Marne, MI (Monday, April 19, 2021) - 19 Budweiser Super Late Models made up the starting field for the 71 lap season-opening Icebreaker at Berlin Raceway. An eight-car invert for fast qualifier Brian Campbell (15.967) put Scott Thomas and Boris Jurkovic on the front row. Jurkovic powered to the lead off the high side and would step away from the field until the first caution flew for a spin involving Ken Womba and Dave Killian. Tyler Roarhig and Scott Thomas would both take the opportunity to pit for adjustments.
Using the “Choose Option”, Jurkovic would take the high side and again pull away from the field. The pilot of the #53 would stretch out his lead over the pack until a competition caution at lap 42. Eric White, Evan Shotko, Tom Thomas, and Campbell made up the top five at this point. After Boris chose the high side, White stayed high, allowing Evan Shotko to line up on the inside. The two took the green and were side by side through one, but coming out of two there was some contact that sent Shotko around and to the tail of the field.
All eyes started to focus on Tyler Roahrig as he had made his way up to 6th. Jurkovic kept to the high side of the cone and allowed White to line up on the inside. Jurkovic continued to show his dominance on restarts and charged into the lead and began to pull away from White. Roahrig continued picking off cars using the low side and was up to third when the caution flew for Trevor McCoy backing his #88 into the front stretch wall on lap 53.
The high side was where he wanted to be, so Jurkovic again put his Hamke #53 up top on the restart with White to his inside. White would spin his tires out of turn 4 allowing Jurkovic to race off to a solid lead. White and Roarhig put on a fierce battle for second and third with a few crossover moves that allowed Tom Thomas to make it a three-car battle. But in the end, it was Chicago native Jurkovic who would sail to a two-second lead and go on to take home the $5,000 payday (with no power steering for 65 laps). White would finish ahead of Roahrig for second while Tom Thomas and Brian Campbell completed the top 5. Lauren Bush, Joe Bush, Samantha Stuart, Evan Shotko, and Blake Rowe (in his template debut) rounded out the top 10.
In preliminary action, Tom McCarthy would take feature #1 for the Auto Value 4 Cylinders while Corey Holtzlander took the checkers in feature #2. Brian Thome and Ryan Holtzlander took wins for the Coors Light Sportsman features while Tim Devos and Scott Root captured checkers in the Model Coverall Limited Late Models.
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Story - Chuck Darling, Horsepower Happenings
Photo - HD 5 Photo