise visitor on Saturday at Thunderbird making her first SOD appearance of the season. Hill and Dain Nadia made the 329 mile tow one way to Thunderbird with Hill picking up hard charger honors going from 18th starting spot up to 11th.
- The 25-lap feature for the Sprints on Dirt only had one caution flag when Jay Steinebach slowed with mechanical issues.
- One of the most encouraging things on the dirt side of sprint car racing in Michigan this season is some of the new faces we’re seeing in the division. At Thunderbird I had a chance to visit with Justin Ward from Traverse City who made the move up from the lightening sprint division. Pitted next to Ward were sprint car newcomers Tyler Bearden and Lexi Adgate that have made starts with various series this season.