Teenager wins two feature races Saturday night at Berlin Raceway By Steve Kaminski | Skaminsk@mlive MLive MARNE – Seth Moody of Middleville has been racing for the past six years, and he had never won more than one feature race in a season. Moody, 19, changed all that Saturday when he won a pair of Berlin Raceway 30-lap Super Stock features in a single night. He now has won three races this spring. Berlin opened Saturday’s program with a Super Stock main, and that served as a make-up race from last weekend’s rained out program. Moody outran Nate Walton and Will Olmsted to win that race. It turned out that Moody was just getting warmed up. He returned about two hours later and passed rookie Tyler Rycenga for the lead and went on to beat Rycenga for the win. “It’s awesome,” Moody said. “I have my whole crew to thank and Chris Muyskens, because he puts a lot of work into this thing, and my grandpa did all of the motor work. My dad owns all of this stuff, and we are just a family run program. “Everyone that I have talked to said that it takes a long time to figure out how to run here, and to pick off two tonight against such a tough field, it just means a ton." Steve Needles of Portage won Saturday’s 60-lap Late Model feature race over Tom Thomas and Scott Thomas. Needles, who drives for car owner Terry Gentry of Holland, was running third when an altercation eliminated leader Terry VanHaitsma and second-place Ross Meeuwsen as contenders. Meeuwsen made contact with VanHaitsma, sending VanHaitsma spinning in turn three. VanHaitsma’s night was over, while Meeuwsen was penalized for aggressive driving and sent to the rear of the field. Needles quickly drove away from the Thomas brothers on the lap 48 restart. “It’s all about patience at this place,” Needles said. “(VanHaitsma and Meeuwsen) were racing each other hard all night, and it was just a matter of time I thought. They were beating on each other on restarts, under cautions and everything else. Sure enough, it paid off for us. “Once we got out into clean air, no one was going to catch us. This car was awesome.” Adam Chase (Modifieds), Scott Root (Sportsman) and Billy Eppink (VROA) also won feature races Saturday. Root said it was a mid-race caution that helped get him to Victory Lane. Root closed strong, taking the lead away from Kirk Meissner with four laps to go. He went on to beat out Meissner for top honors in the 25-lap feature. “I had a little bit of a vibration, and the car was really freed up, and I think this different tire threw the stagger off a little bit,” Root said. “But we got the tires cooled down on the caution, got a good starting spot and went from there.” Chase is only racing Berlin on a part-time basis this season, but he has won both of the features he has entered. “This is not bad for being part-time racers,” Chase said. “I have to miss like two more races for prior obligations, and I have missed probably two races already. “It is tough because the track changes so much from week-to-week. But the car is so good right now that we didn’t make any changes from last time. We got the lucky draw, qualified fifth.” Eppink did double duty since he ran in the track’s Modified class in addition to VROA. Eppink placed fourth in the Modified main, then returned to win the 25-lap VROA feature over Don Deyman and Andrew Bartoszek. “It doesn’t matter which division you run out here, they are all tough,” Eppink said. “The car was good at the start, and then it started going off. But I owe it all to this team. I jump into the Mod, I jump into the VROA, then back into the Mod. Both of my teams, I have to give credit to. Man, these guys put on a whale of a good show.” SATURDAY NIGHT RESULTS LATE MODELS (60 LAPS) - 1. Steve Needles, 2. Tom Thomas, 3. Scott Thomas, 4. Tim DeVos, 5. Ross Meeuwsen, 6. Johnny Benson Jr., 7. Mike Root, 8. Andy Bozell, 9. Adam Terry, 10. Monte Tolan, 11. Todd Dougherty, 12. Leroy Magoon, 13. Jamison Russell, 14. Trevor McCoy, 15. Ray Clay, 16. Terry VanHaitsma, 17. Kristopher Fewless, 18. Lee VanDyk, 19. Phil Bozell, 20. Barry Hartwell, 21. Adam Chase, 22. Dave Zagalski, 23. Brian Maxim, 24. Doug Rodanhisler SUPER STOCKS 1 (30 LAPS) – 1. Seth Moody, 2. Nate Walton, 3. Will Olmsted, 4. Brian Tillema, 5. Jeremy Munniksma, 6. Tyler Rycenga, 7. Andrew Nylaan, 8. Ben Welch, 9. Dave Lake, 10. Dave Hull, 11. Warren Speet, 12. Brett DeKraker, 13. John Norder, 14. Justin Regnerus SUPER STOCKS 2 (30 LAPS) – 1. Seth Moody, 2. Tyler Rycenga, 3. Andrew Nylaan, 4. Will Olmsted, 5. Jeremy Munniksma, 6. Nate Walton, 7. Brian Tillema, 8. Dave Lake, 9. Ben Welch, 10. Dave Hull, 11. Warren Speet, 12. Brett DeKraker, 13. John Norder, 14. Justin Regnerus SPORTSMAN (25 LAPS) – 1. Scott Root, 2. Kirk Meissner, 3. Shawn Simon, 4. Randy Veldman, 5. Brian Thome, 6. Allen Davis, 7. Jared Miller, 8. Tyler Sterken, 9. Tim Stuart, 10. Steve Thompson, 11. Gerry Shepard, 12. Matt VanHorsen, 13. Bill Funk, 14. Ben Thomas, 15. Maurice Davis, 16. Andrew MacIntosh VROA (25 LAPS) – 1. Billy Eppink, 2. Don Deyman, 3. Andrew Bartoszek, 4. Tom Boorsma, 5. Rob Parker, 6. Jimmy Lawson, 7. Steve Fuller, 8. Don Smith, 9. Terry Byrne, 10. Jeff Barsen, 11. Loren Peterson, 12. Randy Pierson, 13. Lou Caposey, 14. Todd Cowan, 15. Arnie Snyder, 16. John Evans HEAT WINNERS – Leroy Magoon, Scott Thomas (Late Models); Adam Chase (Modifieds); Allen Davis, Shawn Simon (Sportsman); Steve Fuller, Billy Eppink (VROA) mlive/autoracing/index.ssf/2013/06/teenager_wins_two_feature_race.html Steve Kaminski | MLive
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:21:49 +0000
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