Flat Rock Speedway

Tomorrow is championship night.

The Outlaw Late Models are 2015 and 2017 Champion Justin Schroeder comes in with a 10 point win on 4 time Champion (2006, 2010, 2012, 2016) Paul Pelletier and 2019 Co-Rookie of the Year Conner Zbozien is 10 points behind Pelletier. Chris Benson is mathematically in it too, but at 95 points back, the other three would pretty much have to drop out in hot laps.

Rookie RJ Cornett, leads fellow rookie John Ledwidge by over 600 points. Probably the most interesting thing about the rookies is their ages. RJ is around 16-yrs old and I think John is around 60.

For the Street Stocks, Kenyon Knight leads defending A Division champion Jeremy Vanderhoof by 60 points and 2015 SS A Division champion Landon Shuster by 90. With 20 cars in the feature, that’s a 95-point spread. If Kenyon wins the championship and doesn’t win a feature it’ll be the first time since 2015 that the A Division champ doesn’t win a feature.

Interesting with this Division, Jeremy has won four races, but Kenyon, who has not won a feature, has done it with consistency (much like Conner Zbozien has done). Kenyon has a 4.7 average finish, Jeremy average finish is 5.4 and Landon’s average is 6.1.

I can’t remember what the cut off is for Rookie, used to be Top 20, but might be Top 15 now. Jeremy Cronenwett is definitely an A Division rookie (he was 23rd last year) … Evan Batkins was tied for 18th and Austin McKee was 16th, so they might be rookies too.

If there’s a B Division feature (as three of the last five races when the Street Stock ran, there hasn’t been a B Division feature), Ian Jezylo just has to show up to win his third B division championship (2018, 2019 … and a footnote, he also won a championship in 2020 at Onaway). Justin Peterman is 125 points behind. Also for the first time since Ian won his last championship, the champion will have won a feature in the year they won the championship (2021, Bobby Stewart and 2022 Mike Miller, neither won a race during their championship season).

But all isn’t lost for Justin Peterman, looks like if they hand out a Rookie of the Year for the B division, he is it.

And in the Figure 8s, Jeremy Vanderhoof has a 45 point lead over 2019, 2021 Division Champion Dennis Whisman Jr. Joel Markin should be the Rookie of the Year. If Jeremy holds on, it’ll be his first Figure 8 championship at Flat Rock since 2011 (he also won 2010 and at Toledo he won 2006, 2014, 2015).

Lastly the Enduro is pretty close. And oddly it’s #2 Derrick Sheppard leads #3 Robb Remick by 10 points and #4 Rayce Metdepenningen by 15. (don’t you love how they’re in numerical order or reverse alphabetically order by their last names). Troy Brehmer is fourth and he’s 50 points back. Depending on how many show up, that might be doable.

Good luck to all our drivers.

August 19

Justin Schroeder drove his Fairway Disposal, JMS Transport #4 to victory in the Outlaw Late Model Division. It was his first win since opening night 2021 (May). It was his 15th career feature win. "If you'd ask me for the feature, if I was going to win tonight, I'd told you, we were done for the year. We were terrible all day, I mean, we slung shocks and springs and axles and I mean you name it we changed it because we were junk. My old man worked his butt off it wasn't good and nice, but we just didn't give up and that's all it was. (I) Never would have thought (I'd win) but then I got to the outside and that baby was home and so it was good. Next week is the championship so you got to come here and expect that

because I mean, everybody's right there. Honestly, like I said, this this wasn't our week. I didn't think that was gonna happen at all and I was gonna win.

Defending two time Street Stock A Division champion Jeremy Vanderhoof won his fourth feature of the year. “That run was fun. Yeah, after last week when we had some heartbreaking stuff go on. We were running third and as I took the white flag, it just broke again. I was happy it made another lap last week. I want to thank my sponsors Patrick Signs, Aero Truck Parts, SP Guns and Ammo, Seigel Chiropractor and new this year, Garner Jewelry and Exchange.

Lonnie York has been having a wonderful year so far. This week he finished a career best third in the SS A division feature.

Travis Earley won his second Figure 8 feature of the season. I don’t keep records, but I can’t remember the last time someone won multiple features in different cars. Travis was in Joel Markin’s car tonight after having engine problems in the last race. “I didn't mean to get into Dennis (Whisman Jr.). We went into the turn, and it was just racing for lead is what happened. So I did run into him, so I apologize to him. Yes, it was fun. Season championship next week so I'll just do the best we can. I want to thank Danny, my dad, my grandfather Gary/porkchop, Joel, Big Randy, Lil Randy, Nick, Brendan, Larry and my rooters Aunt Brenda, my Aunt Karen, Aunt Melissa. I would also like to thank my other half Cheyenne and our two lil ones for allowing me to keep doing what I love. As everyone knows this hobby takes a lot of family time, would like to thank my sponsors Triple A Transport, A&M Transmission, Jim's Butcher Shop for all the support.”

Catch up from the Street Stock 100 race on August 12. Congrats to Greg Studt on his fifth Street Stock 100 win, and his second in a row. Doug Litogot was a career high second (previous best was fourth), Johnny Rangel’s fourth was a career high (best previous was 11th), Kenyon Knight tied his best finish of fifth; Lonnie York got 10th in his first 100.

Chris Diovardi won his first B Division Feature. He won a C Division feature in 2005. In a year where either there’s been first time winners or drivers winning after many years. Chris has the farthest time between features with it being 18 years (Brian Norton it was 16 years between features and Chris Benson was 15 years). “This was my last race. The car’s for sale. We’ll still be around to support everyone. I want to thank all my family, friends and sponsors that have helped over the years. BST Inc, Feinn Tire, Modified Gear & Spline, Quality Tool & Gear are our sponsors.” Now that’s how you retire. Win the feature and put the car for sale. In 30 some years of writing, think this might be the first driver that ever did this, win and out.

If you missed any of the racing you can find it here: www.youtube.com/@MikeMiller28. If anyone else tapes all the races let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

Let me hear about your season. I’ll have one last thing before the end of the year. Did I forget your sponsorship when I wrote about you. Send me a note through Facebook Messenger www.facebook.com/icechips or an email at ddomby@juno.com. If you have a website or Facebook page you want me to just go grab something off of, let me know and I can do that too. All I ask if you send me something is it be a couple sentences long and I’ll be happy to put it into my article.