By T.J. Buffenbarger
While away at Eldora covering the Kings Royal the Great Lakes state has a busy weekend of sprint car racing that turned out to be highly entertaining with the Engine Pro Sprints on Dirt presented by ARP, Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Super Sprints, and Butler Motor Speedway.
Notes:
- While pavement sprint car counts have been in the dumpster most of the season fans got a reprieve Friday at Kalamazoo Speedway when 20 cars on hand at one of the most entertaining venues in the country. I was pleased to see Kalamazoo Speedway promoter Gary Howe rewarded with a nice field of cars and a decent race with winner Aaron Pierce making the pass of David Byrne with five laps to go. Hopefully the strong showing Friday and 17 cars showing up on at Baer Field on Saturday is a sign that pavement teams are coming out to race more as the season progresses.
- Pavement sprint cars are in action two nights this week courtesy of the Lane Automotive Michigan Traditional Sprints. Friday night MTS goes to the tight confines of Spartan Speedway. Spartan was the home of bi-weekly non-wing sprint car racing for several years before interest waned in the division. Saturday MTS makes the short drive up to Clio to the Auto City Speedway. So far MTS pavement shows have been supported well by race teams and by all accounts the shows have been entertaining.
- The Engine Pro Sprints on Dirt presented by ARP having 19 cars at Winston Motor Speedway might not seem like that big of a deal, but for a Friday night on what is the opposite side of the state for most sprint car teams is a pretty decent showing. So far this season SOD seems to be holding a full field of cars for all of its events with the new rule package. While the 410 engines have captured a majority of the victories including Stuart Brubaker on Friday at Winston and Steve Irwin Saturday at Crystal Motor Speedway there have been 305 or 360 cars on the podium at every event this season.
- Based on history there is never a dull moment when Brubaker visits the Great Lakes State. Brubaker’s appearance was his first SOD appearance since a controversial disqualification in 2011 when Brubaker was disqualified under the ASCS style rules package. Brubaker returned and picked up his first official SOD victory on Friday at Winston only to end up upside down under caution after being pushed off from a heat race incident.
- With SOD off until July 30th the attention on the dirt side of the sprint car world shifts to the Great Lakes Super Sprints appearance at Butler Motor Speedway on Saturday. Much like last weekend for SOD the Saturday for GLSS will be an interesting gauge of how the series is doing in its inaugural season. With the NRA Sprint Invaders racing at Waynesfield on Saturday will be a more accurate reflection of how GLSS stands on its own when not racing head to head with SOD. GLSS follows that up with a show at Tri-City the same time NRA is at Limaland to see how the series fairs on a Friday night before going head to head with SOD’s show at Crystal when GLSS is at Merritt Speedway.
- Chase Ridenour used the off weekend from GLSS to break out his 410 cubic inch engine and win the feature at Butler Motor Speedway. Ridenour will look to make it two in a row at Butler this week with GLSS. Butler is where Ridenour picked up his first career sprint car victory and will be one of the favorites going into Saturday’s GLSS program.