Owosso RFTM Time Management Draws Criticism, Track Management Says They Are Not to Blame

Ovid, MI - On Wednesday, June 3rd, thousands of race fans made their way into Owosso Speedway for the latest spectacle in not only Pavement Racing, but Sprint Car Racing in general, with the Race for the Million 410 Winged Sprint Cars (RFTM). Racing alongside the RFTM were the All-Star National Pavement Midgets. Two divisions, one massive weeknight show. What started out as a promising evening at the race track turned into a near nightmare for the staff and management at Owosso Speedway.

The slowdowns began early in the day when the track was oiled down twice in All-Star Midget qualifying. But, the Speedway seemed to rebound quickly from those incidents, getting RFTM qualifying knocked out rather quickly. In fact, RFTM Heat Races went smoothly as well. It was after that when things really took a downturn.

After the RFTM B-Main was completed, a decision maker somewhere on the property elected to let the track sit dormant for nearly an hour before the RFTM 55-lap main event rolled to the track. As for the timeline, we're not skipping anything for the All-Star Midgets. Their format includes Qualifying and the Feature event.

MARC News understands that officials with the RFTM changed the anticipated schedule of events many times throughout the course of the week, including specifically on race day. According to an official with the race track, RFTM officials elected not to run the All-Star National Pavement Midget feature in between the RFTM B-Main and A-Main.

The long downtime resulted in an over-five-hour program for two divisions of racing, and left many fans criticizing Owosso Speedway for their time management, something they have struggled with locally in the past, but seemed to have under control by the end of last season and the beginning of the 2026 season.

A track official posted at one point on social media last night during the event, defending the race track.

"I assure you, 1,000 percent, this is NOT the racetrack," the post said. "That's all I will say."

At one point, track announcers, Chris Fobbe and Roger Williams led the fans in a chant of "we want racecars". The stunt event garnered national attention, with a post being made about the situation on Johnny Gibson's personal X account.

"When a track has a series come in, lots of things get handled by those series," said an Owosso Speedway official in a post on Facebook Thursday morning. "Usually, there is a very strict schedule that is attempted to be adhered to. We had many meetings. A lot of them. For the last two days, there have been schedule changes unannounced to us, and things dropped and changed that were not the track's doing at all," the post explained.

"On stuff [Owosso Speedway staff] run, I’ll 100% take the blame for our shortcomings," the post continued. "This would be deserved. Just don’t hammer our staff this time or the facility. It’s not an accurate criticism. No one ever sets out to give you a bad experience. How they handle events as things go sometimes leads that way."

The first RFTM event held back in April was also highly scrutinized for their time management at 5 Flags Speedway.

Kody Swanson won the RFTM event Wednesday night at Owosso Speedway and finished third in the All-Star National Pavement Midget Series race, won by Jake Trainor.