June 23, 2007

A. Davis, Bursley, Schaffer and DeVos victorious in wild night at Berlin Raceway

Marne, MI-- Berlin Raceway was a wild roller-coaster ride Saturday night; caution flags and big accidents were the theme of the evening.  Three of the four divisions saw new faces in victory lane and a horrible crash in the Coors Light Late Model feature stole the show.

The Instant Cash Advance Sportsman division took the track first.  Earlier in the day Dave Cutler put up the quickest time in qualifying, it was his first quick time in 30 years!  After the inversion, #9 Jeff Sterken and #20J George Munniskma lead the field to the green flag. Sterken took the lead early, Munniskma was falling back, and #33 Allen Davis and #97 Andy Stormzand were on their way to the front, taking over the lead on lap 2.  After an early caution for a wreck involving #48 Brandon Wright and #6 Terry Bockheim on the front stretch, the rest of the race went caution-free.  The lap 4 restart saw Davis making the pass on Sterken with Stormzand in tow.  The #15 car of Garison Jewett was on the move early, making the pass on Munniskma for 4th on lap 6 and then passing Sterken for 3rd on lap 12.  Meanwhile, Davis had a comfortable lead over point leader Stormzand.  Davis cruised to his first victory of the season and the rest of the top ten were Stormzand, Jewett, Sterken, #57 Allan Troup, #00 Dennis Mann, #40 Dave Cutler, #59 John Evans, #81 Marc Coleman and #61 Brad DeJong.

Up next were the cars of the Engine Pro Super Stock division; #5 Ray VanAllsburg and #15 Pete Ruttan were on the front row in a caution-filled race.  VanAllsburg jumped out to the lead and #23 Mike Bursley was on the move.  The first caution came out for the spinning car of #12 Josh Slade; he backed his car into the turn 1 wall. After the single-file restart, Bursley was putting pressure on #X Ray Clay for 4th when caution came out.  On the restart, VanAllsburg got away and the rest of the field rode nose-to-tail; the first battle for position was once again between Bursley and Clay.  Caution came out again when #71 Kyle Ballard and #27 Bill Shotko went off of the backstreth; Ballard was able to drive out and rejoin the field, but Shotko wasn't as fortunate.  More cautions came out on the restarts with one resulting in a red flag for fluid clean up from a big wreck off of the backstretch involving #9 Greg Wing, #F1 Randy Veldman, #78 Tony Staffen and #13 James Haney.  The restart was clean and the field was back to racing until caution came out again on lap 17 for #8 Billy Eppink spinning on the frontstretch.  On the restart, Bursley wasted no time and immediately went after Ruttan for 2nd, making the pass on lap 22.  Side by side racing was happening for 1st between VanAllsburg and Bursley and for 2nd between Clay and Ruttan.  Their great racing was stopped by another caution; #123 Chris Koslek spun coming out of turn 4, #66 Nate Walton spun to avoid Koslek and #10 Bob Spencer had no place to go.  With 5 laps to go Bursley and Clay got great restarts and picked up where they left off, Bursley battling VanAllsburg and Clay battling Ruttan.  Bursley made the pass on leader VanAllsburg on lap 27 for his 3rd win of the season; VanAllsburg, Ruttan, Clay, #55 Dave Lake, #77 Andrew Nylaan, #123 Chris Koslek, #1 Brian Wiersma, #6 Bob Bliss and #F1 Randy Veldman rounded out the top ten.

The Coors Light Late Model division were set to take the track next, but after a horrific accident on the first lap that saw #27 Billy Shotko go airborne and #33 Dave Stehouwer's car in the driver's compartment of #66 Tim Yonker's machine, the feature was postponed until after the Short Track Truck Race.  Also involved in the first-lap crash were #82 Tom Thomas, #21 Terry VanHaitsma, #15 Biran Maxim, #30 Bryan Clay, #47 Fred Campbell, #55 Chris Anthony, #6 Dave Zagaiski, #12 Tim DeVos and #8 Dakota Carlson.  Everyone involved in the crash made it out of their cars and were reported as OK.

The Short Track Trucks traveling series returned to Berlin Raceway and they took the track earlier than anticipated, allowing the Late Model drivers to try to repair their machines for their feature. The #11 truck of Keith Wioncek and #01 Natascha Thompson were on the front row and Wioncek had no problem leading the race.  Back in the field, #33 Paul Schaffer and point leader #7 Justin Claucherty were on the move, making their way to the front and passing for the top two positions on lap 10.  After an early caution for #15 Gerard Ramos spinning on the frontstretch, the rest of the race saw Schaffer pull off a dominating win over Claucherty who had won all of the Short Track Truck races this year.  The rest of the top ten were Thompson, #82 Chad Lenter, #52 Jim Idema, #59 Darrin Lane, Wioncek, #81 John Smalley, #23 Josh Leo and #50 Jeff Walcott.

The Coors Light Late Models returned to the track to finish the race that had been abbreviated by track officials; running 30 of the 50 scheduled laps.  The cars that made it back out for the feature were #57 Alan Marcott, #12 Tim DeVos, #28 Scott Thomas, #15 Brian Maxim, #82 Tom Thomas, #55 Chris Anthony, #11 Leroy Magoon, #8 Dakota Carlson, #25 Dave Hart, and #21 Terry VanHaitsma.  With one lap completed during the first attempt at the feature, Marcott lead the field to the start on lap 2, but there was no stopping DeVos. After he put up the fasted qualifying position in Coors Light Late Model qualifying earlier in the day, he took the lead on lap 3, he checked out and cruised to his first victory of the season.  The rest of the top ten were Marcott, S. Thomas, Anthony, T. Thomas, Carlson, Magoon, Hart, Maxim and VanHaitsma.

Berlin Raceway is back in action next Saturday, June 30, for a huge 5-in-1 show including the lightning-quick Auto Value Super Sprints presented by Auto Value, plus all four local divisions. A special post-race fireworks show will conclude the evening. Tickets are $16 for adult general admission; half price 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.

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