10/3/2025
GLSS-Great Lakes Super Sprints
Stambaugh Stacks GLSS Championships, Smith Motorsports Stays on Top in 2025
Merrill, MI - Five years ago, the Smith Motorsports No.71H put competitors with the Great Lakes Super Sprints on notice that they were a team to be reckoned with when then-driver, Ryan Ruhl, went to victory lane five times, and collected 15 top fives along with 17 top 10s in 18 races en route to the team's first career GLSS Championship. With Max Stambaugh behind the wheel since 2022, Smith Motorsports has captured 22 feature wins and seven championships between the Tour, the MacAllister CAT (Michigan) Division, and the Ohio CAT Division.
This season, the dynamic duo of Smith Motorsports and Max Stambaugh went to work again, looking for the GLSS triple crown, something that has yet to be accomplished since the Divisions were created in 2023. It didn’t take long to show that the team was prepared to defend their previous three championships, winning their first feature of the season on the second night out at I-96 Speedway, holding off Jared Horstman and Dustin Daggett in the process.
Night three of the season put the Elida, OH native in a good position to take control of the Ohio CAT Division at his home track, Limaland Motorsports Park. Stambaugh nearly swept the night, qualifying second, winning his heat race, redrawing the one pill, and winning the first feature of the season in the Buckeye State. Stambaugh returned to Limaland Victory Lane three more times throughout the course of the summer.
Perhaps one of Stambaugh’s most impressive wins came during Independence Day Weekend at Waynesfield Raceway Park. Starting fifth, Stambaugh attacked early, going three-wide down the backstretch and taking second by the completion of the first lap. Using the bottom of the race track, Stambaugh tracked down Horstman in lapped traffic and took the lead with just seven laps to go. He subsequently survived a green-white-checkered finish for his sixth win of the season.
In 28 starts this season (27 points-paying events), Stambaugh posted 26 top 10s, 22 top fives, and nine feature wins. The 29-year-old now sits second on the all-time GLSS wins list with 27 career wins, trailing Horstman by just five races. Stambaugh also collected the second-most wins in a single season, with only Horstman collecting more when he won 11 times on his way to the 2017 GLSS Title.
“These last four years with Smith Motorsports have been great,” Stambaugh said. “To have the year we had at Limaland was special; I’ve been going to that place since I was a kid. Plus, another Tour Championship - it means a lot to me and the entire team.”
Stambaugh and Smith Motorsports will be honored alongside Jared Horstman, the MacAllister CAT Division Champion, Steve Irwin, the Great Lakes Traditional Sprints Champion, and Justin Ward, the Great Lakes Lightning Sprints Champion at the 2025 Championship Awards Banquet on Saturday, January 3rd, 2026, at the Commonwealth Commerce Center in Jackson, MI. Tickets for the Awards Dinner will be available soon.
Article Credit: Zach Hiser
Submitted By: Zach Hiser
