I-80: Berck a Perfect 5-for-5 In The SLMR Series

      
Jim Brennan
  
Greenwood, NE (June 14, 2009) - The SLMR Racing Series for Late Models is
only 5 races into the season and Kyle Berck from Marquette, Nebraska is
perfect at 5 for 5, with his late win coming Sunday night at I-80 Speedway.
   
Jerry Warner and Justin Zeitner battled for the early lead in the feature
with Zeitner taking control out of turn 2 ob the opening lap. Warner hung
with him until lap 6 when Mike Wiarda took over 2nd place. Berck, who
started this feature in the 5th position was steadily moving forward and
grabbed 2nd on lap 12.  On lap 14 Berck passed Zeitner(the son of Lightning
Leon) for the lead and never looked back Zeitner held off Wiarda for 2nd and
Leon Zeitner finished 4th ahead of his nephew Corey Zeitner. The next SLMR
Series race is at Butler County Speedway in Rising City, Nebraska on Friday
June 19th. They will be back at I-80 on Sunday, July 19th.
  
In the NASCAR Late Model feature two-time defending champion Todd Hipnar
started on the pole and took command of this race at the drop of the green
flag. But several restarts were costly to Hipnar as Matt Buller managed to
catch and pass Hipnar with on lap 13. Point leader Billy Leighton Jr. ran
into some bad luck early on as he and Brad Soll got together going into turn
3 with Leighton's car hitting the wall. His pit crew did a super job of
gettung him back on the track with some front end damage. But late in the
race he blew the radiator and was done for the night. Les Siebert finished
2nd ahead of Billy Koons Jr., Clint Benson and Hipnar.
  
The Pro-Am feature after one aborted start saw Casey Cleveland take the
early lead. But Jeff Joldersma and Scotty Hartman were on the move from
there 6th row start. Joldersma took the lead on lap 5 while Hartman moved
into 3rd. Hartman running the high groove in the corners was able to take
the lead from Joldersma on lap 11. But Joldersma kept Hartman in his sights
but could net retake the lead. At the finish it was Hartman with his 2nd
straight feature win ahead of Joldersma, Ray Dessel, Rick Negrete and Don
Mohr.
   
The Crate Late Model feature belonged to Mike Morton Jr, who picked up his
2nd straight feature win. Steven Saunders and Tyler Zander finished 2nd and
3rd.
  
Dave Christensen led the 1st 4 laps of the IMCA Sports Compact feature
before Alex Fink passed him on lap 5. This race boiled down to a battle of
the Fink Brothers, Alex and Pete Jr.  Pete would pass Alex on the last lap
coming out of turn 4 for the victory. Rounding out the top 5 were
Christensen, Taylor Griffin and Justin Soule.
  
Next Sunday will be I-80's Fathers Day special featuring the NASCAR Late
Models, the Pro-Ams, the IMCA Modifieds, SportMods and Sport Compacts.
Racing action gets under way at 5:55. Bring your dad to the races.
  
Results
  
SLMR Late Models
  
A-Feature: 1) 14 Kyle Berck, 2)Z62 Justin Zeitner, 3) 1W Mike Wiarda, 4) 62
Leon Zeitner, 5) 26jr Corey Zeitner, 6) 89 Jerry Warner, 7) 5X Mike
Marushak, 8) 2H John Hampel, 9) 53 Joe Kosiski, 10) 21T Travis Dickes,  11)
Scott Koskovich, 12) John Nicholson, 13) Mike Collins, 14) Jay Stewart, 15)
Robbie Andersen, 16) Jase Kaser, 17) Al Humphrey, 18) Al Zeitner, 19) Dave
Jorgensen Jr., 20) Jason Hobscheidt, 21) Kenny Edwards, 22) Mike Wallace,
23) Jake Neighbors, 24) Dave Livingston
  
B-Feature: Joe Kosiski, Al Zeither, Wallace, Hampel, Livingsto, Edwards
    
NASCAR Late Models
  
A-Feature: 1) 43 Matt Buller, 2) 51 Les Siebert, 3) 29 Billy Koons Jr., 4)
00 Clint Benson, 5) 12 Todd Hipnar, 6) 24X Micah Brown, 7) 97d Craig Preble,
8) 16 Tom Svoboda, 9) 9 Dave Cook, 10) 56T Ron Tilley, 11) Dwane Pospisil,
12) Jacob Brown, 13) Andrew Kosiski, 14) Jason Hobscheidt, 15) Kent
Schimenti, 16) Michael Svagera, 17) Glenn Robey, 18) Lindsay Yost, 19) Jason
Longmeyer, 20) Brad Soll, 21) Billy Leighton Jr.
 
B-Feature: Preble, Steve Farnsworth, Tilley, Rick Vanderheiden, Longmeyer,
Robey
   
Pro-Ams
 
A-Feature: 1) 88 Scotty Hartman, 2) 66 Jeff Joldersma, 3) 55 Ray Dessel, 4)
72 Rick Negrete, 5) 24 Don Mohr, 6) 49x Chad Sanders, 7) 37 Greg Cooper, 8)
Nick Steier, 9) 36 Shawn Bulin, 10) 12 Terry Cleveland, 11) Adam Armstrong,
12) Mark Zordel, 13) Jim Kruse, 14) Dana Deeke, 15) Nick Hermsen, 16) Bob
Farnsworth, 17) Casey Cleveland, 18) Alan Schmitt, 19) Jeff Atkins, 20) Don
Atkins
   
Crate Late Models
 
A-Feature: 1) 71m, Mike Morton Jr., 2) 44 Steven Saunders, 3) 2 Tyler
Zander, 4) 14 Mike Powell, 5) 5c Shevi Collins, 6) 34 Michalea Kosiski
   
IMCA Sport Compacts
   
A-Feature: 1) 13 Pete Fink Jr., 2) 2 Alex Fink, 3) 74c Dave Christensen, 4)
87 Taylor Griffin, 5) 16j Justin Soule, 6) 7 Kennin Colestock, 7) 97 John
Irvine, 8) 9X Joe Baker, 9) 40 Jake McCloud, 10) 23 Ole Olsen, 11) Will
McConnell, 12) Kevin Zeitner, 13) Dan Markham, 14) Preston Gigax, 15) Steve
Niederhaus, 16) Andrew Cuva