CRYSTAL, Mich. — Despite all odds that suggested the show wouldn’t unfold, officials with the Great Lakes Super Sprints Presented by PERFIT & ARP (GLSS) and Crystal Motor Speedway were determined to get the season underway Saturday night.
Even though chilly temperatures greeted the fans, they came out in full force to see the start of the Michigan CAT GLSS Sprint Division, which turned out just as strong with 31 cars on the property.
The night began with Ti22 Performance Qualifying, where nearly a dozen drivers broke the old Crystal Motor Speedway track record. In the end, Canada’s Ryan Turner got the last laugh with just five cars left to qualify after him, when he turned in a shattering 12.039.
Later in the night, however, Horstman shattered the record again in his heat race when he blistered an 11.954-second lap, averaging over 112 MPH. Corbin Gurley, Mike Keegan, Horstman, and Chase Dunham earned Heat Race wins while Turner earned the B-Main victory.
The first event of the season was set to be led to green by three-time-and-defending GLSS Champion Max Stambaugh with Scotty Thiel to his outside, however, a jumped start moved Stambaugh back a row and put Horstman on the point.
Another caution before the first lap could be completed when Chase Ridenour and Eli Lakin tangled at the exit of turn two, resulting in a tore up No. 38 for Ridenour.
Once the race got the first lap completed, the rest was history. Thiel led the opening rotation, but entered turn three a little hard and nearly went over the banking, was completely sideways, and managed to gather it back up but not before Horstman took advantage on the inside and took the lead for lap number two.
On an absolute rail, Horstman set pace to work through lapped traffic. Meanwhile, Thiel was busting out all the stops to get back to Horstman’s tail tank while they lapped through the 13th spot. While Thiel was close enough to get to Horstman’s inside in turns one and two, he couldn’t complete the pass.
Horstman held on for the win over Thiel. Keith Sheffer Jr. earned the Operating Engineers 324 Hard Charger going from 11th to third.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 17-Jared Horstman[3]; 2. 51-Scotty Thiel[2]; 3. 14-Keith Sheffer[11]; 4. 66-Chase Dunham[4]; 5. 85-Dustin Daggett[5]; 6. X-Mike Keegan[6]; 7. 16-Ryan Ruhl[9]; 8. 7C-Phil Gressman[8]; 9. 12-Corbin Gurley[7]; 10. 24-Kobe Allison[12]; 11. 20I-Kelsey Ivy[10]; 12. 6W-Chad Wilson[13]; 13. 88N-Frank Neill[14]; 14. 3A-Mike Astrauskas[18]; 15. 67-Kevin Martens[20]; 16. 71H-Max Stambaugh[1]; 17. 10S-Jay Steinebach[19]; 18. 15-Ryan Turner[17]; 19. 38-Chase Ridenour[15]; 20. 70-Eli Lakin[16]
