MARNE, Michigan – William Sawalich won Saturday’s Berlin ARCA 200 at Berlin Raceway the moment he took the green flag to start the ninth race of the 2024 ARCA Menards Series season.
While that’s not technically true, the reality is no one in the field Saturday evening at Berlin Raceway had anything for the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Sawalich was fastest in practice, topped the charts during General Tire Pole Award qualifying and led nearly every lap on his way to his third ARCA Menards Series triumph of the season.
“We had a really good Starkey-Sound Gear Toyota Camry tonight,” said Sawalich, who also has wins this year at Phoenix Raceway and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the ARCA Menards Series. “I didn’t know it was this good. I for sure proved a point here.”
The only time Sawalich was seriously challenged was during a restart after the first scheduled race break.
ARCA Menards Series championship leader Andres Perez was able to muscle his way past Sawalich on the outside to briefly take the lead on lap 81, but Sawalich quickly regained the top spot six laps later.
That was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect day for Sawalich, who now has seven career ARCA Menards Series victories to go along with his 2023 ARCA Menards Series East championship.
“(This is) definitely a tough track,” said Sawalich, who also won at Berlin Raceway last year. “I’m glad we got to tame it. We beat everybody pretty good, so it felt really good.”
Rev Racing’s Lavar Scott earned a career-best second-place finish Saturday night after passing Sean Hingorani with five laps left. Hingorani finished third, followed by Kris Wright and Perez.
Completing the top 10 finishers were Toni Breidinger, Greg Van Alst, Gavan Boschele, Christian Rose and Amber Balcaen.