Flat Rock Speedway

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    The race cars are back in town with Opening night at Flat Rock Speedway. It was mix of drivers with multiple feature wins and first time winners.

    Eric Lee won his 25th Outlaw Late Model race at Flat Rock. He’s won the season opener two other times since 2006. “This is a great way to start the season I felt like I had a good car all night, I never really had to push it too hard. I was happy to see a large car count out here for opening night. I need to thank my main sponsors Lee Motorsports Inc. and Action Drywall and my crew my dad, Rob, Ron and Todd without them I would not be out here.”

    As Eric said, it was the largest OLM field for opening night, with 18 cars. May 13, 2017, when 19 cars were on hand, was the last time we had over 18 cars for a non-long distance race (Joy Fair 100 or Stan Yee 150). The years between have been: 2021-15, 2019-16,2018-15.

NEW FACES:

Jimmy Pankow has moved up from the Street Stock division to the Late Model division, “Lost part of my exhaust on the warm up laps and decided to pull off to be safe. It's Kevin Butzin’s old car was red and black when I purchased it and the #10 came from my dad because the 5 (I drove in Street Stocks) was taken in late model division.

    Joining him in the rookie of the year race is Joshua Spindelman, “Hi! I started young, racing RC cars at six years old with Downriver RC. When I was seven, I started racing Go-Karts at Palmyra Speedway in Adrian Michigan. Later, as I developed more skills my father and I looked into traveling to seek out more competition. This resulted in racing indoors at the Fort Wayne Rumble and the Ohio Indoor Kart Series which was run by Larry Boos. As a young driver at these events, Larry Boos made sure we were well prepared to further our knowledge of racing in order to prepare us for the future. Toward the end of my Kart racing, I ran alongside seasoned racers like Tim Ice and Charlie Schultz. Along with the Karting experience, I was the crew chief for both Jim and Cliff (Jay) Bailey as they raced Outlaws at Flat Rock, Galesburg, Spartan, and Kalamazoo speedways. I am racing in memory of their father Cliff Bailey. Ever since I was little I always said, "I am going to race at Flat Rock Speedway in an Outlaw Super Late Model". Last Saturday was the dream come true. Outside of the racing world I am a musician in which I just graduated from Adrian College, May 1st, with a Bachelors in Music Education. Currently Spindelman Racing has no sponsorship but supported by my lawn service in the Irish hills area and substitute teaching as I am looking for a High School Band Director position. I have strong technical and mechanical support from my Dad, Craig Spindelman and good racing friends, Jim and Cliff (Jay) Bailey. Last Saturday, after a few bumps from other drivers, I found myself a little too low coming out of turn two and the car bottomed out. This resulted in the third link breaking off of the top of the axle and ruining the drive shaft. We are scrambling for parts trying to be back next Saturday.

NEW PLACES:

After eight years driving for Dick Barker’s #45 team, Frank Jiovani is taking a break to be with his family. Taking his place is 2019 Co-Rookie of the Year, Conner Zbozien. “My dad and grandpa have known Pat (Moran) and Dick (Barker) for a long time and Pat was generous to help us in 2018 with our Sportsman Late Model at Owosso. We’ve been in pretty close communication over the last few years, and everything just fell in line this year,” on how he got the new ride. “

    And on his night, “We had a beautiful day for opening night! Finished 5th, had some trouble with qualifying, ended up 12th which put us in a tough spot to make some ground up. Did some bouncing around but was able to stay focused and finish fifth. I’m very excited to see what the season has for us this year. I have been incredibly blessed to have this opportunity and have enjoyed the shop time prior to racing and know we are going to have some fun weekends ahead! Thank you to our sponsors for the support!! Moran Chevrolet, McQuade Heating and Cooling, PPE, Painter’s Supply and Equipment, The Pleasure Zone, JV Auto, Michigan Independent Door and of course our crew is the best! Thank you for your hard work every week! We had some awesome fan support this weekend as well! Lot’s of family and friends! Loved seeing those little people in orange shirts having fun on the hill!. Next weekend is autograph night! We have some fun items to pass out so be sure to find us in the track!

    Chris Benson finished third. It was his first podium finish since August 2008.

    It was Steve Hawes’ first heat win since the 2017 season.

    Greg Studt won the opening race for the Street Stock A division for the third straight season. ““You got to be able to hang out there, it’s a lot easier to start out there and stay with him. The car was really tight early in the race, I think under that long caution that might have had some stagger work in favor, some tire changing and then it’s great after that. A nice night. Any time you can win opening night … keeping confidence, going to win … the momentum going usually bodes well for the rest of the season. I want to thank Apollo Broach, Budget Tire, Wine Town Party Store, Mark Sherrard, my son, dad and the rest of the crew.”

    Ron Allen made a rare appearance in the Street Stock A Division and finished second.

    Taylor Papineau finished eighth, a career best, his only other appearance in the A division was last May, an 18th. “This was my career best finish in the A main. We did a lot of work to the car over the winter. We were blown away with how good the car did. We were able to keep up with some top contenders and we definitely shocked a lot of people. Always gotta thank my family, my parents Dennis and Brenda Papineau, my “brains” of the team Conor Papineau, and of course my beautiful fiancé Caitlin Shores for all their hard work and dedication. Can’t wait to see all of our fans next weekend at Autograph night.”

    Ryan Smith was in his first A division feature and came away with a Top 10 finish, a ninth. “Last year was my first year, and this is indeed my first time making the A main. I’m super excited about it too! And yes it’s a career best. Besides my family for their support, I have to thank Gary Cronenwett, Paul Pelletier, and my sponsor JDC Tree Service a small independent tree service owned by another Cronenwett cousin!”

    Rob Liedel finished 13th, a career best in his second race in the A division.

    It was a good night for the 2021 Track Champions with Eric Lee, Greg Studt winning their features. Bobby Stewart won the B division championship and tonight he won his first career feature. His previous best finish was a pair of seconds last season.

    Mike Miller won his first career B division Heat race tonight. Mike puts video’s of the races up on YouTube each week… the link is below.

    We had some first time drivers, hopefully they’ll read this and send me a message or email. Welcome to Flat Rock to Evan Batkins, Landon Stark, Chris Stark, Evan finished third, Landon fouth and Chis didn’t run the feature after problems in his heat.

    And our second first time winner was Brice Thomsen, Where Bobby Stewart’s is in his sophomore season, Brice has been racing 22 years and FINALLY got his first win. “Well I finally did it got my first feature win it feels really good to get that monkey off my back. Hope it's a sign for a great year to come. I want to thank Fraza for coming on this year they have been a huge help to my racing program. I also want to thank Dennis Whisman Sr. For all his help and knowledge, and I want to thank everyone who's been a help to me and our 4car race team Jakob Lee Dennis Whisman Jr. Eugene Worden Benjamin Thomas Robert Thomsen Jeff Minnick and our new lil mini crew Jayden Whisman. And my smokin’ HoTT wife Crystal Whisman-Thomsen”

    Chuck Pankow, I’ll have to check and see if he’s a rookie, is in Al Haasenfratz’s old car.

May 14, 2022

    Defending division champion, Eric Lee picked up where he left off last weekend with the Outlaw Late Model win today. It’s only the third time he’s had back-to-back wins since 2006, and the first time in that timeframe that he’s opened the season with two wins. “This is awesome to start the season with two wins especially tonight with a large group of my family and friends in the stands. Chris was really good tonight our lap times were pretty close so I knew it would either take him making a mistake or a restart to have a good shot at it and I was fortunate to get the caution. Our car is working really good right now hopefully we can keep this momentum going.”

    Chris Benson has been on a roll the last race of 2021 and the first two races this season with a fifth, third, second place. My records only go back to 2006 and although he has two wins, he’s never finished second in that timeframe. Maybe the next LM race he’ll keep the sequence of finishes going with a win (since he has a third and then a second place).

    Former NASCAR driver Ken Schrader raced tonight with the track regulars. He drove Dennis Strickland’s #90 in the Outlaw Super Late Models, finishing fourth. He also drove Rob Moore’s #82 in the Street Stock A Division, finishing sixth.

    George Rangel finished a career best sixth and is sponsored by Blue Water Air Compressor, Blue Water Pipe and Supply, CF Offroad. Also we had three of the Rangel family racing tonight, beside George, his son Johnny and brother Mark finished seventh and 13th respectively in the Street Stock A Division feature.

    Welcome back Dan Trosen Jr. The last time we saw him was July 2019. He finished eighth today, his first Top 10 finish since June 2012. The eighth place finish ties an eighth place finish (his best since 2006) he had in May 2009.

    ROOKIE CORNER: Joshua Spindleman finished 10th, a career best. He finished one position better than the other rookie of the year candidate, Jimmy Pankow.

    Ron Allen won his 44th Street Stock A Division feature. He’s now only seven wins from tying Brian Norton for the lead in the division. The next active driver is Greg Studt with 15 wins in the division. Allen has only raced five races in the division since his last A division win in July 2009. “I have to thank Brian Pelkey, the owner of this car, for giving me the opportunity to drive this race car. I'll tell you what you seen there was good sportsmanship on Arnold’s (Kirsch) part. He ran me clean, side by side, I gotta thank Arnold for that … that was good racing. He was coming back, you know, I was doing all I could to I stay ahead. I love racing like that, it reminds me of the old days where guys, these two old guys, would run side by side for the win.”

    Ryan Smith won his first A Division heat race.

    Taylor Papineau won the Street Stock B Division feature. “The Papineau Racing team clinched our first win of the 2022 season. We’re gonna put some more work into the car and be ready for next week. We’re making a run for the B main championship, and we gotta keep making good finishes if we’re to accomplish just that!!”

   Two new drivers raced in the Street Stock B Division today. The only one to run a feature was part of the Cronenwett clan, Jeremy. He finished fourth in the B feature. The other was Becca Coyne, but she didn’t run the feature.

   Jeremy Vanderhoof won the Figure 8 feature. It was his 34th Figure 8 feature win at Flat Rock.

   We had three lady drivers tonight at Flat Rock. Besides Becca Coyne in the Street Stocks and Figure 8 division regular Stephanie Bradley(finished eighth in the feature), we also had Janelle Cummings in the Figure 8s (she finished ninth in the feature).

    If you missed any of the racing you can find it here: www.youtube.com/c/MikeMiller28

    NOTE: I can’t get into the pits right now because of the restrictions. If I missed your sponsors in any of my articles, send me a note through Facebook Messenger https://www.facebook.com/icechips or email me at icechips@hotmail.com. I will add them to my next column. If you write something about your night on your Facebook page or a website please let me know and I’ll go get it each week and make sure the sponsors are mentioned. Thank you to all the drivers/teams that have sent me quotes.