Monthly Archives: July 2010

You will have received your Annual raffle tickets with this month’s regular mailing. This is the club’s most important fund raiser for the year so please try to sell them all and if you want some more just let me know. I have included an envelope for you to send the ticket stubs and money to Sue Ginter and it has her address on it already. This has been one of the hottest summers that I can remember in recent years but in spite of that, I have been able to get to many of our member tracks and spend some time with our club members and I have had a blast this summer thus far. I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of club member, Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee and longtime Merritt Speedway promoter Ed VanDuinen. Ed passed away recently and was the married to Carmen. Ed and Carmen spent many years in the racing business and contributed greatly to our entire sport. Both Ed and Carmen will inducted to the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame this November as part of the “Class of 2010”. God Speed Ed and our condolences and prayers to Carmen and the family and friends of Ed.

The Fan Club Day scheduled for August 1, 2010 at the Springport Motor Speedway that was to be hosted by the Super Pro Racing Series has been cancelled. All events at the speedway for that day have been cancelled as well and as of this writing, re-scheduling information is not available. The club still has fan club day on Saturday night July 31, 2010 at the Springport Motor Speedway as well as the night before, Friday, July 30, 2010 at the Winston Speedway in Rothbury, Michigan.

Friday night July 23rd saw the club beat out bad weather predictions around the state for a great night of racing at the Mount Pleasant Speedway. Kenny and Larry Letts along with Board Member Chuck “Choo Choo” Horan and VP “Wild” Bill Barnhart manned the membership table along with yours truly “Da Prez”. What a great night to see so many MARFC Members at this racy dirt track located right in the heart of the state. Randy Kretzinger, driver of the #57 Stock-Mini was selected by the track to receive the MARFC Helmet Bag. Kretzinger, of Holt is in his second year at Mount Pleasant and was involved in a horrific racing accident a few weeks ago resulting in a series of barrel rolls and flips that destroyed his ride and took the jaws of life to extricate him from his car. In true racers spirit though, he has come right back in a borrowed car and carried right on as if nothing had ever happened. Jackie Nelson of Cadillac was the winner of the MARFC member raffle prize. Track announcer Leo “Chief” Pego conducted a moment of silence for Ed VanDuinen who passed away last week and has been instrumental over the years with the MSPA, MMA, and for many years owning the Merritt Speedway with Wife Carmen. Many thanks to Betty and Mario Crook for having the club out and to the “Chief” for the great PR on Friday night, it was great to visit with all of our fiends at Mount Pleasant.

ATTENTION ALL MARFC MEMBERS!

Mother Nature has won again!  Our MARFC Fan Club Day event at the Galesburg Speedway has been cancelled. At this time, we ae not sure if a reschedule date will be possible due to the remaining race season.  Please contact those who do not have interneet access and let them know!

Bill Barnhart
Vice President, MARFC