July 14 , 2007

Lake gets first win of season

Stormzand, Chase and DeVos also see Victory Lane

Marne, MI-- An exciting night of racing took place at Berlin Raceway on a night honoring fallen driver Lee Anderson. The evening started out with a moment of silence and the unveiling of a green #18 on the turn 3 wall. There was also a Perfect Circle formation on the frontstretch in memory of Anderson who passed away on Saturday, July 7 in a boating accident.

After the pre-race tributes, the Instant Cash Advance Sportsman division got the evening started with #15 Garison Jewett and #57 Alan Troup on the front row. The race started out very mellow with single file racing, but the action started early when leader Jewett spun after contact with #44 Brian VanZalen; Troup was also involved. With Jewett and Troup out of the race, VanZalen inherited the lead and on the restart, the cars were back to single-file racing. The #33 car of Allen Davis caught VanZalen and was stalking him for the lead, but point leader #97 Andy Stormzand was close behind. At one point, Davis had pulled even with VanZalen, but he couldn't complete the pass. With one lap left in the race, VanZalen, Davis and Stormzand went three-wide off of turn four; Stormzand made the pass for the win on the outside, Davis passed VanZalen on the inside and VanZalen had to settle for 3rd. The rest of the top ten were #40 Dave Cutler, #81 Marc Coleman, #59 John Evans, #6 Terry Bockheim, #20J George Munniksma, #38 Maurice Davis and #88 Tony Davis.

In the De-Jay Slick Truck Pro Stock division, #30 Zach Dunson and #7 Kevin DeGood lead the field to the green flag and the caution was out before a lap was complete for debris. Once it was cleaned up, the field ran around the track side by side. DeGood took the early lead and point leader #24 Lee VanDyk was on the move, going from 6th to 2nd in 7 laps. The field split into three different packs, all racing hard for position. DeGood, VanDyk and #20 Dave Hull made things exciting when they went 3-wide going in to turn three; Hull and VanDyk split DeGood and they ran side by side for three laps until VanDyk made the pass and drove away from the field. The #52 machine of Bruce Chase wasn't going to let VanDyk get away so quickly and with three laps to go, Chase passed VanDyk for the lead and went on to win his third race of the season. VanDyk, #76 Brian Tillema, Hull, #15 Scott Root, DeGood, #76 Ryan Gruppen, #3 Travis Nylaan, #86 Ray Melinn and #23 Andrew MacIntosh finished in the top ten.

The Engine Pro Super Stock division was up next and this division had some trouble getting the first lap complete. Caution was out before the field took the green flag; #76 Warren Speet, #15 Pete Ruttan, #4 Joel Baker, #33 Jerry Groeneveld and #88 Tim Sweeney were all involved. Trying to get restarted, caution came out again for spin on the backstretch with #27 Bill Shotko, Sr, #13 James Haney, #F1 Randy Veldman and #15 Mat McClarren caught up in the fray. On the third attempt to get the race started, #X Ray Clay spun off of turn two and caution was out again. When the race finally got underway, #55 Dave Lake showed his strength early on; the race seemed to be for second place. The #5 car of Ray VanAllsburg and #71 Kyle Ballard were racing side-by-side for 8 laps and that let #1 Brian Wiersma catch up and join their battle for 2nd. The race was moving along smoothly until the caution flew again for the spinning car #10 Bob Spencer. On the restart, Lake was able to check out because of the side-by-side battles behind him. VanAllsburg and Wiersma were battling for 2nd and #23 Mike Bursley was challenging Ballard for 3rd. Lake went on to win his first race of the season and celebrated by climbing the fence in turn four. VanAllsburg, Wiersma, Bursley, Ballard, Shotko, Nylaan, Ruttan, #8 Billy Eppink and #10 Bob Bliss rounded out the top ten.

The Coors Light Late Model division took the track next and it started by honoring Lee Anderson. The cars took the grid in “missing man” formation, leaving the pole position open. Anderson’s #18 car also paced the field in a fitting tribute. The race started with single-file racing, #77 Brian Campbell leading the way. The cars of #101 Joe Bush and #12 Tim DeVos were on the move early, steadily making their way though the field. By lap 14, Campbell had started to put cars a lap down. The race's fast pace was halted by a caution flag on lap 37; the field became spread out and the caution bunched everyone back up. On the restart, Campbell drove away from the field while #32 Ross Meeuwsen was challenging #30 Bryan Clay for 2nd. The #82 machine of Tom Thomas showed some muscle after the restart, passing #21 Terry VanHaitsma for 4th on lap 41, getting by Meeuwsen for 3rd on lap 43 and then he took off after the top two. Clay was reeling in Campbell for the lead when Thomas caught and passed him. Thomas then set his sights on Campbell, but a caution stopped his progress. On the restart, Campbell and Thomas were battling for the lead and VanHaitsma and Clay were racing for 2nd. On lap 52, Thomas passed Campbell for the lead. After the scheduled 5 minute break on lap 60, Thomas began to drive away from the field, but caution came out again; #33 Monte Tolan went off of the backstretch. DeVos had his car working good all night long; he passed Campbell for 2nd on lap 63 and then he tried to reel in the leader. Lapped traffic was working in DeVos’ favor, the slower cars allowed DeVos to catch up to Thomas. The final caution flag of the night flew on lap 104 and during the caution laps, Thomas brought his car to the pits; he had a left rear tire going down. This gave the lead to DeVos who drove away from the field on the restart; DeVos went on to win his second race of the season and the rest of the top ten were Meeuwsen, B. Campbell, #47 Fred Campbell, #101 Joe Bush, #1 Randy Sweet, #28 Scott Thomas, T. Thomas, #21 Terry VanHaitsma and #55 Chris Anthony.

Up next at Berlin Raceway is the 152nd Berlin Fair; fans can enjoy motorsports action at the track next week during the Berlin Fair. On Tuesday, July 17, the Demolition Derby presented by Budweiser invades Berlin (tickets $10 adults, $5 kids) and the popular 4-Cylinder class will race; then on Wednesday, July 18, don't miss the WMOR Demo Scramble presented by CARSTAR (ticket $10 adults, $5 kids). TMS Fight Night- Cage Fighting presented by Budweiser is Thursday, July 19 (tickets $20 grandstand, $25 ringside). Friday, July 20 is Bus Mania (including School Bus Racing, Train Races, Spectator Drags and Trash Can Bowling) presented by Coors Light (tickets $8 adults, $4 kids). A 4-in-1 show rounds out the week on Saturday, July 21 (tickets $9). REMINDER: Grandstand Admission is in addition to $3 gate admission and coolers will not be allowed in the grandstand Tuesday-Friday. All grandstand events begin at 7 p.m.

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