Darren Berry Breaks Through With First URSS Win At Oberlin

The United Rebel Sprint Series made its first appearance of the 2008 Season at the Decatur County Speedway Saturday night and when the checkers flew, yet another first time winner was crowned. McCook Nebraska racer Darren Berry took the hard fought win and padded his Northern Region points lead in the process as well.

Hill City’s Jeff Radcliffe led the field to the green and grabbed the early lead with Ken Lutters, Jon Johnson, Berry and Willie Wynn to round out the top ten. Berry immediately put the pressure on Johnson for the third spot and grabbed it on lap three. Ray Seemann and Cody Salem made their way to the fifth and sixth positions on lap four. Beery took the runner up spot from Ken Lutters on lap five and started to turn up the heat on Radcliffe on lap five.

Berry took the lead from Radcliffe on lap eight as Johnson and Seemann turned up the pressure on Lutters and Radcliffe and made the pass for the second and third spots stick on lap nine. Cody Salem and Lutters battled for several laps before Salem took the fourth spot on lap thirteen. Beery had started to pull out to a half a straightaway lead when the red flew for an incident in turn four. Holyoke Colorado racer Corey Koberstien went high to avoid another car that had spun and once in the grass impacted the guardrail. Luckily Koberstien was not injured but the same couldn’t be said for his car.

As the racing resumed Berry once again took the lead followed by Seemann, Johnson Salem and a rebounding Smokey Fairbank. Fairbank had lost an engine the night before in Hays and thanks to the hard work of the Berry’s team and others had replaced the engine Saturday Morning. Fairbank had started shotgun on the field and by lap fifteen had made it to the fifth spot.

Salem took the third position from Johnson on lap seventeen and set his sights on second place Seemann. As the laps wound Berry’s lead was being eroded little by little each lap with a hard charging Seemann closing the gap each lap. As the white flag flew, Seemann had made his way to Berry’s bumper. The pair had a classic drag race down the backstretch as Seemann chose the high line to try to make the pass. The two made slight contact as they exited turn four and at the line Berry picked up his first URSS Series win by less than a car length. Rounding out the top five were Salem, Johnson and Fairbank.

The Weld Racing Wheels “Hard Charger Award” went to Smokey Fairbank who came from his eighteenth starting position to grab the fifth spot.

Heat race winners were Ray Seemann, Jon Johnson and Ken Lutters.

A-Main: 1-Darren Berry (12), 2-Ray Seemann (72), 3-Cody Salem (23), 4-Jon Johnson (86), 5-Smokey Fairbank (2), 6-Ken Lutters (79), 7-Reed Bernbeck (C3), 8-Willie Wynn (36W), 9-Randy Bantam (5R), 10-Mark Bantam (82), 11-Bill Hays (2H), 12-Tom Belsky (28), 13-Corey Koberstien (29), 14-Tyler Linner (43L), 15-Jeff Radcliffe (21R), 16-Shawn Radcliffe (3R), 17-Chuck Lutters (55), 18-Corey Lutters (07), Tom Vacura (777)