By Zach Hiser
Lake Odessa, MI – With another night of racing threatened by the appearance of Mother Nature, nearly 30 cars showed up Friday night at I-96 Speedway for the season opener and race number two of the season for the Michigan CAT Great Lakes Super Sprints Presented by PERFIT & ARP. The GLSS headlined an opening night card for the Speedway that brought a packed house and full pit area.
The night began with Ti22 Performance Qualifying which saw ‘The Big Wheel’ Scotty Thiel put his Ragged Edge Racing No.51 at the top of the pilon with a 13.813. Mike Keegan took Engler Machine & Tool Heat Race 1, Jared Horstman wired Beacon & Bridge Markets Heat Race 2, and three-time and defending GLSS Champion, Max Stambaugh paced MacAllister CAT Heat Race 3. Aaron Shaffer got around Jay Steinebach late in the B-Main to collect the Operating Engineers Local 324 B-Main win.
After the redraw, luck continued to be on the side of the Smith Motorsports No.71. Stambaugh was tasked with bringing the field to green for the second week in a row. Alongside Mike Keegan, the 20-car field went green for 25 laps with rain quickly approaching the track; some believed it would be a race to halfway, and it was evident by the style of racing fans enjoyed. Stambaugh will get credit for leading every lap on Friday night, but fans know he didn’t lead every moment. Dustin Daggett gave him all he could handle near the halfway mark of the race, with the pair exchanging sliders and crossovers for two laps while in heavy lapped traffic.
Stambaugh pulled away in the closing laps to secure the win. Behind him, however, the race was very much on. Jared Horstamn came from fifth to get Daggett at the line for the second spot, and Keith Sheffer, Jr earned the Hard Charger Award for the second week in a row, this week improving six spots to finish fourth. Mike Keegan rounded out the top five.
You go to Crystal, and it’s like I told Steve [Smith], you put the pieces to the puzzle together and it still broke,” Stambaugh said in Victory Lane. “Coming into tonight, [niece] Molly came to the races and she drew a one! Hats off to I-96 for putting this show on, I’ve got to thank Steve and Michelle Smith on this car; I tore one up pretty good a couple of weeks ago, but I’m gonna tear up some beer cans tonight!”
The next event for the Great Lakes Super Sprints is Friday, May 2nd at Limaland Motorsports Park in Lima, OH for the first race of the Ohio CAT season. Gates open at 5:00 PM with racing scheduled to begin at 7:30 PM. For more information on the Great Lakes Super Sprints, visit www.GreatLakesSprints.com. Follow GLSS on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and YouTube.
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 71H-Max Stambaugh[1]; 2. 17-Jared Horstman[5]; 3. 85-Dustin Daggett[3]; 4. 14-Keith Sheffer Jr[10]; 5. X-Mike Keegan[2]; 6. 7C-Phil Gressman[6]; 7. 31-Jac Nickles[4]; 8. 13V-Van Gurley Jr[9]; 9. 12-Corbin Gurley[12]; 10. 23-Devon Dobie[8]; 11. 22-Aaron Shaffer[16]; 12. 66-Chase Dunham[7]; 13. 6-Ryan Coniam[11]; 14. 38-Chase Ridenour[15]; 15. 10-Jason Blonde[13]; 16. 10S-Jay Steinebach[17]; 17. 49T-Gregg Dalman[14]; 18. 13-Andy Teunessen[19]; 19. 27K-Zac Broughman[20]; 20. 70-Eli Lakin[18]
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 22-Aaron Shaffer[2]; 2. 10S-Jay Steinebach[1]; 3. 70-Eli Lakin[5]; 4. 13-Andy Teunessen[3]; 5. 27K-Zac Broughman[7]; 6. 22L-Tom Lowe[8]; 7. 33-Jeremy Ferguson[9]; 8. 67-Kevin Martens[6]; 9. 5X-Trent Musk[11]; 10. 16B-Ty Williams[4]; 11. (DNS) 51-Scotty Thiel
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. X-Mike Keegan[2]; 2. 7C-Phil Gressman[3]; 3. 66-Chase Dunham[5]; 4. 14-Keith Sheffer Jr[4]; 5. 10-Jason Blonde[6]; 6. 10S-Jay Steinebach[7]; 7. 16B-Ty Williams[9]; 8. 27K-Zac Broughman[8]; 9. (DNF) 51-Scotty Thiel[1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 17-Jared Horstman[1]; 2. 85-Dustin Daggett[2]; 3. 23-Devon Dobie[5]; 4. 6-Ryan Coniam[4]; 5. 49T-Gregg Dalman[6]; 6. 22-Aaron Shaffer[3]; 7. 70-Eli Lakin[7]; 8. 22L-Tom Lowe[8]; 9. 5X-Trent Musk[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 71H-Max Stambaugh[1]; 2. 31-Jac Nickles[2]; 3. 13V-Van Gurley Jr[4]; 4. 12-Corbin Gurley[5]; 5. 38-Chase Ridenour[6]; 6. 13-Andy Teunessen[3]; 7. 67-Kevin Martens[7]; 8. 33-Jeremy Ferguson[8]
Qualifying 1 (99 Laps): 1. 51-Scotty Thiel, 00:13.813[16]; 2. 17-Jared Horstman, 00:13.818[3]; 3. 71H-Max Stambaugh, 00:13.937[24]; 4. X-Mike Keegan, 00:14.032[6]; 5. 85-Dustin Daggett, 00:14.087[26]; 6. 31-Jac Nickles, 00:14.121[13]; 7. 7C-Phil Gressman, 00:14.125[19]; 8. 22-Aaron Shaffer, 00:14.130[21]; 9. 13-Andy Teunessen, 00:14.147[10]; 10. 14-Keith Sheffer Jr, 00:14.164[15]; 11. 6-Ryan Coniam, 00:14.223[4]; 12. 13V-Van Gurley Jr, 00:14.229[1]; 13. 66-Chase Dunham, 00:14.230[22]; 14. 23-Devon Dobie, 00:14.231[17]; 15. 12-Corbin Gurley, 00:14.232[20]; 16. 10-Jason Blonde, 00:14.243[25]; 17. 49T-Gregg Dalman, 00:14.276[7]; 18. 38-Chase Ridenour, 00:14.320[8]; 19. 10S-Jay Steinebach, 00:14.372[18]; 20. 70-Eli Lakin, 00:14.394[9]; 21. 67-Kevin Martens, 00:14.512[5]; 22. 27K-Zac Broughman, 00:14.938[23]; 23. 22L-Tom Lowe, 00:15.284[12]; 24. (DNS) 33-Jeremy Ferguson; 25. (DNS) 16B-Ty Williams; 26. (DNS) 5X-Trent Musk
Hot Laps 1: 1. 71H-Max Stambaugh, 00:13.849[24]; 2. 66-Chase Dunham, 00:13.962[22]; 3. 51-Scotty Thiel, 00:13.996[16]; 4. 23-Devon Dobie, 00:14.022[17]; 5. 17-Jared Horstman, 00:14.050[3]; 6. 14-Keith Sheffer Jr, 00:14.181[15]; 7. 31-Jac Nickles, 00:14.210[13]; 8. 85-Dustin Daggett, 00:14.236[26]; 9. 12-Corbin Gurley, 00:14.269[20]; 10. 22-Aaron Shaffer, 00:14.273[21]; 11. 7C-Phil Gressman, 00:14.292[19]; 12. X-Mike Keegan, 00:14.343[6]; 13. 13V-Van Gurley Jr, 00:14.370[1]; 14. 10S-Jay Steinebach, 00:14.408[18]; 15. 38-Chase Ridenour, 00:14.454[8]; 16. 6-Ryan Coniam, 00:14.521[4]; 17. 13-Andy Teunessen, 00:14.543[10]; 18. 10-Jason Blonde, 00:14.620[25]; 19. 70-Eli Lakin, 00:14.682[9]; 20. 27K-Zac Broughman, 00:14.748[23]; 21. 67-Kevin Martens, 00:15.136[5]; 22. 49T-Gregg Dalman, 00:15.242[7]; 23. 22L-Tom Lowe, 00:15.617[12]; 24. 5X-Trent Musk, 00:22.580[14]; 25. (DNS) 33-Jeremy Ferguson, 00:22.580; 26. (DNS) 16B-Ty Williams, 00:22.580