Defending Berlin Raceway Super Late Model track champion Evan Shotko took the lead from Blake Rowe off a Lap 42 competition caution and never looked back in the season opening Icebreaker 75 on Saturday afternoon.
Effectively, the race was for second over the final 25 laps as Brian Campbell, Joe Bush and Tyler Roahrig sorted it out almost two seconds behind the leading Shotko Family Racing No. 22. The final margin of victory was 2.380 seconds.
“This feels really good because for the past few years, we haven’t been able to start the season off very strong,” Shotko said in Victory Lane. “I’ve got high hopes, because we have such a hot rod at the beginning of the year. It’s a long season and anything can happen.”
The local Super Late Model division is running Hoosier Left 3035 and Right F45s this season providing a different look for teams. Shotko saw Rowe drive off to a huge lead prior to the Lap 42 competition caution and was content to ride until the caution.
“You have to run a real smart race,” Shotko said. “There’s a lot of strategy but I ran my own race and knew what my car could do.”
Rowe fell all the way back to 10th over the final 20 laps.
It was a clean and procedural race. The only incident occurred on Lap 4 when Trever McCoy drove off onto the grass on the backstretch and into the tire barrier that separates the track from the nearby forest.
Of note, Berlin Raceway is NASCAR sanctioned and at 19 cars, the race was counted towards Weekly Series national, state and regional points.
Icebreaker 75
Berlin Raceway
April 15 2023
- Evan Shotko
- Brian Campbell
- Joe Bush
- Chase Burda
- Tyler Roahrig
- Boris Jurkovic
- Michael Simko
- Wes Griffith
- Dylan Stovall
- Blake Rowe
- Ken Womba
- Brian Tillema
- DJ Weltmeyer
- Keith Herp
- Kyle Crump
- Austin Hull
- Nate Walton
- Trever McCoy
- Scott Thomas
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