July 17th, Berlin Raceway-Johnny Benson Night (Rain-out make-up)
Results
July 17th, Marne, MI, Berlin Speedway-Johnny Benson Night (7/16 mile asphalt)
Qualified: 15th, 16.56 sec
Heat (8 laps): Started-7th, Finished-5th
Feature (25 laps): Started 12th, Finished-8th
Official results and full run-down at www.wingedmidegts.com
Next Race: July 24th, Owosso Speedway, Owosso, MI
Upcoming events: August 1st, Calhoun County, Springport, MI; August 7th, Columbus Speedway, Columbus, OH; August 8th, Spartan Speedway, Mason, MI
This week-end we made the 4 hr trek to the Grand Rapids, MI area. It was Johnny Benson Night at Berlin
Speedway, and yes, Johnny Benson was there, and he was very fast in the late model feature. Anyway,
the show was delayed about an hour and half after a brief rain shower came through as the midgets were
almost done qualifying. We put in a decent qualifying run through the sprinkles, but still ended up
15th. That was quite an accomplishment though because the car wouldn't even run for the first hot
laps session. The timing had jumped on it, and we never got a green flag lap. I thought we did pretty
well for only one practice session. The car was a little bit loose in qualifying, so I suggested we
tighten it up a bit for the heat. Well, the car raced ok in the heat, but I got behind some guys that
we having engine problems which put a LOT of distance between me and the rest of the pack. The changes
we made caused the car to be a little too tight though. For the feature, we put the qualifying set-up
back on. We were starting near the back, so we had nothing to lose. I knew the car starting on the
inside of me could possibly have an oil leak. Unfortunately, at the drop of the green, they got ahead
of me, and their oil leak definitely came back. I couldn't see anything as my visor was soaked with
oil, and dropped the car off the inside of the track in turn 4 right over a drainage grate which slowed
me up dramatically. Luckily, the car was ok. I was able to get around the leaking car, but then
there was another car with problems that cost us track position. The leaders were from behind quickly
now. The leader passed me going into the 1st turn, but luckily the caution had come out due to the
leaking car and I was still on the lead lap. Soon after the restart, a car dropped its right rear
wheel off the back-stretch sending him almost out of control. Luckily, he was able to save it though
and keep going. Not 2 laps later, another car did the same thing, but he wasn't so lucky. He went
spinning through the grass, off the back-stretch and into the styro-foam barriers. They ended up
red-flagging the race, but he was ok, and the car wasn't in too bad of shape either. When we
restarted, we were running 8th. The rest of the race I was battling with our good friend, Kent
McCloskey from Walbridge. We had to put the battle on hold for a little bit when the leaders came
through, but we got back at it after that. The car was starting to push a little more as the laps
wore down. I was finally in position to make a pass when faster cars came from behind again. I gave
them the preferred line whiched caused me to loose ground on Kent. I wasn't able to get back up to
him in the remaining laps, and we came home 8th. We were happy with the night though, bringing the
car home in one piece and possibly finding the problem to handling woes.
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