(March 16, 2021) — TJSlideways.com has learned that the Great Lakes Super Sprints have partnered with five area Michigan speedways to start mapping out the first ever Michigan sprint car “speedweek” slated to take place Wednesday June 29 – Sunday July 3, 2022.
Tracks currently slated to take part in the inaugural week of racing include Hartford Motor Speedway, Butler Motor Speedway, Tri-City Speedway, Merritt Speedway, and I-96 Speedway. GLSS officials are currently working to secure an increased nightly payout and potential bonus money for teams that competed in all five nights of racing. The formal name of the event will be announced at a later day. Support classes for each night of racing are also to be determined.
Barry Marlow along with I-96 and Hartford promoters Jeff Dice and Tim Dibble confirmed the news to TJSlideways.com on Monday that the speedweek was in the planning stages.
“The idea gets brought up to me every year when I go to Florida for the sprint car races at East Bay,” said Marlow. “When I looked calendar in the hotel we were staying at I realized 2022 gave us a good window to do this, so I reached out to the promoters and they were overwhelming on board.”
Marlow hopes that teams can use the Speedweek as part racing trip and part vacation to the State of Michigan leading into the holiday weekend along with being a centerpiece for the 2022 GLSS campaign.
“Michigan is a great tourism state and I felt having the event around the July 4th weekend could entice teams to bring their families up and enjoy a few days before or after the races.”
Marlow and Great Lakes Super Sprints been busy keeping their name in the public eye this off season. Before the Speedweek news broke their partnership with Sprint Cars on Ice and subsequent test session near Houghton Lake drew a large crowd in person and has over 25,000 views on YouTube. Phil Gressman, Dustin Daggett, and Tank Brakenberry took part in the sprint car portion of the test in preparation for multiple events centered around Michigan winter festivals for the winter of 2021-2022.
GLSS will open their 2021 season Friday April 16th, 2021 at I-96 Speedway.