By: Ron Burt
Barry Marlow of the Great Lakes Sprints passed along information about Sprints on Ice. The weekend of March 4th, all the Great Lakes Super Sprints Champions will be heading to Sault Ste Marie to attend the River Roar on the St Mary’s River at the Cozy Restaurant across from Neebish Island. The Great Lakes Lightning Sprints will be racing on the ice along with Dustin Daggett in his family owned 85 car. Hopefully the ice will be safe enough, but if it’s not, we’ll turn it into a car show and block party! Past Champions that will attend include, Chase Ridenour 11R – 2016, Jared Horstman 17 – 2017, Dustin Daggett 85 – 2018, Phil Gressman 7c – 2019, Jared Horstman 17 – 2020, Ryan Ruhl 71H – 2021, and Max Stambaugh 71H – 2022.
How did Ricky Stenhouse, this year’s Daytona 500 winner celebrate his win? He and a couple of crew members showed up with the huge trophy at the local Waffle House. The shocked restaurant staff and customers gave the champion a round of applause as he set the trophy down.
Do you miss the Midwest drivers you grew up watching and cheering for? I stumbled upon a great Facebook page. FishersPictorial (all one word) has pictures of Sprints, Modifieds, and all kinds of Stock Cars that raced on area tri-state tracks including Bryan Motor Speedway and Avilla when the tracks were paved and then later dirt. If you miss those two tracks, you can relive memories in pictures. Other track pictures include Butler, Millstream, Crystal, Owosso, Winchester, Angola and many more. The site is a who’s who of top area Late Model stars including Moose Myers, Bill Younkin, Little Joe Bennett, Fred Elkins along with many others. It has a great collection of Sprint and Modified drivers including a young Jeff Gordon racing a sprint car on our local tracks, before and during his NASCAR days.
Waynesfield Raceway Park, southeast of Lima announced they will be open in 2023 with many events but not weekly.
Wheeler Trucking will be the new sponsor for the Midwest Modified Tour. These are UMP style asphalt Mods. The tour started in 1989 as the E-Mod Series and grew and changed names a few times over the years. In 2015 and 2016 the series had two divisions. This year the series will celebrate their 35th anniversary, with 10 events on 9 different tracks in 5 states, including Toledo Motor Speedway on Saturday, June 17th. The MMT season kicks off April 21-22nd at the historic Ona Speedway near Huntington WV for the 4th Annual Cabin Fever Bash. This is a fun series to follow, and I will provide updates all summer.
Until next week, keep your wheels down. Ron out! ohiosportsblitz@yahoo.com
