Lima, OH – The best way to honor a man who gave as much as he could to the racing community is to hand out some extra money in his name during a memorial event. That’s exactly what happened on Friday night with the Great Lakes Super Sprints Presented by PERFIT & ARP at Limaland Motorsports Park during the Ron Kahle, Jr Memorial.

An over $21,000 purse was on the line Friday night with nearly 30 cars on the property looking for a chance to race for the increased purse. Van Gurley, Jr and Nate Dussel led the field to the initial green, but a jump put Gurley back a row, forcing a restart. No issue for Dussel who jumped out to the lead down the backstretch, but the field was again slowed for debris on the backstretch when the nose wing of Easton Zent’s No.16B came off.

The first lap was complete before Graham Huffman spun in turn one, drawing another yellow flag. A quick trip to the work area for Huffman before he returned. Dussel again had no issue with the restart putting a sizeable gap on Gurley, JR and Jac Nickles.

In fact, for the entirety of the night, Dussel was never challenged for the lead. The racing for position was well behind Dussel from second on back. The field was stopped again with 9 laps in when Phil Gressman caught a piece of an infield tire and flipped exiting turn four. Chase Dunham was also involved.

With Dussel controlling the lead, all eyes turned to the turn three and four cushion, which had drivers working hard all night. At the halfway mark, Mason Hannagan was bit by the cushion when it turned him sideways and drew another yellow flag.

On the restart, the cars to watch were last Friday night’s feature winner, Dustin Daggett, and former All-Star Circuit of Champions regular, Darin Naida. Both cars transferring from the B-Main were on a mission to improve their finishing position. Daggett and Naida were going above the curb of the cushion and three and four and rocketing around the extreme outside of the race track. The result was a plus 11 effort for Daggett and a plus 13 effort for Darin Naida.

Dussel held on to get the $6,000 win in the 6th anniversary of Ron Kahle, Jr’s passing, and he did so while racing Ron Hammond’s No.6, a car that Kahle supported for many years.

“No secret that Ron Hammonds was a big part of our race team, and Ron [Kahle, Jr] was a close friend of his, and he asked if we could represent him tonight, and he honestly took the thought out of my mind,” Dussel said in Victory Lane. “I’m super stoked; I’ve never won six grand, so for our little team this is going to go a long way.”

Van Gurley, Jr held on for second while Max Stambaugh, Darin Naida, and Dustin Daggett rounded out the top five.

The next event for the Great Lakes Super Sprints is Saturday, June 6th at Lawrenceburg Speedway in Lawrenceburg, IN. General Admission gates open at 5:00 PM, with racing set to begin at 7:00 PM. Fans who can’t make the trip can catch the action live on www.GreatLakesSprints.TV.

Van Gurley, Jr won Engler Machine & Tool Heat Race number one.

Max Stambaugh won Howard Johnson by Wyndham Heat Race number two.

Mason Hannagan won Miami Paint and Equipment Heat Race number three.

Kelsey Ivy won the Miami Pain and Equipment B-Main.

Darin Naida was the Operating Engineers’ Hard Charger advancing 13 spots.

Ohio CAT A Feature 1: 1. 6-Nate Dussel[2]; 2. 13-Van Gurley Jr[1]; 3. 71H-Max Stambaugh[4]; 4. 11N-Darin Naida[17]; 5. 85-Dustin Daggett[16]; 6. 31-Jac Nickles[3]; 7. 23-Devon Dobie[6]; 8. 66-Chase Dunham[18]; 9. 09X-Graham Huffman[9]; 10. 24-Kobe Allison[8]; 11. 12-Corbin Gurley[7]; 12. 27-Brad Lamberson[10]; 13. 20I-Kelsey Ivy[15]; 14. 17X-Mason Hannagan[5]; 15. 73C-Cody Fendley[13]; 16. 11H-Caleb Harmon[19]; 17. 18-Brian Razum[14]; 18. 16B-Easton Zent[11]; 19. 7C-Phil Gressman[12]; 20. 21S-Benji Siferd[20]