Jason Blonde has fun, cruises to Auto Value Super Sprints victory at Berlin Raceway

Jason Blonde has fun, cruises to Auto Value Super Sprints victory at Berlin Raceway

By Steve Ungrey | The Grand Rapids Press

MARNE -- On Saturday night, Blonde had more fun.

Jason Blonde has won four Auto Value Super Sprints season championships, but hadn’t yet reached Victory Lane this season. That changed Saturday at Berlin Raceway, when the Litchfield native passed his competition seven laps into the 30-lap feature and cruised to the checkered flag.

"It’s the first win for the year and I’ve been doing this for at least a decade," Blonde said. "Racing in a different car made the difference. We couldn’t get the other car to work too well and I just switched to the new vehicle last week. We drove the car a bit last weekend and then we decided to put it on the track. It was my first time driving a race in this vehicle and everything worked out great."

The AVSS vehicles, which are distinctive because of their winged back ends, raced in the final of six features to cap Berlin Fair weekend.

Two laps into the feature, Aaron Pierce, Jeff Bloom and JoJo Helberg were battling for the lead, soon to be joined by Derek Snyder.

Six laps in, Aaron Pierce led Blonde, Helberg and Bloom, but on the restart after a caution flag, Blonde zoomed into the lead and didn’t relinquish it the rest of the way.

"Something in my last car wasn’t quite right. The frame might have been off a bit," Blonde said. "I gotta thank the crew for sticking with me throughout this."

With a wild celebration at the end that included Blonde’s family and crew, Blonde zoomed into victory lane and zoomed out a winner.

"I just love coming to the track because we have such good racing here," Blonde said. "We had ourselves a good event. I was worried in the last few laps because I thought I’d burned off my tires a bit. I ended up going three-wide on this track and I felt comfortable doing it."

Blonde’s return to the top spot was a first-time victory on a night full of repeat winners.

Tim DeVos cruised to his second Late Model victory by winning the 60-lap feature, while Dave Lake captured the 30-lap Modified for his third win of the season.

Brandon Hermiller, one of the top Pro Stock drivers this season, took his sixth victory of the year in the division when he captured the 25-lap race.

BERLIN RACEWAY
This week’s winners: Lou Caposey (VROA), Brandon Hermiller (Pro Stock), Dave Lake (Modifieds), Andrew Nylaan (Super Stock), Tim DeVos (Late Model), Jason Blonde (Auto Value Super Sprints)

Close but not quite: Samantha Jansen started from the 12th position in the Vintage Racing Organization of America event and made her way up to the second spot, but she tangled up in a crash with Don Deyman just before the checkered flag and couldn’t complete the 12-to-1 leap. Instead, Lou Caposey hung on for the checkered flag.

Over the top: It was bad enough that Kelsey Steele spun out in the fourth turn during the Super Stock feature, but Brian VanZalen ran into and actually went over the top of Steele’s vehicle. Both drivers were fine. It was one of two red-flag incidents during a nearly 40-minute feature won by Andrew Nylaan.

Next week: Late Models, Super Stocks, Modifieds, Pro Stocks and 4-Cylinder cars will race Saturday as part of Berlin’s 61st anniversary celebration. Tickets are $10 and kids are free.