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On Friday nights in Michigan there are a limited number of choices to watch your local “stars” on a short track.  One of the most popular is Lansing’s Spartan Speedway.

Every Friday night starting in late April through the beginning of September you will find 5 divisions racing. Spartan rotates their headline class and either the late models or the modified's will be running a 50 lap feature.

Once a month on a Sunday Spartan Speedway will have a special event and all of them include late models and figure 8 racing.

Jim Leasure, Spartan Speedways promoter has modified a few things for the coming 2009 season. Probably the biggest change was going to Hoosier racing tires. 

Listening to the request of his racers, Leasure felt it was time for Spartan Speedway will be running the same Hoosier tires as most of his neighboring tracks where running.

“It will save drivers money in the long run and maybe bring a few more traveling cars to our bigger shows” said promoter Jim Leasure.

Another change is when a "traveler" or a non-regular comes to Spartan Speedway they won't be required to pay the registration fee. This year Spartan Speedway has increased the payout to the drivers.

“We know the economy is tight, raising the payout was the right thing to do for the drivers”

Like most race teams and/or race tracks Spartan Speedway is struggling with sponsors and advertisers. Jim said "we are down 25% from last year".

Jim Leasure believes the real competition is the Internet, satellite TV, at home entertainment options.  People just stay home more.

The highlight from 2008 for Spartan Speedway was the Poor Paul Harvest 300. Spartan Speedway had a huge car count (over 130 cars) and a nice fan turn out as well.

This years final race is going to be called "Poor Paul's 275". Jim decided to change the name from the Harvest to "Poor Paul's 275" to honor Paul Zimmerman who has owned Spartan Speedway since 1977.

Spartan Speedway is a well rounded facility with a 1/4 mile track. Jim takes pride at keeping the track clean for the guests. Jim doesn't have a favorite driver, but he enjoys the relationships has has with all the drivers at Spartan Speedway.

Jim stated that Spartan Speedway has adjusted for the current economic times with the fans. Jim says that Spartan Speedway has some of the best food for a racetrack and now you can bring you choice of beverage or purchase it at the track.

Jim prides himself and Spartan Speedway with clean, safe environment for the fans with wonderful racing sometimes even 5 wide! Spartan Speedway won't disappoint you, it has some of the greatest racing around.