Sandy TenBrink: 1952-2009

Mrs. Sandra K. "Sandy" Tenbrink of Montague

Mrs. Sandy TenBrink, age 57, died Sunday, October 18, 2009, in Ann Arbor. She was born March 18, 1952, in Muskegon, to Harley and Norma (Carmean) Garvey. On March 25, 1972, in Muskegon, she married Allen TenBrink. Sandy had worked as a cook at Montague Public Schools for 25 years. An extremely loving wife, mother and grandmother, Sandy loved spending time being silly with her grandkids, loved racing, and loved helping others. She was preceded in death by her father, Harley Garvey, her in-laws, Gradus and Marion TenBrink, a brother-in-law, Dennis Patterson and a sister-in-law, Eugena Garvey.

FAMILY: Her husband, Allen; a son, Al TenBrink of Muskegon; a daughter, Stacey (Scott) Bentz of Rothbury; grandbabies, J-Allen Bentz and Leehah Bentz; her mother, Norma Garvey of Muskegon; 2 sisters, Jeanie (Ronnie) TenBrink and Debbie (Larry) Bisson, both of Muskegon; a brother, Rodney Garvey of Twin Lake; many brother & sister-in-laws, nephews, nieces and friends.

SERVICE: Saturday, October 24, 2009, at 11:00 AM, at Clock Chapel - Whitehall, with the Rev. Bruce Beach officiating.

DONATIONS: TenBrink Family Expense Fund, c/o Clock Funeral Home, Box 128, Whitehall 49461 or University of Michigan Cancer Center, 1500 E. Medical Center Dr., Ann Arbor 48109


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Sandy TenBrink: Benefit

(Information from nephews Paul and Jimmy TenBrink)

A benefit in the honor of Sandy will be held the follwing Friday October 30th from 6:00pm-11:00pm at the VFW in Montague. Please come out to help support the family. There will be with dancing, food, beer, raffles, door prizes and much more. All proceeds will be donated to the TenBrink family in their great time of need. If anyone would like to donate time or gifts it would be most appreciated.

Please contact Paul TenBrink at 231 788-4379

More Complete Details will follow in the near future.

God Speed Sandy TenBrink

(Sandy in the Yellow volunteering her help at Winston Speedway's "Kids Night in 2004")

It comes with great sadness to inform the West Michigan Racing community the passing of Sandy TenBrink after an extended illness. Sandy was an icon to the West Michigan Racing community. Her employment, volunteer efforts and genuine integrity throughout the years with Thunderbird Raceway and Winston Speedway are going to be hard to replace. Sandy always had a kind word and a smile on her face. She exemplified the phrase "Live life to the fullest"

My thoughts and prayers are with her family.

Mark Jalovec

A Link to leave your Condolences can be found HERE

It's Official: Johnny Vandoorn 2009 CRA Champion

Johnny VanDoorn, Jimmy TenBrink and CRA Official (Photos Courtesy of Dirk Redder)

Dirk Redder , former Winston Speedway racers Jimmy Tenbrink, Johnny VanDoorn, Dean Huizenga and Adam Chase

Kyle Busch Wins 38th Annual Winchester 400

Van Doorn and Other CRA Champions Are Also Decided

CRA PR Report
Kyle Busch had chances to win the Winchester 400 on a couple of occasions before, finishing second in 2008, and running for the lead with only a few laps to go a few years before only to have a wheel come off. The 2009 CRA Super Series 2009 Winchester 400 trophy, the coveted Winchester Rifle, went home with him as he raced out to the lead and stayed there. Brian Rievley was second, Terry Fisher, Jr. third, Jason Dietsch fourth and Chuck Barnes, Jr. fifth on Sunday afternoon.

"It's awesome, a great honor to win. I have been trying for this for a few years, and we have now won it." An obviously elated Busch stated. "We had a scare late, but we got it handled. The 17 (Gabehart) was fast and the 67 (Fultz) was fast but we knew it was the car that got to the end with tires left that would win."

Chris Gabehart took the early lead and ran out to a strong lead before Busch started to reel him in and took the lead on the 61st lap. From there Busch only gave up the lead once under green. Gabehart was a strong challenger until hitting debris and damaging a spindle. Jeff Fultz, the only driver to take the lead from Busch under green had his day end when his transmission went out on a restart on lap 288.

Chris Gabehart set a new track record with a time of 14.935 seconds, the first CRA Super Series driver to turn a lap at Winchester Speedway under 15.000 seconds, to win the EDCO Welding Fast Qualifier Award. Johnny VanDoorn bounced back from near disaster with a failed engine in practice to change his engine and set second fast time at 15.106 seconds. Danny Jackson was third, Chuck Barnes, Jr. fourth, and Boris Jurkovic fifth.

Kyle Busch and Jim Crabtree, Jr. took the Hoosier Racing Tire Performance Awards. Robert Maynor earned the Lane Automotive/ISKY Racing Cams Hard Charger Award moving up 21 spots to finish 11th. Jeff Fultz was the Kingen Interstate Express Halfway Leader Award. The K&N Filters Rookie of the Race Award went to Nick Lay as the highest finishing rookie.

Kenny Tweedy received the EMF Corp. “That’s Racing Award” for the hit he took after spinning in a tangle with a lapped car. The Safety Solutions Tough Luck Award went to Danny Jackson. The ARP Bodies Cool Move of the Race Award went to Chuck Barnes, Jr. after he raced the last 300 laps of the race without power steering.

Johnny VanDoorn started the day 42 points ahead of Scott Hantz, always a favorite to run well at Winchester, in the race for the CRA Super Series Season Championship. Hantz dropped out on the 94th lap when he started to slide coming out of turn four and bumped a car he was passing. He spun into the inside front stretch wall and was out of the race on the 94th lap.

VanDoorn was in second place when he came in on a red flag due to falling oil pressure. His crew found an oil line holder had snapped allowing the oil line to fall onto to the header and it had a hole burnt in it. They did not have the hose available, and he was forced to retire, in 23rd place on lap 131, but had enough lead to win the 2009 series Championship for his Kaos Motorsports team.

On Friday and Saturday, VanDoorn was the fastest in practice. Then his engine gave up just as the first practice ended Saturday. His crew with help from a different engine builder and the Hantz team changed the engine on pit road, and he got back out to qualify.

Afterward he said. "I am really upset about today, we had a great car and it was just coming in and we were looking great for the rest of the race. This was a pretty good year. As a new team we made some rookie mistakes, we learned some things that worked and we are getting ready for the future. I cannot thank everybody who helped enough, my sponsors, the crew, Dirk, Butch, Dean, Adam, and anyone else that has laid a hand on the car this year. I also have to say a special thank you to DeWayne and Brett McGunegill they really helped us out yesterday when we had to change an engine."

Tyler Roahrig is the 2009 CRA Super Series K&N Filters Rookie of the Year. “I need to thank several people, my Dad, Grandpa, Jim, Hooven, Andrew and Matt. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I learned a lot this year, it has made me a better racer when I race at home.”

The next event for the CRA Super Series is the Nashville All-American Weekend a 250 lap non-points event at the Fairgrounds Speedway at Nashville, TN on November 1. Practice on Friday, October 30, then practice and qualifying on October 31. The CRA Street Stocks and Howe CRA Late Model Sportsman will have special 50 lap non-points races on Saturday also. On Sunday the CRA Super Series will once again be part of this special weekend in $10,000 to win race.



More event information is available at www.fairgroundsspeedwayatnashville.com. Rules and entry forms and more information for the CRA Divisions are available at www.craracing.net.

VanDoorn See Highs and Lows at Winchester 400

Coopersville's Johnny VanDoorn had a roller coaster weekend. Starting out he was the fastest in practice only to see a motor sour. VanDoorn's team scrambled to replace the motor and were able to qualify second. In the race Vandoorn ruptured an oil line regulating him to a 23rd place finish. VanDoorn's only consolation was his points lead was being challenged by Scott Hantz who was in a wreck on lap 94 and finished in the 26th position. UNOFFICIALLY Johnny VanDoorn is the 2009 CRA Champion!

http://www.craracing.net/

Bringing Out the Checkered Flag on ALS

Bringing Out the Checkered Flag on ALS

Checkered Flag Marketing Partners with the ALS Association Michigan Chapter to Raise Awareness, Funding in the fight against Lou Gehrig’s Disease

The ArenaCar Raffle was converted to a 50/50 drawing with the lucky winner of $793,
Derrick Deitz of Kalamazoo and $793 went to the ALS Association Michigan Chapter. Checkered Flag Marketing and the ALS Association Michigan Chapter would like to thank all of the fans, drivers, and tracks for their support of this event. The racing community has always stepped up and in this case they did as well.
Mike Nipke owner of the ArenaCar said “This event was very exciting and even though we were not able to give someone the opportunity to drive the car for the season the big winners are the unfortunate people that have the disease and the families that watch them suffer.”

The raffle is over, but the fight to find a cure for this disease is not. Checkered Flag Marketing will continue to build awareness and funds to fight this disease. With the help of Wyser Innova-tive Products the ArenaCar will be racing this fall and winter at the Delta Plex and will be car-rying the ALS Association Logo on the hood. Come on out and support Dave Sensiba the driver of the ALS Association, Wyser Innovative Products, Checkered Flag Marketing number 46 ArenaCar. The first race will be held on Oct 17th at the Delta Plex Arena. The races start at 7:30pm and Doors open at 3:30.

Look for another opportunity to drive an ArenaCar Ride for the 2010/11 season. We will begin promoting this ride earlier in the season. The goal for the new promotion will be to get more businesses to support the ride and not setting a minimum tickets sold. This will make it so that one lucky winner will get the opportunity to drive the car.

For more information about ALS or to make a donation visit www.alsa-michigan.org. If you would like to help ALS through motorsports contact Todd Wilfong of Checkered Flag Market-ing to have a marketing program tailored for your business that will help you to build aware-ness, increase traffic, and most of all increase profits. By becoming a Partner in the fight against ALS; Checkered Flag Marketing will give a portion of the Partnership dollars to The ALS As-sociation Michigan Chapter on your behalf.