Stock car

Berlin Raceway race summary 2002-06-22

Meeuwsen wins fourth straight Super Stock feature; Thomas, Shotko record victories. MARNE, MI -- Ross Meeuwsen continued his dominance of Berlin Raceway's Engine Pro Super Stock division Saturday night, claiming his fourth straight feature win.

Published: Jun 25, 2002, 4:38 AM

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Meeuwsen wins fourth straight Super Stock feature; Thomas, Shotko record victories.

MARNE, MI -- Ross Meeuwsen continued his dominance of Berlin Raceway's Engine Pro Super Stock division Saturday night, claiming his fourth straight feature win. Meanwhile, the points battles in MTA Sportsman and Coors Light Late Model divisions tightened up as the points leaders in both divisions suffered problems early in their respective features.

In the MTA Sportsman division, points leader #9 Mike Root's evening ended early - on the first lap of the feature race - as the car in front of him slowed and Root was not able to get on the brakes in time. Root rear-ended the car and ended his night with radiator damage.

#6 Terry Bockheim of Walker started from the pole, stretching way out to a 25-car length lead early. An early caution for a backstretch spin by #11 Greg Matheson and #52 Bruce Chase wiped away the big lead, and on the restart Rockford's Nick Shotko stayed with Bockheim as the two cars pulled away from the field. The lead cars stayed that way until lap 24 of the 25-lap race, when Shotko, driving the #4 Bud Gebben-owned truck this week, pulled up on the inside of Bockheim as the white flag waved, then took the lead on the final lap. Shotko held on to win the race as the two cars bumped each other and the wall on their way across the finish line. #31 Mike Bursley finished third, followed by #55 Dave Lake and #15 Scott Root. Mike Root remains in the points lead by a healthy 111 points over Lake as the top six positions remain unchanged.

In the Engine Pro Super Stock division, #8 Billy Eppink started on the outside pole and led the first lap, then #14 Jon Arendsen of Lansing jumped out front and opened up a big lead after an early caution. Points leader Ross Meeuwsen of Zeeland slowly closed the gap on Arendsen, eventually catching him on lap 18 and making the pass. Arendsen got a lucky break, however, when the caution flag was waved on lap 18 for a spin in turn 1 involving fastest qualifier #9 Jeff Hennip, #42 Matt Piersma and #29 Steve Sunde. Scoring reverts to the last green-flag lap under caution, which allowed Arendsen to retain his lead for the time being.

But Meeuwsen was just too strong and finally made the pass on the lap 18 restart. Meeuwsen then pulled away from the field. The #X car of Ray Clay was also on the move, weaving in and out of traffic in a desperate attempt to catch the leader. Clay managed to climb all the way up to second place before the laps ran out. Arendsen finished third, followed by Eppink and #98 Bob Bliss. The win was Meeuwsen's fourth straight, just six races into the season. Meeuwsen extends his points lead to 57 points over Clay as the top six positions remain unchanged.

In the Coors Light Late Model division, points leader #1 Randy Sweet brought out the caution flag early as he blew a tire on lap four, taking #47 Fred Campbell with him into the wall and ending the night for both drivers. #11 John Grega of Fruitport led the first 31 laps of the race, but Grandville's #82 Tom Thomas took the lead on lap 32 as he and Grega sandwiched lapped cars to make it 3-wide racing. Thomas then stretched his lead, but as he got caught up in slower lapped traffic late in the race, Grega came back and challenged Thomas, but Thomas was able to hold on for the win in the 50-lap feature. #161 Lee Anderson finished third, followed by #22 Brian Campbell and #12 Tim DeVos. Sweet continues to lead in the points, but Thomas moved up two positions and now sits just 20 points behind Sweet. #101 Joe Bush sits in third, followed by Fred Campbell and Anderson.

Racing continues next Saturday, June 29, with a special show by the Auto Value Super Sprints, the fastest cars to ever take the track at Berlin Raceway. In addition, Winston Cup driver Johnny Benson will return for a special 75-lap Coors Light Late Model race, and the entire evening will be capped off by a fireworks show. Tickets are $21 in advance or $22 on the day of the race and children are half price. Gates open at 11 a.m. and the first race begins at 7 p.m.

-br-

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