Catching up with the Benson Racing Team

Great run in the Gold Country Foothills:
The team made their second appearance at Placerville Speedway this past weekend and did so in fine fashion. The event was round seven of the lightning quick red clay quarter-mile facility’s seventeen race speedway championship series. It turned out to be the best outing of the season for the team thus far.
Time trials started off the evening with Mike Benson turning the fifth quickest lap out of 25 cars entered in the evening’s events. Benson’s time was notable when you consider that he turned the lap going out 23rd in the qualifying order. In contrast the quickest time of the evening was posted by the driver who was the third driver to qualify.
Another strong performance was turned in during the second heat race when Benson was able to pass two cars en-route to a fourth place finish. A fourth place or better finish is key since only the top four cars transfer directly to the evening’s 25 lap main event finale. The direct transfer also meant that Benson would be “in the inversion” which refers to the top 10 drivers by qualifying time that transfer directly into the main event guaranteed to start in the first five rows of the event.
A little luck led to Benson starting the main event outside the first row. The “inversion” is determined by a blind pill draw so the team benefited from similar luck that had them starting in the pole position (inside first row) in last year’s Calistoga Cup in which a historic victory was posted. After 25 laps the Benson Racing #77 finished out a successful evening with a third place finish.

410 Program Woes:
The team’s 410ci motor made what was expected to be the first of three scheduled appearances in the car at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico on May 9th. The night started out looking good with the motor running strong in hot laps. Benson turned two quick and smooth laps with the quickest one being good enough for tenth quick out of 21 cars entered.
Unfortunately the night took an unfortunate turn during the first heat race when Benson noticed while idling under caution that the oil pressure gauge had dropped to zero. Benson made the quick decision to shut off the engine as the team arrived on scene to get the car back to the hauler and assess the damage. It was quickly determined that the oil filter had imploded which potentially could have sent metal shards into the oil circulation system. As a result the night was over pre-maturely.
An early start to May 10th found the team tearing down the 410ci motor to further investigate the extent of the damage. At first there was optimism that there would be little to no damage when the team found most of what they would expect to find in the engine’s oil pan. Upon further inspection, however, it was determined that there was damage to internal engine components that necessitated them being sent to the team’s motor shop for repair.

Fair Time up next:
The team will make a rare Sunday race appearance in round four of the California Civil War Series which occurs during the annual Silver Dollar Fair in Chico. Since both the 410ci motor and 410ci division racing in general are taking Memorial Day Weekend off the team will be competing with the 360ci motor under the hood in what is a 360ci series.
Like all auto racing fans the team will begin the day with eyes glued on the annual running of the Indianapolis 500. The entire Calistoga based team will break with tradition somewhat by watching the “500” and having breakfast away from home probably for the first time in many of their lives. Long time Benson Racing Team supporters Chris and Kristine Lovett recently moved to Dayton, CA. which is minutes from Silver Dollar Speedway. The Lovett family will be hosting the team for breakfast / lunch / Indy 500 race viewing before sending off to the speedway to compete in the evening’s events.