The traveling Auto Value Super Sprints, two Coors Light Late Model features, Engine Pro Super Stocks, and two Burnips Equipment 4 Cylinder features raced the rain like they raced each other at Berlin Raceway’s Summer Spectacular Saturday.
All horizons were clear the first time the possibility of rain was announced in the pits, just after the first of two Late Model features. Two, because a rain out several weeks ago forced a reschedule, which gave Terry VanHaitsma the opportunity for his first feature win of the season. Track champs and points leaders Ross Meeuwsen and Tim Devos seemed in control out front most of the race exchanging leads, when on a restart at lap twenty-four Terry’s new black No. 21 found the grip and speed to get around both and take the lead from Devos with a spectacular outside pass track conditions haven’t allowed lately. In the only Mountain Dew Winner’s Circle interview of the night he talked about the new car saying, “I thought I was too loose when I went to the outside of those two guys, but made it work. I learned allot from racing the other car in the ASA’s, even about the set up of this car and how to adjust to this track. Too bad the other car was wrecked, but it helped this one to get to victory lane.”
After that it was all business for Berlin staff and drivers with the only interruptions coming from crash clean ups. The infield tower weather radar gave little chance of finishing the night and the timing of races tightened and changed with adjustments in the schedule to pack as many features in as possible. As drops began to fall on the Super Sprint feature, Berlin’s PR Director Kevin Striegle appeared asking the drivers with a thumbs up or down, whether to race or not; the answer was go. A good choice as the clouds unexpectedly parted and the track dried faster than it ever had. Two time defending champ Jason Blonde was running away with the lead and his times dropped from 14.74 seconds toward the 14 second mark as laps were checked off on the half-mile oval. However, he came upon a back-of-the-pack crash between turns three and four that caused him to spin; the damage took him out of the race.
Jeff Bloom was there to capitalize from second place, finding a way through the mayhem with Blonde spinning in front of him. He never looked back and drove away from Chad Goff to take his sixth victory here in his last nine tries. Rain and other factors eventually drove lap times up into the 16 second range; nothing near the 12.9 records on half mile tracks these cars set. Still, they generate so much excitement for fans with their slip ‘n’ grip style coming out of corners, that there’s no sitting down.
Nobody would have thought, at the beginning of the season, that it would take until now for two time Late Model champ Tom Thomas to get his first feature win, but it did. “Magic” was his answer ... through a big laugh while shaking his head ... when asked where the difference in speed, between the first and second features, came from. Some good side by side racing with his brother Scott ( No’s. 82 & 28 on the front row ) to start the race quickly turned into domination for Tom. Through restarts and traffic on long runs he ran a flawless race. Hard to do with Meeuwsen, Devos, VanHaitsma, and Scott ready to pounce on any mistake.
No. 26, Chris Muyskens (third in Super Stock points race) took only a small bite out of defending champ Brian Wiersma’s points lead with his feature win, as Brian came in third behind the No. 18 of Denny Anderson from way back in the pack. Muyskens’ second win of the season kept him busy talking, signing autographs, and taking pictures in front of the car and cup with fans, until rain chased everyone away. The usually quiet and calm Wiersma (quickly climbing the overall Berlin feature win list with over thirty now) was excited about chasing his sixth championship, which puts him in an elite class. He wants to keep climbing the ladder, so look for a feature on him in an upcoming issue.
4 Cylinder racing teams (always there when you need them) filled in time gaps, where possible between other features, in their bid to race before the rain. Dan Riemersma edged out Ryan Hamm at the line for his second win of the season, just before the entire front pack slide into each other and the wall in turn one. The race is over, let the fixing begin.
Not long after crews had cleaned the debris from the track and put down oil dry, mother nature came along and washed the oil dry, and lots of rubber after turns two and four, from the surface with a quick thunderstorm. But, not before red shirted Berlin staff, hustling their butts off, showed us this is Where Speed Belongs.
