By T.J. Buffenbarger
(August 26, 2026) — Occasionally a race car driver gets on a hot streak where proper preparation and skill intersect with a bit of luck that defies the odds. Tyler Roahrig is amid one of those streaks as he attempts to keep his undefeated streak alive competing at Berlin Raceway in the 500 Sprint Car Tour.
Roahrig, from nearby Plymouth, Indiana, has yet to lose a 500 Sprint Car Tour event at the tricky Marne, Michigan oval, winning the past six feature events contested there. While Roahrig is among the most talented drivers in the 500 Sprint Car Tour field and his team is one of the most prepared in the pit area, winning that many times without having some sort of issue out of his team’s control spoiling one of those nights is remarkable.
“It makes me think sometimes I’m just due to lose one of them,” said Roahrig while preparing his race car for Friday’s event. “We haven’t had any wrecks, flat tires, mechanical failures or anything like that that’s taking us out of the race.
The winning streak started out of frustration after the start of a two-day weekend for the 500 Sprint Car Tour in 2022 after Roahrig finished second to another great pavement sprint car driver at his home track, Plymouth Speedway before going to Berlin on Saturday.
It’s honestly kind of a funny story. We raced at Plymouth on Friday and Kody Swanson won while I ran second,” said Roahrig. I just want to do something different, so I worked all night and completely changed my setup. All kinds of stuff on the car and we went back to Berlin the next day.”
“I was thinking we were probably going to suck and didn’t know what to expect, then we fastest in both practice sessions, fastest in qualifying, and won the race. That was not what I forecasted, but we’ve just kind rolling from there.”
Since that outing Roahrig has been the fast qualifier in all six of those 500 Sprint Car Tour event at Berlin and led 156 out of 200 laps during the feature events.
Roahrig is a product of a racing family from the Northwest Indiana pavement super late model racing scene, which competitors frequently head north to compete in Michigan. Part of Roahrig’s edge is years of watching and driving laps around tracks in the area, which are often unique in shape compared to paved tracks in other areas.
“I think it’s a huge advantage,” said Roahrig while taking a break from working on his car. “A lot of people don’t look forward to going to Berlin, and I do look forward to it. It’s such a unique and tricky racetrack. You’re always turning and it’s just a different style of racing. West Michigan has a lot of tracks like that where there’s not a lot of straightaway. Look at Kalamazoo Speedway, maybe M40 Speedway would be another example. Those rounder places just kind of suit me because it’s kind of what I grew up racing.”
While Roahig admits the track time in super late models does help with the sprint car, driving the two cars at Berlin is a completely different experience
It’s quite a bit different actually,” said Roahrig. “What’s crazy is in our Outlaw Late Model we will turn some mid to high 14 second laps there qualifying. In the sprint car like the first time I went there with it I would have guessed we would be in the sixteens or seventeens because of how slow it felt. We ended up running like a 15-four or something there. In the late model I’m driving it as hard as you can whereas the non-wing sprint car, I’m trying to not drive nearly as hard. You just got to be really disciplined.”
Adding a degree of difficulty to extending his 500 Sprint Car Tour win streak at Berlin is extensive repairs needed to his nearly 20-year-old sprint car, which he has utilized in all six of his victories at Berlin Raceway and the only sprint car his team has highly customized with a lot of components that were constructed by themselves.
“That’s one thing that kind of worries me more this weekend is just because I’m still putting this thing back together from our Little 500 crash and it’s basically like a new car,” said Roahrig. So, there are a lot of unknowns”
Notes…
• Friday night is busy in West Michigan for sprint car fans with the above mentioned 500 Sprint Car Tour event at Berlin Raceway and the Great Lakes Traditional Sprints competing at I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Michigan kicking off their last weekend of competition for the 2026 season.
With Berlin starting their racing program at 6:30 P.M. with sprint car qualifying and I-96 having four classes of cars and mini-wedges with an 8:00 P.M. start, there is the possibility of doing a sprint car double with the tracks only being approximately 45 minutes apart.
The only potential hold up on that is Berlin running the 50-lap sprint car feature last on their program, but it is worth monitoring for those that enjoy trying to see multiple races in the same night.
• Joining the 500 Sprint Car Tour will be the USSA Kenyon Midgets making their final appearing in Michigan for the 2026 season. Hunter Peri picked up his first career Kenyon Midget victory last Saturday at Lincoln Park Speedway.
• The season finale for the Great Lakes Traditional Sprints takes place on Saturday at the Silver Bullet Speedway in Owendale, Michigan. Korbyn Hayslett holds a 98-point lead over Brian Ruhlman for the GLTS championship going into the final two races of the season.
• Dan McCarron will attempt to increase his 96-point lead over Joshua Turner in the sprint car track championship at Butler Motor Speedway on Saturday. Turner, the second-place finisher in the points last season to Jason Blonde by 13 points, will look to close that gap with four races remaining the 2026 season.
• The Great Lakes Super Sprints have a two-day weekend lined up in Ohio starting Friday for their first appearance at Mansfield Speedway in Mansfield, Ohio before heading north to Millstream Speedway in Findlay, Ohio on Saturday.
Max Stambaugh now holds a comfortable 88-point lead over Chase Dunham in the overall tour point standings while Mason Hannagan leads Stambaugh by 21 markers in the Ohio tour points.
• Our condolences go out to the family of GLSS competitor Graham Huffman, whose grandfather Terry Pletch passed away on Tuesday. Huffman is in his first year of sprint car competition coming out of karting and micro sprints. Turning 16 years old this week, Huffman is expected to make his 410 sprint car debut later this month.