Story By: A2DPR / AUSTIN BERRY RACING – PORT ROYAL, PA – Austin Berry and his team spent a lot of hours in the shop during the past week to get their equipment race-ready following a taxing outing at Lincoln Speedway that left the Mifflin, PA super late model driver with a broken motor and some wrinkled sheet metal.
It had been a night that saw Berry pass a lot of race cars, only to end up with a DNF (did not finish) in the official results.
With a motor change complete and new sheet metal in place, Berry headed for Port Royal Speedway for a final shakedown before kicking off the upcoming Appalachian Mountain Late Model Speedweek in The Tire Mart Tire Pros of Harrisburg, Juniata Veterinary Clinic, Berry’s Siding & Seamless Gutter, SRI Performance, VP Racing Fuels, JDS Racing, Locust Hill Custom Butcher Shop, Nathan Berry Beef Farm, Addicted2DirtPR.com, A&C Racing Engines, GO Lithium, Valvoline Pro-V Racing, Super Clean, Rocket Chassis No.86.
Lineups for three heat races at Port Royal Speedway Saturday night were set by a pill draw. With only 24 cars signed in, all would qualify but only the top three finishers would be handicapped to the front of the starting lineup for the night’s main event.
Berry lined up 6th for his heat race and wasted no time blasting around the high side into the 2nd spot on the opening lap. He held the position until lap four when Bryan Bernheisel worked his way by.
With a top three finish carrying a lot of importance, Berry then found himself in a torrid battle with Mike Lupfer for 3rd. The side by side battle went on for several laps, with Berry prevailing by just 0.145 seconds.
The heat race effort paid dividends for Berry who earned the feature pole as a result of the handicap format. He took command on the opening lap with front row companion, Trever Feathers, following. By the end of lap two, the pair were side by side.
Berry fell to the runner-up spot for the next few circuits. His Rocket XR1 was very good through turns one and two but was struggling to get off turn four the way he needed it to. He fell to third a couple laps later.
At the halfway point, Berry found himself in 5th and he would hold that position through the checkered flag to record his second top five in his last four races.
“It was nice to be back at Port (Royal Speedway) after getting out to a couple different tracks. Was especially nice to have an uneventful night for a change.”, Berry commented.
“I was happy to see that out of all the guys who stuck with the new Hoosier Saturday night, we had good speed comparatively. I think our tire choice hurt us in the feature, but hopefully we can apply what we learned when we get back for a normal tire rule race again. I think we will have a little bit better idea of what we need to do next time.“
Be sure to scroll down or visit YouTube.com/AustinBerry86 to watch the team’s video recap! Like, comment and share the video, plus subscribe to Austin Berry Racing’s YouTube Channel to see all the great content they share!
Berry plans to run all eight Appalachian Mountain Late Model Speedweek shows, which take place in a span of ten days across central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland.
The series kicks off Friday, June 9th at Clinton County Speedway, moves to Port Royal Speedway on Saturday, June 10th and wraps up the weekend at Hagerstown Speedway on Sunday, June 11th before teams get a day off.