Spartan Speedway shines while rain washes out other tracks

Spartan Speedway race fans got to enjoy another fantastic night of racing last Friday, including the ground-pounding Sprint cars, Modifieds, Spartan Stocks and Pony Stocks.

Heading up the program were the Tripp Auto Shop Collision Center Sprint Cars for a 30-lap feature. JoJo Helberg from California is considered one of the best pavement shoes in the country and was looking to repeat his win from last month. This year's dominating driver in the division is young Trevor Berry, who has found the winners' circle four times this season. Another treat for fans was seeing the No. 26 Sprinter belonging to Michigan Motorsports Hall of Famer Jeff Bloom sitting in the pits. Bloom is a three time winner of the prestigious Little 500.

"I haven't run a non-winged sprint race other than the Little 500 for quite a while, but decided to give Spartan a go tonight," Bloom said.

At the drop of the green, however, young Hayden Reeves took the point. While Hayden has been overshadowed by Berry this season, the talented young driver from North Carolina has been impressive in his freshman season and sits third in points. Berry wasted no time as he shot into second behind Reeves, and patiently looked for an opening. After a short yellow due to a spin by Gary Sherman, Berry took the lead from Reeves on Lap 9 with an inside pass on the restart.

Reeves wasn't giving up, and when Berry bobbled with lapped traffic, Reeves pulled alongside and challenged Berry, but was unable to clear him. Berry regained his composure and pulled away leaving Reeves to try and defend his spot from a hard-charging Helberg. Helberg finally got by Reeves for second, but had nothing for Berry, as the Clio resident won by a straightaway. It was his fifth victory out of seven in his first season in the Spartan Sprints, as he posed in the Art Moehn Chevrolet winners circle with his dad, Dennis, and Tommy Fedewa. Finishing second was Helberg with Reeves coming home third.

These same Wingless Sprint cars will head to Springport Motor Speedway on Saturday night as the Wingless Sprints make their second visit to the fastest 3/8th-mile high-banked pavement track in Michigan. A special treat for fans will include an intermission autograph session with all the cars and stars of "The Port" as the Wingless Sprint Cars, the ABC Stock Cars and the MCR Dwarfs fill the racing card.

Mother Nature perked up last Saturday and washed out racing across Race Jackson's short-track map.

On Saturday, Butler Motor Speedway will return to racing action with Sprint Cars, UMP Modifieds, Sportsman and Street Stock on the racing card.