Berlin Raceway: May 16th

5/16 Meyerink wins Modified Madness
Smith and DeVos also victorious

Marne, MI— It was All Faiths Night at Berlin Raceway area church groups came out in droves to support their pastors in the highly-anticipated Faster Pastor race. Taking the checkers for their churches were John Klompien (North Street CRC) and Mike Befus (Vineyard Church of North Grand Rapids). Ken Smith, Jr. (Kerkstra Services Pro Stock) celebrated in victory lane for the second time this season, as did Tim DeVos in the Burnips Equipment 4-Cylinder division and Jake Meyerink of the USA Modifieds.

The Burnips Equipment 4-Cylinder B feature was the first of the night; #16 Andrew Conkin and #07 Clayton Brown brought the field to the start/finish line. Conklin was the early leader, however the car to watch was the #T11 of Jim Rhodes. After starting 8th, Rhodes made his way through the field and took the lead from Conklin on lap 4. After taking the lead, Rhodes began lapping cars and stretched his lead out to two seconds at half-way. Rhodes went on the win the B feature by nearly three seconds with the rest of the top five: #20 Tyler Nawrocki, Brown, Conklin and #42 Joe Norder.

The cars of #11 Leroy Magoon and #00 Mike Dutcher were on the front row for the A feature and the duo were single file after the start and starting to break away from the pack. Caution was out on lap 2 when the Brian Sheid’s #5 machine caught fire; he made it out of the car and was fine. On the restart, Magoon got a good jump and Dutcher was off of the pace. The battle to watch was for second between #14 Jason DeVos and #20 Tim DeVos with T. DeVos winning that battle. With three laps to go, Magoon was in heavy traffic and that let T. DeVos catch him, pass him and take the win. The rest of the top ten were Magoon, J. DeVos, #9 Nick Curtis, #6 Ben Kleis, #13 Dan Reimersma, #10 Kyle Hamm, #51 Brad Hastings, #354 Chris McKinley and #100 Jason Scheid.

The Kerkstra Services Pro Stock division hit the track next with #88 Tony Davis and #36 Ken Smith, Jr. on the front row. Smith took off with the lead and immediately checked out from the field and left #20 Dave Hull, #51 Weston Jewett and #50 Justin Regnerus battling for second. Fast qualifier, #76 Brian Tillema, was steadily making his way through the field after taking the green flag in ninth; he cracked the top five at half-way. Smith began lapping cars on lap 14 and the traffic let Jewett catch up to him, Tillema wasn’t far behind. The caution came out on lap 23 for the #33 of Jerry Groeneveld, he spun on the frontstretch and hit the wall. Smith got a great jump on the restart, but caution was out again with one lap to go. The cars of #40 Dave Cutler, #78 William Olmstead and #8 Sadie Klein wrecked in turn 1, bringing out the red flag. With white and green waving at the same time, Smith just had to make one more lap to get his second win of the season and he did just that. Jewett, Tillema, Regnerus, Hull, #76 Ryan Gruppen, #7 Kevin DeGood, #88 Tony Davis, #26 Brian Thome and #97.9 Ryan Schnabel.

The USA Modifieds provided the finale of the evening with #99 Travis Eddy and #99 Mark Flairman leading the field to the green flag. Eddy quickly established himself as the leader and as soon as the race was started, the caution flag was waving for the spinning cars of #212 Brock Coyer and #9 Steve Curry. On the restart, the top two, Eddy and #81 Jake Meyerink broke away from the field, but caution was out again for an incident involving #76 Ryan Gruppen. Eddy and Meyerink were on the gas as soon as the green flag came out and by lap 10, they were ahead of the rest of the field by three seconds. One lap later, the #99 of Steve Foster slapped the frontstretch wall while racing hard for position, but he was able to keep control of his machine. Eddy began to lap cars on lap 16 and while in heavy traffic, he was passed for the lead by Meyerink and just at Eddy was battling back, caution was out on lap 17. ON the restart, Eddy was trying to regain the lead from Meyerink and the field raced clean until caution came out on lap 27 for Foster, he had spun on the frontstretch. Just six laps later, caution was out again because #81 Greg Haines hit the turn 3 wall. On the restart, Eddy was giving it his all on the restart and while he got a nose under Meyerink, he was never able to pass him. Meyerink got the win and the rest of the top ten were Eddy, #99 Mike Brooks, #11 Brian Nester, #7 Scott Tomasik, #28 Scott Coe, #1B Bruce Chase, #10 Bud Perry, Flairman and #61 Brad Springer.

Coming up next Saturday, May 23 is the Budweiser Spring Championships featuring a 75-lap race for the Coors Light Late Models, the Engine Pro Super Stocks, Burnips Equipment 4-Cylinders and the Young Guns. It is also $1 Beer and $1 Hot Dog Night! Tickets are $12 for adults, $5 for kids 6-12 and kids 5 and under are free. Pit passes for those 14 and older are $25 and racing is set to start at 7 p.m.