Battle of Berlin Wed

[ron.brown11]

 

The entry list just came out, and it looks like Michael Atwell is going to race Chris Davidson's car there.  Here's hoping that he has good run. There are 33 cars on the pre-entry list. The defending BoB race, Bubba Pollard will be trying to win 3 races in a row. He won last year's BoB race, and the Money in the Bank race in June. Treyton Lapsovich, the winner of last Sat's CARS Tour race will be there. Former tracks champs Hocevar & Jones as well. Katie Hettenger will also come home to MI, driving her family owned car. It's a good looking field, and a nice mid-week race. So far, it looks like the weather might cooperate. But that part of MI can get some crazy weather changes that close to the lake.

[RodneyRodriguez]

This should be a good one, I agree weather could be an issue with all of that mess going on. 

[ron.brown11]

1 hour ago, RodneyRodriguez said:

This should be a good one, I agree weather could be an issue with all of that mess going on. 

I just looked at the weather for Marne tomorrow, and it looks like the weather shouldn't be a factor at all. Mild temps (77) and a 5% chance of rain.  I think that the competition will make it much hotter though. The track has 2 full grooves, and side by side racing is not an issue.

It's a great facility, and the racing is usually strong. The only thing that I wish that they would do, is put safer barriers in the corners. They carry so much speed into the corners. When things go wrong, it's usually painful, and always expensive. They don't have a backstretch wall, and that helps when someone gets high off of turn 2, but I've also seen what can happen going into turn 3, because of there not being a backstretch wall. About 6 weeks ago, Brian Campbell, multi time super late model champ, got turned and caught the beginning of the turn 3 wall in the passenger door. That car was destroyed. Thankfully he wasn't hurt. I know that safer barriers and no backstretch walls sounds like I want it both ways. Not so, I want to see drivers be able to go home after racing that night. Before a lot of "landscaping" of the backstretch over the last 2 off seasons, those that go off-road racing, don't go into the woods anymore. Hopefully they can do a bit of reconfiguring to lesson the hitting of the third turn wall abutment. When Campbell hit the tractor tires, he moved all 3 of them. One ended up down in the woods. His car went easily 3' into the air, the whole car. That may be a normal thing in sprints and midgets, but not so much in stock cars. Yes, I know that racing is dangerous, and it will always be. I also know that there is no such thing as a "safe" track. That doesn't mean that we ignore things, or turn a blind eye to them. There's always room for improvement. The season before Earnhardt was killed, 3 other NASCAR drivers died of basilar skull fractures, Brett Bodine started wearing a full faced helmet and a HANS device. They made fun of him, and Earnhardt was the most public in doing so. Nobody was laughing anymore after Superman died. It took NASCAR another full decade to finally get all exposed concrete walls covered with safer barriers. Why? Drivers drove that message through the media and directly to NASCAR, to finally get there. I know that those barriers aren't free, yet at least 1 local has already installed them. Stafford Speedway installed them 2 years ago. 

[ron.brown11]

Well, it happened again. The 45 Shaun Gipson was qualifying, and had the second fastest lap on lap one. Coming off turn 2, the throttle hung. At the last second he realized that he wasn't going to make the entry in 3, and turned right, catching the tires. He moved all 3 of them, one of which traveled about 40' into the turn 4 entry. He made it almost all the way to the woods, ending up on top of the huge foam blocks. Thankfully he was uninjured. Two years ago he would have ended up in the woods, and that's not a good place to be.

Carson Hocevar won the pole. Michael Atwell, in the Davidson Electric Sennaker Race cars Chevy is 9th. Too bad he wasn't 8th, as that would have started him on the pole, with an 8 car invert. They qualified 31 cars, but will only start 30 because of Gipson's crash. He would have started 14th. He's got a lot of laps at Berlin, but is a rookie in the Supers.

Californian Jermey Doss will start 4th, in his Bob Lyon #44 Toyota. This guy is really a good racer, but he has the same financial situation as Kaden Honeycutt. Bob Lyon was a NASCAR Southwest Tour Series champion I think twice. Doss has run his car a few times, and typically finishes toward the front or wins. I don't know if he's run Berlin before.

Kole Raz, the 2 time Tucson Speedway track champ, will start 3rd. I don't know if he's raced at Berlin either.

Eric Jones will start on the pole due to the invert.

Edited August 8 by ron.brown11

[ron.brown11]

Comp caution after the first 50 laps completed. Hocevar has led nearly all of it. Pollard started 13th, but is second now, with Jones, Stovall, and Kole Raz rounding out the top 5. Atwell, Griffith, Shotko, Boschele, and Doss 6-10th. I was right, Raz hasn't run Berlin before.

[ron.brown11]

Red flag at lap 60. Gavin Boschele, driving a Donnie Wilson #24 Toyota, either blew up, or has a big oil leak. He was running 7th I believe when it happened. The field was still running close after just restarting 10 laps prior. Stovall got loose in the oil coming off of 4, and  Tyler Rycenga (a local Berlin racer) spun. Somehow everyone missed him. 

Hocevar is leading, Jones is 2nd, Pollard 3rd, 4th is Raz, and Atwell is running 5th. Stovall is 6th, Griffith 7th, Shotko 8th, Joe Bush 9th, and Doss 10th.

[ron.brown11]

Boschele didn't blow the motor, but he sure put a lot of oil on the track and in his pit. They've sent him back out. Still under the yellow, as the ran out of speedy dry, and started putting dirt on it. There were some takers for going into the pits for either tires, adjustments or both. That will shake up the running order. Hopefully they're going green here in a few minutes.

[ron.brown11]

Yellow at lap 109 for a single car hitting the turn 4 wall. Nearly all of the leaders are pitting. We'll see how things shake out. There was a handful that stayed out, but they pitted under the last caution period.

Boschele's car restarted last after the oil down. But the car was fast, and made his way back into the top 5. But something happened that he brought out the yellow after stopping on the track.

[ron.brown11]

Carson Hocevar wins. Eric Jones 2nd, Bubba Pollard 3rd, Michael Atwood 4th, and Kole Raz 5th. Shotko, Campbell, Burda Doss, and Lapsevich are the 6-10 finishers. It was Raz & Doss' first trip to Berlin. 

Hocevar led close to 3/4 of the race, and he could run deeper into 3 than anybody else all night. I heard Jones, Pollard, Atwood and Raz all say that they got too tight in that last run. Hocevar was shocked that he still had a right rear tire on the car for as hard as he was abusing it. He said the he had been pretty vocal about not liking the new McCreary tire that they were running this year, before the race. Now he wants to run it every time he comes back, because it took the abuse that he gave it. He put on a show, as he was running in the third & forth lanes. nearly all night. Not many people are willing to do that.

When they posted the winner's check earlier this season, it was listed as $30k for the winner. Something happened to change that, as Hocevar will get a $40k check instead. NICE!! Before that last pitstop yellow, Doss was running in the top 5. He had a horrible stop, and had to tag the field on the restart. He fried those tires making it back up to 9th. 

It was a good race. The last 40 laps Hocevar, Pollard & Eric Jones battled hard. I was starting to think the Bubba was going to dump Hocevar on more than one occasion, especially because Hocevar chopped him off several times. Then it got crowed, as Raz & Atwood caught Jones and Pollard.As it turns out, Atwood was the only one that could make a pass around Raz, to get the final finishing order.. 

And the fans got fireworks after the race, if they didn't think they got enough during the race. 

I was very impressed with Raz & Doss, as Berlin isn't an easy track to try and win a big payday with the field of drivers they had on hand.

Edited August 8 by ron.brown11

[RodneyRodriguez]

damn good race and in a very timely manner! 

[ron.brown11]

3 hours ago, RodneyRodriguez said:

damn good race and in a very timely manner! 

It was a good race for sure. I bet I rewatched that restart where 6-7 cars crashed in turn 3, before the green came out. I was a little surprised at how quickly they posted the leader for the start. Yeah, his pace was a little slower than normal, but it wasn't that slow. I guess they didn't want a repeat. But all in all, it was a great race. 

I was bummed when one of the announcers said that they only have 4 more races for the season. I keep forgetting that fall comes a lot sooner there then it does hear. Same thing for Stafford Speedway in CT. Thankfully Langley & SoBo runs longer. I wish that Dominion Raceway would sign on with FloRacing, that's a great track too. I only get to see them when the CARS Tour or the Smart Modifieds run there. That's the track surface that N Wilkes had put done when they repaved. Very Racey!!