A ‘spin n’ win’ Father’s day present for Brian Campbell’s Dad was made even better by being the second in two years at Berlin Raceway. He said, “When Brian pulled up to the winner’s circle he told me this is getting to be a habit, because he won this race last year also. I told him it’s a good habit. “ It was also his third win in a row in less then two weeks. First he took the Rowdy 125 over Kyle Busch, the ASALMS Challenge Series win a week ago at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. Then he took the win at Berlin in the Tradition 100 last night.
All the top North Division drivers from the ASA Late Model Series, sponsored by GM Performance Parts, were there. Starting on the pole was the points leader Eddie Hoffman No. 8 who led the first few laps of the race in convincing style, but then dropped off the pace not to challenge the leaders again.
At one point early on Campbell in the No. 20 Boyne machine had moved into second place. He came upon an unrelated accident in front of him coming out of turn four and got spun. However he was given his spot back on the restart.
He battled the lead away from second place finisher Chris Eggleston No. 22 (second in North Division points) on lap 70 with a tough outside pass leaving turn two onto the back stretch. In talking of the conditions during the race he was unusually thankful for the number of cautions saying, “Usually this car is great on long runs, but the track has changed in the last couple of weeks ... loosing grip, so the cautions helped a lot tonight.”
Several times throughout the ASALMS, the two Kerkstra Services Pro Stock features ( one being a continuation from lap eleven of a previously rained out night ) and the Burnips 4 Cylinders, cars went off the back stretch at speed into the dirt bringing the crowd to it’s feet. Brian Tillema (defending two time champ) had the hot car of the evening grabbed another win in a feature continuation. He then almost caught the winner of the second feature, Justin Regnerus No. 50, after a spin had moved him to the back of the pack in that race.
Regnerus is seeking his first Pro Stock Championship and found himself, before racing began, in the same place he finished in the standings last year, just behind Tillema. Each took a feature and will probably find no change in the rankings, building the tension for fans and drivers early on in the season. Just the way we all like it.
Berlin has a great tradition of hosting the biggest names ( Matt Kenseth’s son Ross and short track legend Butch Miller in last night’s ASALMS ) in the fastest cars made while also fielding features for the hobby drivers. There were two features worth of 4 Cylinders Saturday. In a continuation of a previous story, Berlin’s owner, Mike Blackmer, presented a $2000 check to Ryan and April Hamm, representing donations taken from the crews, staff and fans a few weeks ago. Ryan took the energy from that, along with the thoughts of his “Twenty Three Week Miracle” daughter Ashlynn, into racing with a vengeance with ‘A’ feature winner No. 6 Ben Kleis, who also carries Ashlynn’s name on his car, and placed second. When he took the lead, at one point, fans went crazy for him to win, but Kleis’s $600 Honda Prelude had too much under the hood, and the grip to make it all work.
After having Friday’s schedule washed away, Saturday came through with plenty of skidding, rubbing, recoveries and no injuries. Thanks, on behalf of the MARC Times Racing News & Michigan Racing Scene for all the inquiries and citizen reports on Johnny Benson’s recovery, and to the ASA Late Model Series and it’s owners, the Varney’s, for great stories.
The next few weeks with ‘Summer Spectacular’ and ‘Stars and Stripes Night’ lead into ‘Berlin Fair’ week so don’t go anywhere, things are just heating up. Happy Father’s Day.
