Brian Bergakker Snaps Winless Drought with Reveal the Hammer at Kinross

As the Reveal the Hammer Outlaw Late Models made their first-ever appearance at Kinross Raceway Park, Brian Bergakker snapped a four-year winless drought to return to victory lane with the series.

Bergakker's last victory with the Reveal the Hammer series came in 2022 at Berlin Raceway, home turf for the Middleville, Michigan native. After making the trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Bergakker flexed his muscle in the Yooper 100 for his third career Reveal the Hammer win.

Bergakker had his trepidations with the new venue at first. He wasn't certain the tight track would fit his style, and it created plenty of attrition and contact in the early laps. However, everything fell into place in the second half of the contest as Bergakker cruised to a convincing win.

"At the start of the race, I was pretty nervous. I'm not good at these types of racetracks with brakes and stuff. This thing just kind of took off with 40 or 50 to go there. I could just easily drive it, and it would go where I wanted it to. I'd use a little bit more brakes than I wanted to, but this thing was just money from the last 50 on."

Bergakker took great pride in overcoming some adversity of his own en route to the win.

"I've been hurt all weekend," Bergakker explained. "My knee's been messed up for a week. It feels good to beat the 14 car [of Mark Shook]. These guys have been on their game for two or three years now. It feels good to beat them, but I'd like to race it like that next time, too.

"We've had a rough couple of years, and we've been working really hard on this car, trying to get that feedback. We still don't have qualifying speed, but the race speed's there, so we're moving forward."

Mark Shook brought home a hard-fought second-place finish. After qualifying fourth, a 16-car invert placed Shook on the inside of row seven to start the race.

Shook found passing at Kinross difficult, but left pleased with a runner-up result and, perhaps more importantly, a clean race car.

"This place was definitely tough to pass," Shook said. "All in all, congrats to Brian and his team. Those guys earned it. They were clean. It's good to see those guys get a win. I'm glad to make it through this whole race without getting a scratch on my car. I think a lot of other people on this racetrack wish they could say the same.

"I just wish that we didn't tear up as much stuff as we did tonight. We've just got to be better. Hopefully, next time, we will be."

Zack Cook rounded out the podium with a third-place finish, staying in the mix throughout the evening. Cook took the lead on lap 10 from Matt Frazier, maintaining the top spot until Bergakker moved out front on lap 35.

"It was a good night," said Cook. "It was fun running up front with them. Ran pretty clean there for a while, played a couple of games on restarts, one way or another, and he finally got the best of me on one of them. Congrats to those guys,"

Frazier finished fourth, surviving an early incident for a strong finish. Frazier spun after contact with Scottie Lamp while battling for the lead in the opening laps, but maintained the lead following the incident. Steven Ulman completed the top five.

The Reveal the Hammer Outlaw Late Models take the track on June 13 at Russell's M-40 Speedway. The Jones, Michigan facility hosted its first Reveal the Hammer event one year ago, with Tyler Roahrig scoring the win.

-Photo credit: Cowdog Photography

Yooper 100 Unofficial Results