Special from Great Lakes Super Sprints: Hartford, MI - At 1 pm Friday, Phil Gressman (Fremont, MI) was sitting along I-94 near Grass Lake, MI, 105 miles from Hartford Speedway with a broke down truck and with a slim chance of making tonights race. At 5:00 pm with a different truck, Team Gressman was rolling and trying to make their qualifying spot. Coming into the track hot at 6:40 pm with 4 groups to still qualify, Gressman was pushed off and fired in the pits and rolled onto the track as the other two cars in his group were being fired...2 1/2 hours later Gressman was standing in the winners circle with his 2nd win of the season!!!
With 21 cars registered for our last regular season race before tomorrow's championship, 2018 GLSS Champion Dustin Daggett (Portland, MI) stood at the top of the leader board as tonights Ti22 Performance Fast Qualifier. Brad Lamberson (Parma, MI) was second quick while Gressman, Keith Sheffer, Jr (Jerome, MI) and Bobby Elliot (Allenton, MI) rounded out the top 5.
In the Engler Machine & Tool Heat 1, current points leader Max Stambaugh (Elida, OH) gets out front and leads all 8 laps for the win. Driving Stambaugh's family car, Stevie Irwin (Fenton, MI) holds on for 2nd while Daggett comes in third, but not before Sheffer caused some excitement as he bailed from his car with 2 laps to go! Thinking he was on fire, a red was called as he was rolling on the track. Fortunately as safety crews got to him, it was discovered he was being sprayed from hot anti-freeze and not burning from a methanol fire. The fire suit did its job and protected Junior, but his night was done.
Plymouth, IN native, Zane Devault took the lead from Danny Sams III (North Port, FL) in the first lap of the Jim Coffey & Sons Plumbing & Heating Heat 2. But Sams would not go away as Devault and Sams put on a show racing side by side all 8 laps. Devault finally takes the checkered 4 tenths of second ahead of Sams with Lamberson rounding out the top 3.
In the Specialty Fuels & Logistics Heat 3, Gressman led green to checkered for the heat race win. Gregg Dalman (Bellevue, MI) finishes 2nd and Ryan Coniam (Burlington, ON) rounds out the top 3.
As the PErFit A-Main rolled out, Gressman and Dalman led the field around to the green flag. Gressman wins the sprint to turn one and leads the field as everyone gets some spacing, Then 5 laps in, rookie Bobby Elliot loops the car in the middle of turns 3 and 4 bringing out the caution. Getting Elliot fired and sent to the tail, the green flag flies again as Gressman goes into cruise control for the next 7 laps until Dalman drives right by Gressman for the lead in lap 12.
Dalman leads the field for 3 laps, until Devault gets by him for the lead in lap 16. Devault takes the lead as the red flies again as the 27 car is on fire at the top of turn 2. Lamberson quickly exits the 27 as safety crews arrive. Lamberson had lost his steering and the fire was caused by oil spraying on the hot exhaust. Lamberson was safe but also done for the night.
As the green flag flies again, Devault leads the field 2 more laps as the caution flies for Andy Chehowski (Coldwater, MI) who had dangerously slowed off the pace. As Devault slowed for the caution coming out of turn 4, he caught on fire in front of the flag stand as a fuel line broke and was spraying methanol in the cockpit. Devault made it out of the car and to GLSS safety personnel as a red was thrown . Hartford safety crew members put out the fire that was burning the drivers seat. Devault was also ok with no burns, but his lead and night were done.
With 7 laps to go when the green flag flew for the last time, Gressman lead the field with clean air in front of him. Behind him, Daggett had moved up from 6th in the 16th lap to 2nd and was closing fast on Gressman. As the white flag flew and Gressman and Daggett were weaving through lapped traffic, Daggett came out of turn 4 on the bottom and Gressman was on the high side as they both split a lapped car between them and raced to the checkered. Gressman beat Daggett to the line by 43 hundreths of a second, which is about 2 feet at 120 mph!!! Stambaugh finished 3rd to round out the podium.
2021 GLSS Champion, Ryan Ruhl earned the Hoosier Racing Tire Hard Charger, moving up 9 spots to finish 4th.
Daggett narrowed the points spread with Stambaugh by 7 points and is now 27 points behind Max. Saturday at Attica will be the final race of the season...will we crown a new champion or will Daggett earn his 2nd GLSS Championship? Come out to Attica Raceway Park tomorrow and find out first hand!
Media Results for 9/2/2022 at Hartford Speedway - Hartford, MI
Great Lakes Super Sprints presented by Engine Pro & ARP 21 Entries
PErFit A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:29:47.935
7C-Phil Gressman[1]; 2. 85-Dustin Daggett[7]; 3. 71H-Max Stambaugh[4]; 4. 01-Ryan Ruhl[13]; 5. 5M-Steve Irwin[5]; 6. 21-Linden Jones[14]; 7. 24D-Danny Sams III[6]; 8. 5E-Bobby Elliott[11]; 9. 46-Ryan Coniam[9]; 10. 88N-Frank Neill[10]; 11. 31-Mike Astrauskas[12]; 12. 75-Micheal Summers[18]; 13. 11-Joe Conway[20]; 14. 49T-Gregg Dalman[2]; 15. 58-Tony Bures[15]; 16. 16B-Zane Devault[3]; 17. 20A-Andy Chehowski[17]; 18. 27-Brad Lamberson[8]; 19. 70-Eli Lakin[19]; 20. (DNS) 86-Keith Sheffer Jr; 21. (DNS) 84-Kyle Poortenga
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