All Faiths Night Sees Caution-Filled Event
Bursley, Anderson, Tillema and VanZalen avoid crashes to win
April 28, 2007
MARNE, MI— A caution and red flag-filled night stole the show for the second week in a row at Berlin Raceway. Once again, three out of the four divisions saw cautions before the first lap was completed. Mike Bursley rebounded from a disappointing first race to win the Super Stock feature, Lee Anderson took home the trophy for Late Models, Brian Tillema claimed the checkers in Pro Stock and Brain VanZalen dominated the Sportsman series.
For the 800-plus fans in attendance as part of church groups for All Faiths Night, the highly anticipated third annual Faster Pastor race was their main event. The races got under way at sunset and the five lap shootouts resulted in a last lap pass by the #17 car of Jeff Nestel from Norton Shores Gospel Tabernacle on the #81 for the win. The second Faster Pastor feature saw a spread out race and the #81 of Phil Nirkerk from the Ada Bible Church easily took the win. The rest of the churches that provided pastors for the Faster Pastor races were: Ron Amos-New Heart Community Church, Paul Davis-Calvary Baptist Church, Todd Krygsheld-Ebenezer Reformed Church, Andy Geelhoed-Ideal Park CRC, Paul Ruzinsky-Resurrection Life Church in Newago, Bruce Vaandrager-Ada Christian Reformed Church, Sam Rijfkogel-Grand Rapids First Assembly of God, and John Aasman-Keystone Community Church.
The Engine Pro Super Stock 30 lap race was the first feature of the night and that saw the #X of Ray Clay and the #15 of Pete Ruttan leading the field to green. Clay took off out of the gate with the lead while Ruttan was under attack from #27 Bill Shotko. Shotko passed Ruttan on the first lap. The #23 of Mike Bursley and #1 of Brian Wiersma were on the move early; they caught the second place machine of Ruttan on lap 10. Lap 10 also saw the first caution of the night when Shotko, Ruttan, Bursley and Wiersma were racing hard and Shotko ended up spinning in turn three. Back to green flag racing, Bursley and Wiersma got great restarts and took off after the leader, Clay. Clay was passed by Bursley on lap 15 and fell into the clutches of Wiersma. While Bursley was passing Clay, Wiersma was passing Ruttan and that battle gave Bursley a chance to check out. Wiersma and Clay were in a heated battle until a red flag was displayed for a medical emergency in the pits. Once the green flag was out, Bursley drove away again while Clay and Wiersma continued their fight for 2nd. Lap 25 saw a spirited battle between #77 Andrew Nylaan, #71 Kyle Ballard and #10 Bob Spencer and between #88 Tom Stricklen and #5 Ray VanAllsburg. On lap 27, Clay was passed by Wiersma for second, but there wasn’t enough time for him to catch Bursley. Bursley, rebounding from a disappointing first race, went on to win and the rest of the top ten were Wiersma, Clay, Ruttan, #88 Tim Sweeney, #5 Ray VanAllsburg, #71 Kyle Ballard, #77 Andrew Nylaan, #10 Bob Spencer, and #13 James Haney.
The Coors Light Late Model race stated much like it did last week, but this time, there were 2 cautions before the first lap was even complete. The first caution saw the #9 of Mike Root get together with the #30 of Brian Clay; according to reports from the radio broadcast, Clay drifted up into Root. The second caution came on the restart when the #47 of Fred Campbell reportedly lost a tire and 4 car wreck ensued, collecting #11 Leroy Magoon, #15 Brian Maxim and #32 Ross Meeuwsen. Once they took the green flag, though, they yellow wasn’t displayed again. The #12 of Tim DeVos jumped out to an early lead, leaving #18 Lee Anderson in 2nd. On Lap 4, the #00 of Andy Ponstein, #33 Dave Stehouwer, #21 Terry VanHaitsma and #82 Tom Thomas were in a tight race for 3rd while Anderson caught DeVos and they raced side by side until DeVos was passed by Anderson on lap 7. VanHaitsma, chasing his first win, passed Stehouwer for 3rd on lap 10 with T. Thomas following in his tire tracks. Close racing for 2nd place between DeVos, VanHaitsma and T. Thomas allowed Anderson to drive away from the field. A battle on lap 13 had VanHaitsma reeling in DeVos with T. Thomas in tow. Leader Anderson began lapping cars on lap 24. Later, on lap 32, VanHaitsma pass DeVos for 2nd. Lee Anderson won the Coors Light Late Model Feature by 2.573 seconds over Terry VanHaitsma. The rest of the top ten were T. Thomas, DeVos, #27 Billy Shotko, #32 Ross Meeuwsen, #101 Joe Bush, #8 Dakota Carlson, #66 Tim Yonker and #28 Scott Thomas.
The De-Jay Slick Truck Pro Stock race was next and they followed suit with the Coors Light Late Models by wrecking on the first lap. The #50 of Justin Regnerus got in the wall, leaving #11 Nick Bonstell, #3 Travis Nylaan, #61 Jack DeJong, #80 Jason Hoogerhyde and #15 Weston Jewett with no place to go. After a red flag, last week’s winner#76 Brian Tillema, got out to an early lead. Passing for position began on lap 2 when #24 Lee VanDyk and #52 Bruce Chase passed #20 Dave Hull for 2nd and 3rd, they then began reeling in the leader, Tillema. By lap 15, the top three were spread out and 5 laps later, Tillema lead all of the laps and claimed the checkered flag with VanDyk, #7 Kevin DeGood, #52 Bruce Chase, #20 Dave Hull, #2 Shawn Simon, #15 Scott Root, #51 Weston Jewett, #97.9 Ryan Schnabel and #36 Ken Smith, Jr. behind him.
The finale of the night, the Instant Cash Advance Sportsman division, started with as much drama as the previous two feature races. The caution flag was once again displayed before all of the cars had a chance to get up to speed to start the race. This caution crash involved #9 Jeff Sterken, #15 Garison Jewett, #48 Brandon Wright, #00 Dennis Mann and #20J George Munniksma. After the cleanup, #22 Ken Roelofs and #88 Tony Davis lead the field to green. The #44 of Brian VanZalen got an excellent start, coming from 3rd to lead the first lap. VanZalen pulled away early, leaving Roelofs, #59 John Evans and #40 Dave Cutler to sort it out for 2nd. The second and final caution of the night came on lap 9 when Brandon Wright spun on the frontstretch in a single-car incident. After the restart, VanZalen checked out again and won the Instant Cash Advance Sportsman feature by 2.392 seconds over Evans. The rest of the top ten were #97 Andy Stormzand, #22 Ken Roelofs, #40 Dave Cutler, #57 Allan Troup, #88 Tony Davis, #67 Mike Welch, #33 Allen Davis and #64 Brad DeJong.
Berlin Raceway is back in action next Saturday night for the Super Stock Spectacular, with a 75-lap Engine Pro Super Stock feature headlining the program. The Pro Stock and Sportsman divisions will also be in action. It’s also Reading Club Night, which means the return of the fan favorite School Bus Races! Tickets are $12 for adult general admission, $6 for kids 6 to 12 and free for kids 5 and under. Pit passes for those 16 and over are $25. Gates open at 12:15 p.m. and the first race begins at 7 p.m.
Complete race results and point standings will be available online Monday April 30 at www.berlinraceway.com/results.shtml.
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