08/31/2018 Great Lakes Super Sprints and Midland Steel Outlaw Late Model Night
Feature Winners:
- Midland Steel Outlaw Late Model: #19 Derrick Hilliker
- Suspension MAXX Street Stocks: #72 Bobby Kosha
- Main Street Seed and Supply IMCA Modified: #03 Chris Cohoon
- Walker’s Ideal Trophies Mini-Wedge (6-9yr old): #28 Kyron DeShano
- Walker’s Ideal Trophies Mini-Wedge (10-14yr old): #15 Cole Doty
- Mueller’s Performance Engines Pro Stock: #J3 Tim Murphy
- Great Lakes Super Sprints: #49t Gregg Dalman
Sprint Car Driver Dalman Wins in Photo Finish at Tri-City Motor Speedway
08/31/2018 (Auburn, MI) The final night of racing at Tri-City Motor Speedway proved to be one of the best race night of the entire 2018 race season. Thirty-three Great Lakes Super Sprint car drivers from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Florida, and Canada along with the always popular Midland Steel Outlaw Late Models convened in Auburn Michigan for a chance to be the winner of their respective classes. The 94 drivers, in total, did not disappoint the 2200+ in attendance to spectate.
The Great Lakes Super Sprints (GLSS) had their final point race for the 2018 race season. #85 Dustin Daggett, just by putting his car into the pits claimed the Championship. He backed it up with the fastest lap of the field in early qualifying. He transferred to the 25-lap feature via his runner-up finish behind #17m Max Stambaugh in the first heat race, but drew the seventh starting position in the main event. #24d Danny Sams III and #7b Trevor Berry paced the field of 22 early. 2017 Champion #17h Jared Horstman quickly moved from his 14th starting position to fight within the top five with teammate #17m Max Stambaugh, Daggett and others. As they battled, veteran #49t Gregg Dalman found an advantage in the bottom groove of the speedway to snatch the lead. With two laps remaining, caution would bunch the field and bring second place Stambaugh, along with the rest of the field, to Dalman’s rear bumper. On the restart, it looked as if Dalman had gotten a strong enough start to pull far enough out front to grab the win. Stambuagh took every inch of the speedway to pull alongside of Dalman out of turn four to the finish line. After a lengthy video review of the finish, Dalman was declared the winner by inches over Stambaugh. Daggett, Horstman, and #28 Hud Horton. #84 Kyle Poortenga had to master the 15-lap B-main to gain his entry in to the main event. Other heat race winners included Sams III, #27x Jared Lamberson, and #10 Mitch Brown.
The other headline of the night was the popular Midland Steel Outlaw Late Models. Late model drivers strap on plexiglass sideboards to their cars along with other items to make their cars go extremely fast. #19 Derrick Hilliker, who has won the past two years, once again was the fastest qualifiers that dared to suit up for the show. Hilliker also showed his prowess and speed by winning a grudge match race between him and GLSS driver Dustin Daggett. Hilliker fastest lap was nearly a second faster than what Daggett could muster. #6r Carl Ries looked as if he was the one to beat as he handily won the heat race. On the redraw for the feature, Ries drew the outside pole starting position for the 25-lap main event. However, Hilliker drew the inside front row. He took full advantage of the starting spot and immediately took the lead at the drop of the green flag. Hilliker gathered a big lead on the field until he reached slower traffic. As he dealt with traffic, this allowed his father, #21 David Hilliker, to move from fourth to challenge for the top spot by the halfway point in the race. It was then that Derrick began to really driver the wheels of his machine. He was able to hold off David to collect his third Outlaw Late Model Feature win in a row ahead of David, brother-in-law #11x Ryan Lanphierd, #04 Wade Witherspoon, and Ries.
The Walker’s Ideal Trophies Mini Wedge class had their final races of 2018 on Friday night. #2e Easton Murray added another heat race win to her young resume along with #5 Brennan DeShano. In the feature event it was #28 Kyron DeShano that outlasted the field in the junior division (6-9yr old) as he bested #80 Preston Mieske, B. DeShano, and #27k Kyle Watz at the finish. 2018 Champion #15 Cole Doty took the win in the senior (10-14yr old) division.
The Main Street Seed and Supply IMCA Modified drivers had their final opportunity to gather state, regional, and national points on Friday night. 2018 IMCA TCMS Champion #79 Nate Jones continued his dominance by winning his heat race. #03 Chris Cohoon and #4s Toby Steele also showed their muscle by taking the checkered flag in their respective heat races. 2011 and 2018 point runner-up #27 Matt Szecsodi, gearing up for his trip to Boone, IA for Super Nationals took the lead from #33 Todd Matheson by lap three of the 20-lap feature. Szecsodi looked to be the class of the field until coming up on slower traffic. Contact would send Szecsodi spinning and bringing out the caution. He was sent to the tail of the field and handed the lied over to Auburn, MI driver Cohoon. Jones and #19jr Kody Johnson tried to get by Cohoon but was unable to complete the task. Within the final dozen laps, Szecsodi somehow overcame the caution penalty to nearly steal the win away from Cohoon, but fell just a few feet short of completing the task. Jones finished third behind the lead duo. Johnson and Steele completed the top five.
Heat races in the SuspensionMAXX Street Stock class were won by #84 Eric Watz and #5000 Mike Sparks. Sparks received the luck of the draw and received the pole starting position for the 20-lap main event. He fought with #3 Mitch Clements, #69x Justin Bennett, #15.2 Robert Cunningham, #72 Bobby Kosha, and Watz for the majority of the race. Bennett and Cunningham ran into trouble in the race which eventually took both from contention for the win. Sparks fought hard keeping Kosha and Watz behind him in the final laps of the race. He ended up being the first to cross the finish line, but it was a technical infraction during post race inspection that ended up handing the win to Kosha. Watz would finish in second. Clements, #7r Kevin Newcomb, and #77 Michael Briggs took the remaining top five finishing spots.
The Mueller’s Performance Engines Pro Stock class was the final race of the night. Husband and wife pair #J3 Tim Murphy and #316 Terri Lynn Murphy took the field to the green of the 20-lap final race. T. Murphy held on to the point for the first three laps before two-time champion #28 Jared Rizer, who is masterful on a slick track, made his pass for the lead. He had extended his lead by four of five car-lengths. Hover, caution flags brought the field to his back bumper. T. Murphy, who had slipped back to as far as third place, patiently worked the top groove of the race track and battled with Rizer over the final eight laps before finally clearing Rizer and collecting his first TCMS feature win. Rizer had to settle for second place ahead of #9 Marc Super, #27 Rob Westergard, and #26x Erik Kukulski. Westergard won the heat race.
The management and staff at TCMS thank all of you that took part in the 2018 racing season. We all know that we could not do it without all of you. Please stay tuned for upcoming events and other announcements by checking in on our website www.tricityracetrack.com. We hope that you will support grass roots racing throughout Michigan through the month of September. We wish you and your family a safe, healthy, comforting off-season. We will see you all at the 2019 season opener on April 26, 2019!!!! We thank you for making TCMS Michigan’s ultimate dirt track racing destination.
- administrator on Sep 03, 2018
- Article Date: 9/3/2018 by Roger Williams