Big Track Report

The Benson Racing Team competed on the two biggest tracks the Civil War Series schedule has to offer on June 14th and 21st. June 14th featured the half mile Calistoga Speedway which is the team’s home town track and the one they want to win at more than any other. The June 25th event required the team to make a fairly long tow to American Valley Speedway which is a 3/8ths mile track high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains located in the logging town of Quincy.
As the defending “Calistoga Cup” champion the stakes were high for the team in front of the home town crowd. Mike Benson was the sixth car to qualify and being early in the qualifying order proved to not be an advantage on this evening. The only car that qualified in the top five that was among the first six cars to take time trial runs was Willie Croft who went out just ahead of Benson in the qualifying order and ended up fifth quick. The remaining four of the top five fastest cars came out twenty-first or later to qualify. After 37 cars took time trial runs Benson Racing was 19th quickest.
The good news about the time trial run was that it placed the team on the outside of the first row in the third heat race. Needing to finish fourth or better to transfer directly to the feature event Benson was able to accomplish that by maintaining his starting position and finishing second in the event. The team went to work preparing the car for battle in the feature event and kept an eye on the changing track conditions.
With a starting position of sixteenth the team definitely had their work cut out for them. The feature event was twenty laps and the racing surface had dried considerably by the time the green flag was dropped. After the checkered flag was flown twenty laps later the team was in eleventh and, while far from a victory, they were satisfied that they were able to improve their starting position by five spots.
Fast forward a week to American Valley Speedway and the team was competing at a facility they had never even seen before. In fact a majority of the thirty two teams set to compete in the event had never competed at this speedway. To help with this the event promoters hosted a practice session on June 20th. The Benson Racing team participated in the practice session and gained valuable knowledge that they quickly put to use on Saturday.
The team was able to qualify ninth quick which they were enthused about as it placed them “in the inversion” should they be able to transfer directly out of their heat race. Unfortunately the narrow and “paper clip” style race track made it difficult not only for the Benson Racing team to transfer out of their heat race but a majority of the fastest competitors ended up having to compete in the evening’s semi main. With a seventh place finish in the first heat race the team found themselves in fast company in the twelve lap semi main which transferred six cars to the feature event. Unfortunately the team found themselves on the outside looking in when they were unable to improve on their seventh place semi main starting position.
With two tough weekends under their belt the team takes a week off and looks forward to the annual Fourth of July Parade in downtown Calistoga. The Benson Racing 77 will be among the parade participants which is a continuation of a tradition the team has since its inception. After a celebration of Independence Day the team will be competing on July fifth at Petaluma Speedway in round seven of the California Civil War Series for winged 360ci sprint cars.