Flat Rock Speedway

Trackside Tidbits, by Debi Domby

Another long distance race and another Brian Bergakker win. Brian won his third straight Joy Fair 100 and fourth out of the last five. In 2019 he finished sixth, Harold Fair Jr won. Of his four Joy Fair 100 wins, he led the most laps this year, leading 60. In 2022 he led 55, 30 in 2021 and 16 in 2018. Of the last five Joy Fair 100 races Brian’s led 161 of 500 possible laps (he didn’t lead any the year Harold won) or 32.2%. “The lapped traffic was pretty tough. They run into the top and the bottom. So, it kind of makes it hard to get through there. You know, you gotta make a hole. Sometimes you don't like to do but, you know, for the most part. It was pretty decent. It was a little bit more challenging, for sure, but it was still fun. Winning never gets old. We know we won last week at Birch Run with the mod and we kind of got some momentum rolling now and this is going to help and I you know I love winning these big races over here … I love coming to the big races at Flat Rock. You know, it's a big pomp and circumstance and I liked doing it, said the driver of the 4J's Trucking, Earnest Performance, Senneker Performance, MI Marking, Sweet Manufacturing, Powrachute, A&D Designs #12.

Conner Zbozien finished second, a career best. He’s been in three Joy Fair 100 and each year is better finishing fifth (2021) and fourth (2022). “We're pretty close, even (Paul Pelletier and I) and it was basically whoever at the bottom on those restarts at the end. So, we're going back and forth. That was a lot of fun and never know who's gonna get it in the end. But Brian's (Bergakker) really fast. He comes here and whoops our butts every year. You try and get close to him but you got to be absolutely perfect. The slightest bit off and handling and basically throw the race away or close second. Yeah, at the beginning of the day the car was just … the track was super slick and greasy. Throughout the day, we fine-tuned on the handling and got it really close. I was pretty happy with it. Maybe just not enough straightaway speed is struggled a little bit on the restarts playing around with carbs and gear. Want to mention my sponsors Moran Automotive, McQuade Heating and Cooling, PPG, Painter’s Supply and Equipment, JV Auto, The Pleasure Zone, Michigan Independent Door Co.”

Paul Pelletier finished third, his best finish since 2019 (fourth). He has four Top 5 and six Top 10 in the Joy Fair 100s.. “We're good about 50 (laps), just all those restarts to get us all bogged down, us and the 45 (Conner Zbozien) we all spun our tires. So, all you can do at that point. Yeah, this place is worn out and there’s no outside groove where it used to be for us and the Street Stocks are even worse yet. So, it's good run. turn things around here,” said the driver of Fraza-Vitan, ABC Plumbing, Blue Water Compressor #44.

Craig Everage made his first start in over a year at Flat Rock and finished fourth. It’s his third Top 5 and fifth Top 10 finish in the Joy Fair 100s.. “I just want to say I would like to give Brian Bergakker $3,000 not to come to the 150 (Stan Yee 150 in July). I don't know if he’ll take it, but I think we can get up enough money. I think that’s number seven for his team, (his) car is really fast as everyone can tell. But thank all the fans for coming. These are some great cars and thank you all for coming,” said the driver of the #101 EverageAuto.com.

Scott Hantz finished fifth, his second Top 5 and fourth Top 10 in the Joy Fair 100s. “I was having fun out there. I think this car just likes to get fifth every week. I was just hanging on the tires were kind of going away and everybody's playing fair. So that was fun.”

The Midwest Modifieds visited Flat Rock for the first time since Sept. 16, 2007. Mike Occhipinti was the first to cross the line but according to a Tweet by the series, was disqualified. Brian Nester was awarded the victory ending nearly a six-year winless streak according to the same tweet. Brian Bergakker was listed second, capping off a really great night. Other Flat Rock drivers (I don’t have the Modified finish, so have to use RaceMonitor): Steve Cronenwett Jr, 14th; Jeremy Vanderhoof, 18th and other names local fans might be familiar with … Justin Claucherty, who won opening night in the OSLM, ninth and 1993 Street Stock champion, Kale Asztalis, 23rd.

Dennis Whisman Jr won the Figure 8 feature. He’s only the second driver at Flat Rock this season with two feature wins (Jeremy Vanderhoof in the Street Stock A Division is the other). “First of all, I want to thank my dad and Richie again. I mean, they're the only two that make this car possible, especially my dad … all of his hard work throughout the week. All my sponsors, Counting Consultants, Affordable Transmission, Marks Toy Box, Royal Truck and Utility Trailer, Martins Tire, Rebel Racing, Custom Graphix and Tees. Everyone that's helped me with these cars … everyone down there they've worked their butts off and I thank them. And I'm thankful that the field didn’t catch me. I got an easy run there. But like I said, again, I just want

to thank my dad again. He's really .. all his hard work he’s putting in this. We fought the car all night, slipping and sliding, but we got it worked out pretty good.”

Statistics from 2023 Joy Fair

· 21 cars started the feature

· Conner Zbozien, second (surpassing a fourth place) and Derrick Sheppard, 10th (surpassing a 14th place), had career best finishes

· Making their first start in the Joy Fair 100: RJ Cornett (12th), Max Fair (16th), Dean Gassert (18th), Craig Osenbaugh (19th), John Ledwidge (21st)

· There were 15 drivers on the lead lap

· Lap Leaders: Max Fair, 1-21; Conner Zbozien, 22-40, Brian Bergakker, 41-100 (according to RaceMonitor)

· Bergakker’s winning margin (also RaceMonitor) was 0.846, but he had a larger lead before all the late cautions.

· John Ledwidge, Stan Yee Jr and Craig Osenbaugh dropped out of the race

· There was five cautions

Overall Joy Fair and 100 lap features ran at Flat Rock

NOTE: The statistics below are for only the 10 Joy Fair Memorial 100 races that were stand-alone races. In 2013, the Joy Fair 100 was rained out and combined with the Stan Yee 150. I listed it with the Stan Yee races since it was just added to this race. Phil Bozell was the winner of this race.

· Joy Fair 100 (10 races)

o Joy Fair Winners: Brian Bergakker, 4; Harold Fair Jr and Justin Schroeder, 2; Steve Needles and Terry Senneker, 1

o Joy Fair Top 5: Brian Bergakker, Harold Fair Jr, 5; Justin Schroeder, Paul Pelletier, Steve Needles, 4; Conner Zbozien, Craig Everage, Justin Claucherty, 3; Dakota Carlson, Eric Lee, Jeff Ganus, Jimmy Theil, Scott Hantz, 2

o Joy Fair Top 10: Justin Schroeder, 7; Brian Bergakker, Paul Pelletier, 6; Harold Fair Jr, Steve Needles, Craig Everage, Dennis Strickland, 5; Justin Claucherty, Dakota Carlson, Eric Lee, Scott Hantz, Frank Jiovani, 4

o Joy Fair Starts: Paul Pelletier, Stan Yee Jr, 10; Craig Everage, Justin Schroeder, 9; Chris Benson, Dennis Strickland, Eric Lee, 8; Brian Bergakker, Frank Jiovani, Harold Fair Jr; Joe Hawes, Mike Root, 7

· Flat Rock 100 lap features ran between 1998-2023 (25 races)

o Overall 100 lap Winners: Brian Bergakker, 5; Dave Kuhlman, Harold Fair Jr, 4; Royce Cornett, 3; Justin Schroeder, 2; Bill Steinhilber, Dennis Strickland, Don St Denis, Paul Pelletier, Ricky Kargel, Steve Needles, Terry Senneker, 1

o Overall 100 lap Top 5: Harold Fair Jr, 11; Eric Lee, Paul Pelletier, 8; Dave Kuhlman, Dennis Strickland, 7; Brian Bergakker, 6; Jimmy Theil, Royce Cornett, Steve Needles, 5; Craig Everage, Justin Schroeder, 4

o Overall 100 lap Top 10: Dennis Strickland, 20; Eric Lee, Paul Pelletier, 12; Harold Fair Jr, 11; Royce Cornett, Justin Schroeder, 9; Stan Yee Jr, 8; Dave Kuhlman, Brian Bergakker, Ron Allen, 7

o Overall 100 lap Starts: Dennis Strickland, Stan Yee Jr, 23; Paul Pelletier, 22; Joe Hawes, 21; Eric Lee, 19; Chris Benson, 17; Harold Fair Jr, Ron Allen, 15; Justin Schroeder, 13; Mike Root, Royce Cornett, Steve Cronenwett Jr, 11

If you missed any of the racing you can find it here: www.youtube.com/@MikeMiller28. If anyone else tapes all the races let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

Did I forget your sponsorship when I wrote about you. Send me a note through Facebook Messenger www.facebook.com/icechips or an email at ddomby@juno.com. If you have a website or Facebook page you

want me to just go grab something off of, let me know and I can do that too. All I ask if you send me something is it be a couple sentences long and I’ll be happy to put it into my article