Adam Hinch Daily Press Sportsman Micro Sprints driver Griffin Iverson sits with his car at Escanaba Speedways Car Show.

ESCANABA — The Escanaba Speedway will enter its inaugural season after many years operating as the Upper Peninsula International Raceway (UPIR). The speedway was renamed to pay tribute for the town that has supported the track going back to the 1960s.

The Escanaba Speedway races seven classes on race nights, the Youth Micro Sprints, Sportsman Micro Sprints, 600cc Sprints, Vintage Modifieds, Super Vintage Modifieds and Street Stocks, Sport Modifieds and Sport Compacts running under the International Motor Content Association (IMCA) sanctioning body.

The Youth Micro Sprints were a very competitive class in 2022 with the top three in the standings separated by nine points. Griffin Iverson was the track champion with 274 points in the class including three feature wins and seven top five finishes in seven races. Bentley Richer was second in points with 266 points and Tanner Rae was third with 265 points.

The Sportsman Micro Sprints top three were separated by 10 points with Carson Artley taking the track championship with 272 points and wining two feature races and picking up seven top five finishes. Tyler Demars was second in points with 263 points and Ethan Manninen was third with 262 points. Demars and Manninen each scored two wins on the season as well in this tough and competitive class.

The 600cc Sprint had its top five in points separated by only 14 points, with Kevin Warm wining the track championship with 259 points despite not having a feature win on the season. Logan Getzloff was second in points with 253, Paul Hosking was third with 249 points, Tony Beauchamp was fourth with 246 points and Dennis Ness finished in fifth place with 245 points.

The Vintage modifieds saw Charles Peterson come away with the track championship with 254 points and tallying two wins and seven top five finishes on the season. David Broeders came in second in points with 248 points and Terry Royer came in third place with 214 points.

There was a five gar race for the street stock title in 2022 with Paul Wagner coming away with the championship with 253 points, second and third place were held by a pair of rookies Brayden Lundquist was second with 253 tied with Wagner who had a win to hold the tie breaker. Brendan Lambert was third with 249 points, Jason Piron was fourth with 248 points and Neil Aaberg was fifth with 243 points.

The Sport Modifieds had a competitive season in 2022 with Lonnie Dalgord taking home the track championship with 250 points, while Billy Bowden came in second with 247 points and Pat Richer came in third with 242 points.

The Sport compacts had a good 2022 season with Trevor Cronick taking the title with 273 points and alson had rookie drivers take second and third place on the season, Garrett Greenfield was second with 262 points and Sam Gould was third with 227 points.

The track saw 23 rookie drivers compete in 2022 which shows that the racing community in the U.P. is growing and should be a super exciting 2023 season at Escanaba Speedway starting on June 4 with the Escanaba Speedway Season Opener presented by RRN. The complete schedule can be found on their Facebook page on online at escanabaspeedway.com