Devos Wins "The Chet" at Berlin

Rockford's Tim DeVos holds off Johnny Benson Jr. to win The Chet at Berlin Raceway

Steve Kaminski
The Grand Rapids Press

MARNE -- Tim DeVos had Johnny Benson Jr. digging underneath him and Ross Meeuwsen trying to power around him during the waning laps of The Chet on Friday night at Berlin Raceway.

The veteran Late Model stock car driver from Rockford found relief in front of him, though.

DeVos slipped in and out of lapped traffic during the final laps and escaped with the victory in the 125-lap race. DeVos beat Benson by 0.544 seconds, followed by Meeuwsen and Chris Anthony, and won The Chet for the second time and first since 2005.

DeVos, Benson and Meeuwsen saved their tires during the first half of the race before making their moves. Benson took the lead from Anthony on lap 73 before DeVos motored around Benson on lap 84. DeVos led the rest of the way but couldn't pull away from Benson. Meeuwsen came up to challenge both of them.

"Holy crap, Johnny did make it easy on me," DeVos said. "At the end, I was glad to see that pack. As long as I could see that pack, there was no way anyone was going three-deep high or low, not as slippery and bad as those cars are at that point. I was happy to see all the lapped traffic. I just about slammed into a couple of them. It got pretty dicey at the end."

Berlin's doubleheader weekend concludes with Saturday's ARCA Berlin 200, with action beginning at 7 p.m. The program will include the track's Pro Stock division. The ARCA race will be broadcast on WJRW (1340 AM), with coverage beginning at 8 p.m.

Tim DeVos
The Chet is held each August in honor of Berlin founder Chester Mysliwiec, who operated the track from 1951 until his death in 1999.

Benson, the 2008 NASCAR Camping World Truck champion, set fast time Friday. The Grand Rapids native said he just didn't have enough at the end to overtake DeVos.

"It was fun, but I just couldn't do anything with him," Benson said. "I would have rather had stayed ahead of him, but he came by pretty quick. Tim's car was just a little bit better. He was loose, we looked tight, and then we were both burning the tires down at the end.

"It made for a great race. Hopefully, the fans enjoyed it. I was trying to watch the laps up on the board, and then we started getting in lapped traffic. I knew I was in trouble. I was being a little conservative and then try to give him a shot the last couple of laps, but right at that point and time, we came up on some lapped traffic. That put a damper on it, but it was a great race. Tim ran a great race, and I thought we did. It's cool to run with Tim."

Kyle Hamm won Friday's 4 Cylinder A feature, and Jared Lyzenga captured the 4 Cylinder B main.

Jimmie Johnson plugs local charity
Four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson announced Friday in Watkins Glen, N.Y., that his race helmet will highlight the Racingawareness.com Foundation, which has been created by a group of area car owners that fields a Modified at Berlin Raceway.

The Modified raises funds for the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital.

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The Jimmie Johnson foundation also is donating $10,000 to Racingawareness.com, and Johnson will have the foundation's name on his helmet for the next six Cup races.

Racingawareness.com donated a check of $10,000 the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital earlier this season.