By T.J. Buffenbarger
(July 30, 2022) — Ryan Litt waited two years during the pandemic to come back to the United States to race his pavement sprint car. Saturday night Litt’s patience was rewarded with a feature victory at Berlin Raceway with the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Litt, from London, Ontario, charged from third to first on a restart and held off veteran driver Jason Blonde during multiple restarts over the final five laps of the main event for the victory.
After struggling with his car during the early portion of the year, Litt and his team decided to change things up leading into the Berlin event.
“We tried something new with the setup the last few weeks, and it was just dog shit. So we went back to our old our old notes and car was just amazing,” said Litt. “This is the bestbest it’s been in three years. The first lap of practice I knew I had something for them.”
The 10-car inversion put ick Holley and National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum inductee Jeff Bloom on the front row for the 30-lap feature event. Bloom to the lead on the opening lap with Holley and Jewell in tow. Blonde quickly moved up through the field from eight starting position into third on the opening lap.
Jason Dollinar brought out the first caution flag when he rolled to a stop in turn one after contact with Tom Jewell, who had just contacted the wall. Dollinar was unable to make repairs for the restart.
During the double file restart Bloom regained the lead with Ryan Litt challenging Holley for second, then driving to the lead on lap three to take the lead off turn four.
Blonde disposed of Bloom for third on lap four and started to work on Holley to keep pace with Litt. On lap five Bloom fell off the pace and fell out of the feature event.
The race for second quickly became a three-car race as Charlie Schultz caught up to Holley and Blonde while Litt motored away from the rest of the pack.
Blonde was able to get a run under Holley on lap 12 to take second going into turn one.
Blonde caught a break when the caution flag appeared with 13 laps complete.
Litt chose the inside of the double file restart. Blonde was able to get to the outside of Litt in turns three and four but could not make the pass. By lap 16 Litt was able to open a 0.110 second advantage over Blonde.
Blonde turned up the wick with eight laps to go, smoking the right rear trying to keep pace with Litt when the caution flag came out for Schultz, who was running third, rolling to a stop in turn four with a flat right rear tire. Schultz’s crew was able to change the tire so he could join the back of the field for the restart.
The single file restart with five laps to go saw Blonde move to the outside of Litt off turns three and four, but could not make the pass. The caution appeared again though for Bobby Komisarski spinning in turn two.
Blonde tried pressuring Little over the final five laps sliding his car around the racetrack, but could not keep pace as little drove to victory. Blonde, Joe Ligouri, Holley, and Charlie Schultz through the field to round out the top five.
Afterwards Litt knew what kind of challenge he had on his hands with Blonde in second position during multiple late race restarts but withstood the pressure.
“Jason (Blonde), he’s always the best on restarts. I knew he was going to try him on the outside. So, I just had to put my foot in it for the first two or three laps here and get going.”
Must See Racing
Berlin Raceway
Marne, Michigan
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Engine Pro A-Feature (30 laps)
1. Ryan Litt [10]
2. Jason Blonde [8]
3. Joe Liguori [9]
4. Rick Holley [1]
5. Charlie Schultz [7]
6. Tom Jewell [4]
7. Adam Biltz [6]
8. Teddy Alberts [5]
9. Todd McQuillen [12]
10. Andrew Bogusz [11]
11. Bobby Komisarski [16]
12. Joshua Sexton [14]
13. Tim Henthorne [13]
14. Jeff Bloom [2]
15. Tom Geren [15]
16. Jacob Dolinar [3]