In the words of Tyler Rycenga, his 2023 season racing at Michigan’s Berlin Raceway was “a big year filled with a lot of exciting moments — and a lot of wins.”
In just his second full year of racing, Rycenga scored nine victories and 20 top-five finishes in 22 races on the way to a championship in Berlin’s Limited Late Model division. The highlight of his season came Aug. 3, when he won a race on the same night the Superstar Racing Series visited the NASCAR Home Track in Marne, Michigan.
“I would say the biggest win of my career was the night Berlin had SRX there,” Rycenga said. “It was definitely a night to remember. The place was packed, and there were a lot of people there.
“Just to win against the caliber of teams and drivers that we have in our division, to top it off you’re racing in front of a lot of Cup Series and high-profile NASCAR and IndyCar drivers, F1 drivers, Hall of Fame drivers. It was a really cool experience, for sure.”
By that point in the summer, Rycenga had the track championship almost in the bag.
He rolled to victory, winning the title by 162 points. All he had to do on championship night was take one lap, but he still made sure in the final race to put a cherry on top of a dream season.
“With about two weeks to go we had a pretty good idea that all we had to do was show up and qualify our way in,” Rycenga said of championship night. “Then it didn’t really matter what happened in the feature. From there we had a good qualifying effort. We qualified third, and then we started the feature sixth or seventh, and we all ended up winning the feature.
“It was definitely an exciting night that capped everything off, and it was nothing better than having a good qualifying effort, and then winning the race and the championship on the same night.”
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Rycenga chalked up his success to the team improvements in qualifying and getting more consistent finishes than in years past. He credited his team — Brian Campbell, Henry Fellows, Henry Rosendahl and his father-in-law Mike Bursley — as well as other family and friends who were there along the way.
It was those same team members who got Rycenga into racing at Berlin in the first place. He grew up around the sport, racing go-karts as a kid and Legends cars as a teenager, and started helping Campbell on his pit crew in 2012.
Nine years later, the team was building a new car, and it was decided Rycenga would drive it.
“I think I blame it on them,” Rycenga said with a laugh. ” We all kind of joke about it now.”
While racing half the season in 2021, Rycenga won six of the seven races he entered.
“We didn’t really know what we were, didn’t really have high expectations, didn’t really know where we were going to stack up, but right out the gate we came out and we were pretty dominant,” he said. “I attribute it all to the racing team that helps me out, Lakeshore Motorsports. Honestly, if it weren’t for those guys, I’d be nowhere.”
From the get-go this season, Rycenga had a lot of confidence in his car, his team and himself. That doesn’t mean the racing was easy.
He acknowledged there are always variables and risks every time the green flag waves. Plus, there was a lot of competition with a lot more time on the track than him.
“There’s just a lot of great competition and a lot of guys,” Rycenga said. “We added up the years of racing experience… and it was over 200 years of experience that we had split between three or four competitors that we’re racing against each and every week, so there’s a lot of guys that have a lot of laps and a lot of time in a race car at Berlin. It makes each and every night exciting.”
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Next season will bring its own set of challenges for Rycenga. The team sold the championship-winning car and is in the process of building a new one. He’ll move up to Berlin’s Pro Late Model division, where he’ll race against Campbell, who won the track title last season.
Even though he was hesitant to race against his longtime friend, he’s excited to have a teammate in the series to share notes and work alongside.
“We’re a team, and we’re going to go about the right way,” Rycenga said. “I’m super excited to have a new challenge and a new change of scenery and new competitors and see what’s where we stack up.”
Even though he’s only been racing at Berlin since 2021, Rycenga is well aware of what a championship at the historic track means.
“There’s just a lot of history and a lot of well-known drivers have come up through the ranks, and it all started for them at Berlin,” he said. “Johnny Benson, the Sennekers, a lot of Cup drivers have been there. And Kyle Busch has won a lot of races at Berlin. Yeah, it means a lot.”
Rycenga gave thanks to his sponsors: Fifth Wheel Freight, Mike Bursley with the Mark Deering team and Remax, NAPA Auto Parts of Holland, Michigan, CJ’s Coatings and Sealants, and Lakeshore Concrete Solutions for their support.