Loose it, fix it, come back and win, would have made a great story if one of the feature winners, at this week’s Engine Pro Super Stock Night, had done so. However, at Berlin Raceway where skidmarks run wide and sometimes off the back stretch, all three winning teams played the comeback kid. School Bus races right after the heats, a Pro Stock feature shortened due to bone jarring wall crashes, and hungry drivers pushing their car’s limits all night gave the huge crowd, and sold out party decks, their money’s worth.
The good folks at Engine Pro treated some of their customers and vendors, some of which drove from other states, to a turn one party deck, and all fans to an ‘on track’ pre-race autograph session with the Super Stock drivers. Multiple class and defending champion No. 1 Brian Wiersma, made his first trip to the Mountain Dew winners circle this year with a white flag pass of Ray VanAllsburg’s No. 5, after Ray had battled off the No. 98 of Bob Bliss (who placed third) for many laps. “Some new springs were the difference in the car tonight, we keep at it and be ready when the chance comes; tonight was it,” Brian commented at the end of the night.
The fix, for Coors Light Late Model winner No. 222 Caleb Bisacky, was much more complicated. Last week we reported, as was thought by his team at the time, that he led his feature for all but seven laps only to have the transmission quit, opening the door for Ross Meeuwsen. Two transmissions later, and just in time for racing, the car’s drive shaft was found to be the cause. “Took some real time and effort to trouble shoot this one,” Bisacky and his crew chief Josh Barnes said, “we got here tonight and changed the clutch, that made no difference. What we found is that the drive shaft’s carbon fiber yolks are glued together and were a couple of years old; they were slipping while the motor and transmission were spinning.”
Ross Meeuwsen was right on Bisacky’s tail this week, and even led a lap late in the sixty lap feature, while Tom Thomas, Nick Shotko, Joe Bush, and Tim Devos were all working their way up through the pack getting in position to strike. Caleb was not to be denied though, and found grip on the high line during the restart with Meeuwsen to his inside. The fix had worked.
A few weeks back a shorted wire had brought Justin Regnerus’ Kerkstra Pro Stock ride to the pits when the crew, in the course of their troubleshooting, found a cracked rear stabilizer that would have surely put him in the wall hard eventually. They dodged that bullet, to find themselves taking the checkered this week in a feature that had it’s number of laps cut in half due to the length of a couple of red flags. A third lap, turn four, two car wall thud sent Will Olmstead’s No. 78 and the No. 88 of Tom Stricklen to the pits suspended by two wreckers each. Seven laps later, just short of the first accident, seven more went to the showers. Kevin DeGood’s No. 7 was the leader, and Brian Tillema (usually a threat or winner), who came charging through the field might have only needed a few more laps to go from second to first , but the night went to the fixers and Justin’s silver No. 50 had the goods.
Multiple bus races, with many back stretch run-offs brought the fans to their feet over and over. Berlin’s management moved them up in the schedule to accomodate those who would rather not be out until all features are completed. Though few left the stands afterward, it does show the track’s willingness to listen to drivers and fans, and to try new variations on a proven theme. They provide the place and rules, and allow drivers and fans to get their fix on.
