MARNE -- After a win late last season was taken away, one of the veterans of Berlin Raceway made due by picking up his first win a long time.
Billy Eppink is one of the most established drivers at the longstanding track. He has raced in a variety of divisions at Berlin, including Superstocks, Modifieds and Model Coverall Limited Late Late Models, and his father, Ross, is in the track’s hall of fame. However, heading into Saturday night, he had not won a feature race since August 2021.
Thanks to a bad fast no. 8 machine, that changed in the first feature of the night.
Just a few laps in the 25-lap race, Eppink grabbed an early lead from Tom Boorsma, and quickly opened up a lead. Yet, the lead was erased when Adam Casari spun on Lap 11, bringing out the first caution of the race. Another yellow flag came out shortly after the restart after Briniam Van Wynen and Eric Von got together.
However, Eppink outlasted Tim DeVos on both restarts, speeding to his first victory in three seasons.
Eppink, with his daughter Kenzie, was overcome with emotion in victory lane.
“We struggled all day today,” Eppink said. “We earned [the win]...we did it. You guys have no idea how much had work we put into this...taking away from our families, thank you all.”
He paid tribute to Ron Bursley, who passed away this past March. Bursley was Eppink’s former crew chief.
“It’s been very, very hard on me. He was like another dad to me.”
Ron is the father of track president Mike Bursley.
Eppink thought he broke the schneid last August, as he dominated in a 50-lap feature on Aug. 19. However, he was disqualified when his car--which he had recently purchased second-hand--failed post-race inspection.
The other Limited Late Model feature saw Boorsma start up front once again. This time, the multi-time VROA Modified Champion under his belt, got out to a comfortable lead. The gap diminished after Eppink spun on the frontstretch by himself on Lap 9.
Yet, the Conklin, Michigan driver jumped to the lead, and though Tim Greene made things close near the end, Boorsma hung on to grab his first win in a Limited Late Model.
The National Compact Touring Series made its first of three appearances to Berlin this season. The man of the day was Dave Leonard Jr. The driver out of Kalamazoo set the tone early in the day by setting fast time during qualifying before winning one of the three heat races.
Leonard had to work his way through the field to get to the front and was challenging Paul Bittle for the lead on Lap 5 of the 25-lap feature. Leonard quickly grabbed the lead, and started to build up a big lead. However, a caution with less than 10 laps to go re-racked the field, and Bittle actually got a great jump on Leonard when the race resumed.
However, Leonard recovered and hunted down Bittle to regain the lead with just a few laps to go, grabbing the series’ first checkered flag of the season.
The Baker Auto Group Sportsmans ran an extended 40-lap feature on Saturday night. After Scott Root and Dennis Holtzlander III won heat races, Tanner Tallarico started the big race by grabbing an early lead. However, Ryan Holtzlander took the lead on Lap 10, but the yellow flag came out when Kevin Ford sprang a leak on Lap 18.
That pitted Ryan alongside Root, two drivers that had heated exchange on the opening night of the season. The two bumped once the green flag dropped, but Holtzlander got the better of Root, regaining the lead. Another caution on Lap 28 put Holtzlander in a battle with Korey Ensing. The two competitors had an exciting side-by-side battle for several laps, with Holtzalnder pulling away on Lap 32 and cruising the rest of the way to his first win of 2024.
Veteran driver Alan Marcott ended the 2023 season with a win in the final race of the Engine Pro VROA Vintage Modified season. The former Super Late Model driver kicked off the series 2024 campaign the same way, though it was not as easy.
The 20-lap feature for the VROAs saw reigning champion Dave Sensiba have to make a premature exit when he broke a rotor on the second lap of the race. He collided with Brian Beukema in Turn 1, taking both cars out. Shortly after the race resumed, Marcott spun by himself on the frontstretch, sending him to the back of the field.
However, that did not deter Marcott. The Wayland driver carved his way through the field, taking the lead on Lap 9, and flying to a sizeable win.
Next Saturday, the TEKTON Super Late Models race for the second time this season, with the Midwest Modifieds Tour making its lone stop at Berlin this season. The Auto Value 4-Cylinders and Good Humor Mini-Wedges are also back in action.
The green flag drops a little after 4 p.m. ET, and can be streamed on FloRacing.
Story - Tyler Kuehl, MLive
Photo -