Sunday, May 24, 2009

Spring Championship Night at Berlin: May 23rd

Meeuwsen wins on Spring Championship Night
Muyskens, Kleis and Ensing also victorious

Marne, MI-- It was a perfect night for racing at Berlin Raceway and the fans on hand were treated to a thrilling night of racing. Taking home the trophies were Gabe Ensing (Young Guns), Ben Kleis (Burnips Equipment 4-Cylinder), Chris Muyskens (Engine Pro Super Stock) and Ross Meeuwsen (Coors Light Late Model)

Back for the first time since Opening Night, the Young Guns were the first class to take the track with #19 Dalton Haney and #32 Gabe Ensing on the front row. As soon as the green flag dropped, Ensing took off and established a comfortable lead. On lap 7, #16 Kelsey Steele caught Haney, passed him for the second and tried to reel in Ensing. #6 Brandon Hermiller took third from Haney on lap 11 and that’s when the first caution of the night came out; there was debris in turn 4. The caution erased Ensing’s lead and put Steele right on his bumper. Ensing was able to hold Steele off for the remaining four laps and get his first win. Haney took second, Hermiller third and Steele came in fourth after spinning while coming to the checkered flag.

The Engine Pro Super Stocks rolled next with #55 Dave Lake and #44 Brian VanZalen leading the field to green. The cars didn’t make it past the start finish line before caution came out. It appeared that VanZalen got out of shape while taking the green flag and he spun in front of the field. By the time the cars got to turn 1, half of the field was involved in the wreck including VanZalen, #18 Denny Anderson, #13 James Haney, #10 Bob Spencer, #77 Andrew Nylaan, #1 Brian Wiersma, #76 Warren Speet, #F1 Randy Veldman, #12 Josh Slade and #51 Justin Ryan. After a red flag, the race resumed and #8 Billy Eppink grabbed the lead. By lap 7, #26 Chris Muyskens was cutting into his lead and three laps later, he was there. While there was exciting racing throughout the field, the battle to watch was for the lead as Eppink and Muyskens raced five laps side-by-side before Muyskens cleared Eppink. The second caution of the night came out just after the lead change; Eppink was off the pace and went off of the backstretch. Muyskens maintained his lead over the hard charging Anderson and Nylaan to score his first victory of the season. Anderson, Nylaan, #98 Bob Bliss, #15 Mat McClarren, #5 Ray VanAllsburg, Wiersma, Lake, #5 Cal Castle and Slade completed the top ten.

The 75-lap Coors Light Late Model race was next with #55 Chris Anthony and #222 Caleb Bisacky on the front row. The field swiftly went to single-file racing and settled into a groove. Lap 17 saw #28 Scott Thomas passing Bisacky second while Anthony held on to the lead; there was also an exciting pass battle for sixth between #27 Billy Shotko, #32 Ross Meeuwsen and #12 Tim DeVos. By lap 22, Anthony had caught traffic and on lap 30, Bisacky took the lead. The first caution of the night came out for the #19 of Nick Shotko on lap 31. After the restart, Bisacky took off with a huge lead, but it was promptly erased when the caution came out on lap 20. #71 Kyle Ballard and #24 Lee VanDyk made contact on the frontstretch. On the restart, DeVos was pressuring Anthony for second while Bisacky was in the league of his own, stretching his lead to over three seconds. DeVos made it past Anthony for second and even though he cleared the pack, Bisacky’s lead continued to grow. Meeuwsen had made his was to second, passing DeVos on lap 66, and started to chop down Bisacky’s lead. Just as Meeuwsen caught Bisacky, Bisacky was off the pace and that brought out the caution. Meeuwsen inherited the lead and after a series of cautions, the race was restarted. While it looked as if DeVos was going to make a move on Meeuwsen, Meeuwsen held on for the win. The rest of the top ten were DeVos, #101 Joe Bush, Thomas, #71 John Grega, #9 Mike Root, #21 Terry VanHaitsma, #19 Nick Shotko and #1 Barry Hartwell.

The Burnips Equipment 4-Cyliners were next with the A Feature, #81 Mike Reavis and #77 Gerry Shepard brought the field to the green flag. While the cars were jockeying for position, the #6 of Ben Kleis made his way to the point and was putting distance between himself and second place #7 Ryan Hamm. Caution came out on lap 7 when the #14 of Jason DeVos hit the wall coming out of turn 4, thus bringing out the red flag for clean-up. Once the race was restarted, Hamm was pressuring Kleis for the lead, but caution came out just three laps later for a three-car incident involving #01 Rob Shoemaker, #26 Chad Wittingen and #51 Brad Hastings. The last five laps went off without a hitch and Kleis went on to get the win. Hamm, #100 Jason Scheid, #9 Nick Curtis, #76 Mike Speet, #354 Chris McKinley, #19 Dave Avink, Shepard, #20 Dan Reimersma and #T11 Jim Rhodes rounded out the top ten. #10 Dave Duyst and #927 Christian Wynbelt started the B feature, but the car to watch was the #42 of Joe Norder. After starting 12th, he took the lead on lap 3. Caution came out on lap 9 for the #64 of Mike Church who went off of the backstretch. There was no catching Norder, he got the win and the rest of the top 5 were #07 Clayton Brown, #13 Craig Snoeyink, #20 Jackson Walker and #20 Tyler Nawrocki.

Up next at Berlin Raceway is the Engine Pro Super Stock Night. The Coors Light Late Models and Super Stocks will both be going 50 laps and the Kerksta Services Pro Stocks will also take the track. It’s Reading Club and Cadet Night and that means that the School Buses races will be back in action! The drivers from the Super Stock division will also have a pre-race autograph session. Tickets are $12 for adults, $5 for kids 6-12; 5 and under are free. Pit passes for those 14 and over are $25 and races start at 7 p.m.

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