Bray, Grega, Jewett and Wiersma take home trophies

Tillema and VanAllsburg claim championships

Marne, MI—Berlin Raceway played host to Dirt Late Models and also crowned two champions on a special Friday Night Race.  It was exciting to watch the Dirt Late Models take laps on the famed half-mile track and they put on an exciting show; the crowd was treated to some great racing in all divisions. Taking home checkers were Bill Bray, John Grega, Weston Jewett and Brian Wiersma.  Brian Tillema was named the 2009 Kerkstra Services Pro Stock Champion and Ray VanAllsburg was named the 2009 Engine Pro Super Stock Champion.

The Dirt Late Models started the show with the first of two 25-lap features, the #23 Ryan Vanderveen and #94 Bill Bray lead the field to the green flag.  Bray took the lead from Vanderveen on lap 2 and by lap 4, he was lapping cars.   While Bray was checking out and the battle was on for second with Vanderveen, #87 Rich Neiser and #71 John Grega.  Neiser and Grega both skated past and the rolled single-file, then caught the leader going in to turn 3.  Grega was working on Neiser for second and with one lap to go, he took the position, but there wasn’t enough time to catch the leader.  Bray took the win and behind him by .329 seconds was Grega and then Neiser, Vanderveen, #20 Kenny Wilson, #3 Scott Wendell, #21 Bob Hammer and #79 Butch Strait. 

The Kersktra Services Pro Stock 25-lap feature was next with #51 Weston Jewett and #50 Justin Regnerus on the front row.  The race within the race saw #76 Brian Tillema leading Regnerus by 44 points going in to the race.  Once the green flag fell, the leaders raced side by side, but by lap 2 Regnerus grabbed the lead and the top two rode single file.  Just behind them, the battle for 3rd was heating up with #7 Kevin DeGood, #76 Brian Tillema and #36 Ken Smith, Jr.  DeGood and Tillema cleared Smith and while they were battling for position, Jewett was gaining on Regnerus with Tillema catching up.  The first caution of the night came on lap 9 when #X Matt VanHorssen spun on the frontstretch.   On the restart, Regnerus choose the inside, got a good start and the top ten settled in to single-file formation until the second caution came out on lap 16.  VanHorssen spun again, this time going in to turn 3.  Lap 20 saw a change for the lead with Jewett getting past Regnerus as the third caution came out; DeGood spun in turn 2 and Smith went off of the backstretch.  Regnerus was back on Jewett for the lead, but another caution came out, this time for the #78 of Will Olmsted spinning in turn 3.  The raced ended with a green-white-checker and the top three broke away from the field.  Tillema was trying to make it happen on the outside coming to the checker, but Jewett slammed the door to protect his lead and claimed his third win of the season.  Following him were Regnerus, Tillema, #40 Dave Cutler, #88 Tony Davis, #20 Dave Hull, #89 Kirk Meissner, #00 Dennis Mann, #26 Brian Thome and #97.9 Ryan Schnabel.  While Regnerus finished in front of Tillema in the feature, it wasn’t enough to get the Championship; Tillema claimed yet another Championship, this time by just 35 points!

The Dirt Late Models came back to put on another crowd-pleasing show and for this feature, Strait and Hammer started on the front row.  Hammer and Neiser took off and by lap 4, Neiser was the leader and started to pull away.  Grega was all over Hammer for second while Neiser was coming up the back of the field and then blew past them on lap 10.  By half-way, Neiser had a three-second lead, but Grega was slowing chipping away at his lead since Neiser was in heavy traffic.  With two laps to go, Grega took the lead, cleared the traffic and got the win.  Neiser, Bray, Hammer, Vanderveen, Strait, Wendell and Wilson rounded out the field.

The Engine Pro Super Stocks took the track for the last time in 2009, #1 Brian Wiersma and #5 Ray VanAllsburg brought the field to the stripe.  Going into this race, VanAllsburg was the poing leader by just 2 points over #26 Chris Muyskens and just 9 points over #77 Andrew Nylaan.  Whoever of those three crossed the line first was going to be the Champion.  VanAllsburg was quick to grab the lead, but Wiersma was not letting him get far away.  It also didn’t take long for caution to fly, lap 4 saw tire problems with both #15 Mat McClarren and #11 Nick Bonstell.  VanAllsburg continued to lead after the restart and the top four ran nose-to-tail.  On lap 10, VanAllsburg and Wiersma were side by side for the lead, Nylaan and #18 Denny Anderson were side-by-side for third and Muyskens and #55 Dave Lake were side-by-side for 5th.  On lap 13, Wiersma took the lead, but VanAllsburg was hanging in there on the inside and took the lead back on lap 17.  Meanwhile, Muyskens shook off Lake and joined Nylaan and Anderson’s battle for 3rd and the leaders continued to run side by side.  With 10 laps to go, Nylaan cleared Anderson and with five laps to go, he has caught the leaders, but only made it to VanAllsburg’s rear quarter-panel.  Wiersma held them both off to get his third win of the season.  VanAllsburg, Nylaan, Anderson, Muyskens, Lake, #51 Justin Ryan, #12 Josh Slade, #15 Garison Jewett and #8 Billy Eppink rounded out the top ten.  VanAllsburg won the Championship by just 15 points over Nylaan and 16 points over Muyskens!

The action doesn’t stop at Berlin Raceway as more champions will be crowned tomorrow, September 26!  The Auto Value Super Sprints, Wolverine Outlaw Midgets and Coors Light Late Models will all end their seasons and the Young Guns will also be racing.  Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for kids 6-12 and five and under are free; the first race will start at 6 p.m.  For more information, please visit www.berlinraceway.com.

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