Coors Light Late Model Night, Saturday at the Berlin Raceway, flew by like two time champ Tom Thomas on a role, with fans and teams leaving the parking lot while the sun was still shining. With so many Berlin divisions and traveling series’ to pack into one season, it’s actually become unusual for the schedule to include only the core divisions of Late Models, Engine Pro Super Stocks, and Kerkstra Services Pro Stocks.
The Late Model feature - the last of the night - results were printed and posted at 9:29 p.m., largely due to the clean driving, and therefore, lack of cautions in all divisions. In just twenty-eight minutes and twenty-nine seconds Tom Thomas ran down pole sitter and fast lap holder (16.087 for 0.438 mi) No. 19 Nick Shotco in their seventy-five lap feature. Thomas’ No. 82 came alive around lap 25 after a few slips coming out of turn four early in the race that almost took him out, if not for the great saves. He challenged for the lead, lost a spot, then gained it all back as his tires started to grip. Terry VanHaitsma was in line with him when he made his move for the lead, and went along to move into second with a classic draft on Tom. Once he was out front he opened the gap and kept it. Randy Sweet, still a threat at Berlin, and defending champ and current division leader Ross Meeuwsen rounded out the top four.
The 30 lap Engine Pro Super Stock feature, just before Late Models, took only nine minutes sixteen seconds to run with only one short yellow flag to give the other competitors a shot at pole sitter and winner Dewey Nylaan’s No 77 Nylaan Body shop car. His biggest threat came from points leader Brian Wiersma who got his nose underneath Dewey for a few laps with the help of No. 26 Chris Muyskens, another driver challenging for the Championship. They raced hard and clean, even side by side for a few laps, until Wiersma got loose late in the race and almost spun after turn two, giving Muyskens an opportunity to get by on the back stretch. That allowed Nylaan to get away clean and show, with his second win of the season, some guts in holding everyone off the entire race.
Ken Smith Jr. posted his third feature win of the season, to keep the points race exciting between himself and numbers one and two, Brian Tillema and Justin Regnerus. Kerkstra Services Pro Stock racing can be one of the most exciting divisions at Berlin when it comes to running off the back stretch or spinning on the front. But, Saturday’s 25 lapper ran fast and caution free in thirteen minutes and one second. Smith’s blue and white No. 36 is hot this year in short features, but has fallen from leads taken away in longer races to Tillema or Regnerus. All eight features this year have been won by those three drivers. Though the other two started back in the pack they quickly caught Smith and challenged him, but couldn’t pass.
Where Speed Belongs would be an understatement in describing the pace of races and racing, which could be expected from the fastest divisions. All it took was clean racing and no cleanups. The safety crews longest job of the night was tossing out Berlin Raceway T-shirts over the fence into the stands, a big difference from the week before which took until past midnight to finish due to wrecks.
Next week is the Berlin Fair with a Demo Derby and Burnips Equipment 4 Cylinders Tuesday, Bus Mania Wednesday, Monster Trucks Thursday, Jesse McCartney in concert Friday, and the Fair Finale Saturday with Late Model, Pro Stock, Super Stock, and Young Guns racing; a big week where we hope to see you.
