Berlin Raceway: May 2nd

Results from Berlin Raceway for Sat 5/2

Marne, MI-- After rain washed away the races last Saturday, the weather cooperated and a great crowd was on hand to witness a thrilling night of racing. Dan Reimersma took the checkers in the Burnips Equipment 4-Cylinder division, Brian Tillema was victorious in the Kerkstra Services Pro Stock and Warren Speet visited Victory Lane after a 75-lap Engine Pro Super Stock race.

The Burnips Equipment 4-Cylinders hit the track for the first time of the season; the B feature started the night of feature racing with #80 Darrell Davis and #51 Mike Johnson on the front row. The #29 of John Norder was quick to battle for the lead, as was #07 Clayton Brown. Brown took the lead by lap 3 and by lap 8, he had a three second lead. With two laps to go, #19 Dave Avink passed Brown and got his first win by .508 seconds. The rest of the top 5 were Brown, #01 Rob Shoemaker, #12 Darrell Holtzlander and #T11 Jim Rhodes. In the A feature, #7 Jake Loesch and #26 Chad Wittingen lead the field to the green flag. Before the field took the green flag, the caution was out because Wittingen hit the wall. Once the field got restarted, #07 Jason Emanouil took the lead with #20 Jason DeVos, #7 Ryan Hamm and #51 Brad Hastings fighting for second. It didn’t take long for Hamm to grab the lead, but he was not able to pull away from the competition. Caution was out again on lap 6, #28 Phil Speet lost a tire and it the wall on the frontstretch. Hamm was able to pull away on the restart it looked as if no one could catch him. However, with two laps to go, the final caution came out bunched the field up. Hamm dropped the ball on the restart and fell back to fourth; #13 Dan Reimersma took the lead and went on to win his first race of the season by .548 seconds. #9 Nick Curtis, DeVos, Hamm, #00 Mike Dutcher, Hastings, #354 Chris McKinley, Emanouil, #024 Cole Roelofs and #77 Gerry Shepard.

The Kerkstra Service Pro Stock division rolled next with #88 Tony Davis and #18 Coleman pacing the field. Davis maintained the lead from the start while the rest of the field was mostly single-file. On lap 8, #51 Weston Jewett took the lead from Davis and the race was moving along quickly until caution on lap 16 for the #76 of Ryan Gruppen. While trying to get the race restarted, caution came out again for the spinning car of #40 Dave Cutler. Jewett encountered problems on the restart, bringing out the caution again and handing the lead to last week’s winner, #36 Ken Smith, Jr. The #76 of Brian Tillema was on his bumper and on lap 22, he took the lead and went on to get his first win of the season. The rest of the top 10 were Smith, Jr., #33 Jerry Groeneveld, #7 Kevin DeGood, #8 Sadie Klein, T. Davis, Jewett, #20 Dave Hull, #33 Allen Davis and #88 Tom Stricklen.

The Engine Pro Super Stock was up next for their 75-lap feature; #10 Bob Spencer was on the pole with #13 James Haney on his outside. The field settled in to a groove and the car to watch was the #18 of Denny Anderson; however on lap 5, Anderson and #11 Nick Bonstell both got into the wall on the frontstretch. The race got back underway, but a caution for #51 Justin Ryan spinning in turn 2 brought out the second caution on lap 9. Spencer kept the lead until lap 23 when Haney pulled to Spencer’s outside and then took the lead on lap 25. The third caution of the night came out on lap 30 after the #26 of Chris Muyskens and #12 Josh Slade hit the turn four wall and #77 Andrew Nylaan was unable to avoid the incident. Once the cars were restarted, they had some great side-by-side racing and on lap 38, #76 Warren Speet started to challenge Haney for the lead. Ten laps later, caution was out for the spinning car of Justin Ryan who lost control on the front stretch and slid through the infield grass. Just one lap later, caution was out again, #44 Brian VanZalen spun on the backstretch and #F1 Randy Veldman wasn’t able to avoid his car. On lap 58, Speet was turning up the heat on Haney and they were side-by-side on lap 62, Speet ready to take the lead when Ryan brought out the sixth caution of the night. On the restart, Speet took the lead and Haney was off of the pace. Once Speet took the lead, no one was able to pass him and he got his first win of the season. #5 Ray VanAllsburg, #98 Bob Bliss, #1 Brian Wiersma, Muyskens, #55 Dave Lake, #66 Nate Walton, #15 Mat McClarren, Slade and #8 Billy Eppink rounded out the top ten.

Up next at Berlin Raceway is back in action next Saturday night for Family Fun Night. The night was feature the Coors Light Late Models, Engine Pro Super Stocks, Burnips Equipment 4-Cylinders and the Young Guns. Tickets are $12 for adults, $5 for kids 6-12 and free for those 5 and under; a ticket combo is also available- $25 for 2 adults and 2 children. Pit passes for those 14 and older are $25 and races start at 6 p.m.