By T.J. Buffenbarger
LAKE ODESSA, Mich. (August 19, 2022) — Brad Lamberson put on a dominating performance in route to the feature victory during the Great Lakes Super Sprints portion of the Mark Strpko Memorial Friday night at I-96 Speedway. Lamberson, from Parma, Michigan, was just under one year removed from his last victory in September of 2021 at Tri-City Raceway Park before staring on the front row at I-96 and driving away from the field.
The victory was validation for Lamberson, who has been fast all season but experienced a myriad of different problems that took him out of contention for victories.
“It’s been a very trying year for us,” said Lamberson. “We’ve been fast almost every night. We just couldn’t seem to put a full night together. A couple of things on my behalf, missing the tech and stuff like that, but we never gave up and we’re sitting right here, and I can’t be happier.”
Kyle Poortenga joined Lamberson on the front row for the 25-lap main event. The first attempt to start the event was short lived with Bobby Elliott spun in front of the field and ended up getting upside down, collecting Chase Dunham, GLSS championship contender Danny Sams III, and Great Lakes Traditional Sprints feature winner earlier in the night Keith Sheffer II. Sheffer and Sams were able to continue with Sams having to go to the work area while Elliott and Dunham were finished for the evening
The second attempt to start the feature saw. Lamberson driveinto the lead while Greg Dalman and Stambaugh, who started seventh, drove into third on the opening lap. Stambaugh dropped Dalman back to second one lap later and began his pursuit of Lamberson for the lead.
Lamberson was up for the challenge though stretching his lead over Stambaugh to 4.067 seconds by lap nine. At that point Lamberson began to encounter heavy traffic racing two and three wide in front of him, causing that gap to shrink to 1.751 seconds by lap 15.
“I felt like they were four-wide at one point,” said Lamberson of slower traffic. “I just basically just sent it and hoped they would live for me because I knew I had to go. I didn’t know where the second-place guy was, and I just felt pressure, so I figured I’d get better get moving.”
Being patient without hesitating, Lamberson cleared the slower traffic and stretched his lead to 2.583 seconds by lap 18 and 4.889 seconds by lap 22.
Stambaugh found himself mired in the same traffic Lamberson had to deal with and lost ground in the closing stages of the feature, including having eight starting Dustin Daggett overtake him for the second position with two laps to go, dropping Stambaugh to third.
Up front though it was all Lamberson picking up the victory over Daggett, Stambaugh, Conner Morrell, and Phil Gresssman.
Daggett’s second place finish cut Stambaugh’s point lead for the 2022 GLSS championship down to nine points going into Saturday’s event at Butler Motor Speedway. Sams recovered from the opening lap red flag to finish six, staying within 76 points of Stambaugh in third position.
Mark Strpko Memorial
Great Lakes Super Sprints
I-96 Speedway
Lake Odessa, Michigan
Friday, August 19, 2022
Qualifying
1. 17-Jared Horstman, 14.111[21]
2. 71H-Max Stambaugh, 14.146[22]
3. 85-Dustin Daggett, 14.189[8]
4. 7C-Phil Gressman, 14.276[10]
5. 16C-Tylar Rankin, 14.329[1]
6. 66-Chase Dunham, 14.389[11]
7. 27-Brad Lamberson, 14.396[4]
8. 5E-Bobby Elliott, 14.411[16]
9. 84-Kyle Poortenga, 14.415[12]
10. 28M-Conner Morrell, 14.443[3]
11. 49T-Gregg Dalman, 14.462[18]
12. 2-Kyle Sauder, 14.483[9]
13. 10-Jason Blonde, 14.501[19]
14. 24D-Danny Sams III, 14.623[2]
15. 38-Max Frank, 14.685[20]
16. 10S-Jay Steinebach, 14.698[5]
17. 86-Keith Sheffer Jr, 14.705[13]
18. 16B-Zane Devault, 14.871[26]
19. 55-Matt Cogley, 14.899[24]
20. 11G-Luke Griffith, 14.904[23]
21. 70-Eli Lakin, 14.945[17]
22. 10J-Chris Jones, 15.013[15]
23. 31-Mike Astrauskas, 15.067[6]
24. 88N-Frank Neill, 15.074[27]
25. 20A-Andy Chehowski, 15.167[25]
26. 11-Joe Conway, 15.370[7]
DNS: 01-Ryan Ruhl, 15.370
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 27-Brad Lamberson[2]
2. 17-Jared Horstman[4]
3. 28M-Conner Morrell[1]
4. 7C-Phil Gressman[3]
5. 10-Jason Blonde[5]
6. 10S-Jay Steinebach[6]
7. 55-Matt Cogley[7]
8. 10J-Chris Jones[8]
9. 20A-Andy Chehowski[9]
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 49T-Gregg Dalman[1]
2. 5E-Bobby Elliott[2]
3. 71H-Max Stambaugh[4]
4. 24D-Danny Sams III[5]
5. 16C-Tylar Rankin[3]
6. 86-Keith Sheffer Jr[6]
7. 11G-Luke Griffith[7]
8. 11-Joe Conway[9]
9. 31-Mike Astrauskas[8]
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 2-Kyle Sauder[1]
2. 84-Kyle Poortenga[2]
3. 85-Dustin Daggett[4]
4. 66-Chase Dunham[3]
5. 38-Max Frank[5]
6. 01-Ryan Ruhl[9]
7. 70-Eli Lakin[7]
8. 88N-Frank Neill[8]
9. 16B-Zane Devault[6]
B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 86-Keith Sheffer Jr[2]
2. 10S-Jay Steinebach[1]
3. 16B-Zane Devault[12]
4. 11G-Luke Griffith[5]
5. 88N-Frank Neill[9]
6. 70-Eli Lakin[6]
7. 31-Mike Astrauskas[11]
8. 55-Matt Cogley[4]
9. 20A-Andy Chehowski[10]
10. 10J-Chris Jones[7]
11. 11-Joe Conway[8]
DNS: 01-Ryan Ruhl
A-Main (25 Laps)
1. 27-Brad Lamberson[1]
2. 85-Dustin Daggett[8]
3. 71H-Max Stambaugh[7]
4. 28M-Conner Morrell[9]
5. 7C-Phil Gressman[10]
6. 24D-Danny Sams III[11]
7. 17-Jared Horstman[6]
8. 49T-Gregg Dalman[3]
9. 16B-Zane Devault[18]
10. 11G-Luke Griffith[19]
11. 86-Keith Sheffer Jr[16]
12. 10S-Jay Steinebach[17]
13. 2-Kyle Sauder[4]
14. 84-Kyle Poortenga[2]
15. 16C-Tylar Rankin[14]
16. 38-Max Frank[15]
17. 88N-Frank Neill[20]
18. 10-Jason Blonde[13]
19. 5E-Bobby Elliott[5]
20. 66-Chase Dunham[12]