The Left Turn
By: Ron Burt
Friday, April 25th, the weather shut down racetracks. Michigan was hit or miss, and the race fans that made the trip north to Lake Odessa Michigan got to see the Great Lakes Sprints at I96 Speedway. 30 Outlaw 410 Winged Sprints were in the pits to qualify. This was the tracks opening night for 2025 and the stands were filled with spectators.
The night began with qualifying, and Scotty Thiel put his No.51 at the top with a lap time of 13.813. Mike Keegan, Jared Horstman, Max Stambaugh won heat races, and the B Main went to Aaron Shaffer.
After the redraw, luck continued to be on the side of Max Stambaugh who brought 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, Stambaugh will get credit for leading every lap on Friday night, but 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 up for grabs. Jared Horstman came from 5th, to get Daggett at the line for the second, and Keith Sheffer, Jr. earned the Hard Charger Award for the second week in a row, this week improving six spots to finish fourth and Mike Keegan rounded out the top five.
Fremont Speedway in Fremont Ohio, opened for the season with a huge show Saturday, April 26th. If you were going to script the start of the 2025 racing season for the All Star Circuit of Champions, you couldn’t have written it better. Cars charging through the field, late race heroics. The oldest touring winged sprint car series didn’t disappoint in their 137th career visit to the Track That Action Built to help kick off the 74th anniversary season at the track.
Sacramento, California’s Kalib Henry, the defending Fremont Speedway 410 track champion, charged from 13th to battle with Cap Henry late in the race to earn his first All Star win. It was his sixth career Fremont victory.
Cody Bova led the opening five laps of the 35-lap feature before third starter Kasey Jedrzejek took over. Pole-sitter Cap Henry, who had fallen back to third, stormed into second on a lap seven restart and immediately pressured Jedrzejek for the lead. Three race cautions in the opening 15 laps brought about an open red when Leyton Wagner got upside down.
On the restart Jedrzejek continued to lead Cap Henry, Bova, Chris Andrews and Kalib Henry. Kalib stormed into fourth on lap 16, took third on lap 17. Another driver on the move was Zane DeVault who moved into fourth from his 17th starting position on lap 18.
Jedrzejek and Cap Henry continued to battle for the lead with Henry taking the top spot on lap 22. Four laps later in heavy lapped traffic Kalib Henry drove into the lead only to surrender it back to Cap with a bobble in turn two. Kalib regained the lead on lap 28 and pulled away for the win over Cap Henry, DeVault, Bova and 14th starter Greg Wilson. Greg Wilson announced before the races he will run full-time with the All Stars in 2025. Fremont had the Burmeister Trophy Dirt Trucks as the support group for the All-Star Show. The truck feature went to Kent Brewer. It was his ninth career Fremont win. Rounding out the Top 5, Shawn Valenti, Bradley Stuckey, Jamie Miller, and Cale Shearn. Fremont Speedway will be back in action Saturday, May 3, with the American Late Model Iron-Man Series, the 305 sprints and D2 Midgets.
Saturday and Sunday the USAC National Midget Series were at Kokomo Speedway for the Kokomo Grand Prix. Saturday went to Jacob Denney and Sunday night belonged to USAC veteran Justin Grant. Local Ottoville open wheel racer, Abby Hohlbein attended her prom on Saturday but was behind the wheel Sunday in a non-winged 410 sprint at Kokomo. She started outside row 3 in her heat race and that’s all the information I had, before we went to press.
Until next week, keep your wheels down. Ron out!
