August 15, 2007

Benson wins “The Chet”
Coleman and Koslek also earn checkers

Marne, MI-- In his first visit to Berlin Raceway this season, Johnny Benson proved that he still knows his way around the historic race track, edging out Billy Shotko to claim victory in the $5,000-to-win "The Chet." In Berlin's other two divisions, Marc Coleman scored his first feature win in the Instant Cash Advance Sportsman division and Chris Koslek notched win number two in the Engine Pro Super Stock division.

With weather threatening, the Coors Light Late Model 100-lap feature kicked the evening off with an action-packed race, #101 Joe Bush and #16 John VanDoorn lead the field to the green flag. #1 Randy Sweet was on the move early, making his way around VanDoorn while Benson made his way around #00 Andy Ponstein. Sweet was stalking Bush for the lead and Benson was lurking in third. Caution was out early, lap 6 saw #33 Dave Stehouwer spinning coming out of turn 2. On the restart, all cars were single file. Bush got a good restart and Benson was steadily catching Sweet. The #37 machine of Terry Senneker was moving up, doing battle with #15 Brian Maxim, #28 Scott Thomas, #27 Billy Shotko and #82 Tom Thomas for the 5th position. Senneker was the first to clear the pack, followed by Shotko. Both were able to catch and pass VanDoorn while Benson passed Sweet for 2nd, setting his sights on leader Bush. On lap 18, caution was displayed again, but that turned into an eight-minute red flag; #21 Terry VanHaitsma spun coming out of 4 collecting #19 Nick Shotko, #77 Brian Campbell, #46 Dave Sensiba, #9 Rick Sexton and #32 Ross Meeuwsen. All were able to rejoin the field on the restart. Lap 22 saw the first pass for the lead when Benson drove past Bush and pulled away. It looked as if no car would be able to catch him, but B. Shotko was working his was to the front, making quick work of Senneker, Sweet and Bush.

Benson began lapping cars on lap 31 and navigating the lapped traffic allow B. Shotko to catch up, shaving time off of Benson’s lead every lap. The lapped traffic was also problematic for Bush and T. Thomas, but a caution on lap 49 bunched the field back up. Benson had a good restart, but B. Shotko wasn’t far behind. Caution was out again on lap 56, S. Thomas had spun coming out of turn 2. The restart let series dominator T. Thomas catch up to 2nd place B. Shotko, but Shotko held his own, managing to pull away from T. Thomas. As the laps were winding down, lapped traffic allowed B. Shotko to inch closer to Benson’s bumper. B. Shotko was able to pull a fender the inside of Benson, but Benson held him off to win “The Chet.” B. Shotko had to settle for second and the rest of the top ten were T. Thomas, Senneker, Bush, Sweet, #57 Alan Marcott, #15 Brian Maxim, S. Thomas and #3 Dave Seabrook.

The Instant Cash Advance Sportsman division took the track next and caution was out before a lap was complete. The #67 car of Mike Welch spun on the backstretch resulting in a complete restart with #11 Tim Stuart and #81 Marc Coleman on the front row. Coleman took the lead right away and left the rest of the field in side-by-side battles. The cars of #33 Allen Davis, #22 Ken Roelofs, #57 Allan Troup, #97 Andy Stormzand, #40 Dave Cutler and #15 Garison Jewett put on a great show for the crowd racing in a tight pack, but their battle let Coleman pull away to get his first-ever feature win at Berlin Raceway. Stuart, #44 Brian VanZalen, Jewett, Stormzand, Troup, Roelofs, A. Davis, Cutler and #00 Dennis man rounded out the top ten.

Providing the finale of the evening was the Engine Pro Super Stock division; #71 Kyle Ballard and #55 Dave Lake started the feature on the front row. Lake, who was injured last Saturday during the Big Rig race, took the lead from Ballard on lap 9 and began to pull away from the field, but caution waving one lap later didn’t let him get far. The caution came out because #5 Ray VanAllsburg spun coming out of turn 4 and that collected the cars of #8 Billy Eppink, #23 Mike Bursley, #15 Pete Ruttan and #1 Brian Wiersma. On the restart, #77 Andrew Nylaan and #123 Chris Koslek were making their way to the front of the field. With two laps to go, Koslek got around Lake for the lead and got his second with of the season. The rest of the top ten were Nylaan, Lake, Ballard, #13 James Haney, #X Ray Clay, #12 Josh Slade, #10 Bob Spencer, #15 Mat McClarren and #66 Nate Walton.

Racing resumes Saturday, August 18, for the Engine Pro Super Stock Spectacular (75 laps) with Pro Stock, Sportsman and School Bus races. Tickets are $12 for adults, half price for kids 6 to 12 and free for kids 5 and under. Pit passes for those 16 and over are $25.

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