Berry Closes Out First Complete Speedweek with Top 10

While their average finishing position and final points position both fell a little short of their goals, there were several positive takeaways from their Appalachian Mountain Speedweek experience and performance.

Six of the possible eight A-mains were raced and Berry made five of them.  In those five starts he logged a podium, a top ten and three lucky 13th place finishes.  But that doesn’t really tell the story.

Berry hit the track for competitive action 12 times and gained positions in 8 of those.  In the 3 times he lost positions, 2 of those were only 1 spot.

Berry’s overall net positions for Speedweek heat races, dashes and features combined was  +23 positions.  That’s a stat representative of a team that knows how to race but needs to improve their time trial program.  When they do, they will be a consistent contender for wins.

“The past ten days has been invaluable experience for me and the team.  We don’t usually get to time trial much and so I would get nervous, but after a few nights in this series it became standard procedure and I got a lot more comfortable with it.  That’s the part of our program we still need to improve…both the car and me…but we made a lot of progress this week.“, Berry said.

“It was a lot of work to run this series but I enjoyed it no matter how little sleep I got.  We got to experience a lot of different disciplines by running all week.  Different tracks, different conditions, recovering from a crash…it will all help our program in the end.”

Berry and his team improved little things as the week went on.  Things that will prepare them better even for weekly racing the rest of the season.

“We had thoughts of going out to Lernerville to run the Firecracker 100.  That’s something I eventually want to do but we have a lot of equipment to go over and maintenance…not just the race car but also the four wheeler, the generator, the truck, everything.  Plus, the guys and I have to get back to our day jobs and frankly everyone is pretty worn out from the long hours, travel and everything it took to run eight races in ten days.  That said, we don’t regret a second of it.“

Berry finished the series 11th in points, just 16 outside of the top ten…and the money.  If not for circumstances beyond their control at Hagerstown and Path Valley, it is very likely the team would have finished the series inside the top ten.  That is part of racing though.  Much of what happens is not in your control.

“I’ll definitely come back and run it again but I know what we need to improve and change to be ready to do it again.  If and when we do this again, it will be to run top five in the points.”, Berry concluded.