Season opening races always arrive with so much anticipation. New or freshened equipment added with the desire to get back to racing after a nearly five month break is a big part of it. That was no different for the Benson Racing Team as they rolled into the quarter mile bullring known as Placerville Speedway nestled in the Gold Country foothills on March 28th.
With a semi fresh 4 race old 410ci motor bolted between the frame rails the team was ready to take on the top echelon of California winged 410ci sprint car racing by competing in the season opening event for the Golden State Challenge Series which annually crowns the “King of California.” A field of twenty-five cars was on hand to compete on the evening. The team could have never predicted how challenging the night would be when they rolled the car out of the trailer and made preparations for the night’s events.

As a result of a wet February and early March plus perhaps a little too much water thrown in by the track prep crew the speedway was extremely slippery. In fact it was what most racers familiar with this type of racing would refer to as “greasy”. As a result it didn’t really matter what number you drew in terms of qualifying order as everyone was challenged by the tricky surface. The Benson Racing Team came out fifteenth in the qualifying order and turned in tenth quick time with a 10.341 second tour of the high banked oval.

Mike Benson lined the Hasa 77 inside the second row of the first heat. Poised to finish in the top four and transfer directly in to the A feature things couldn’t have gone more wrong from the drop of the green flag. A competitor right behind Benson drove over the right rear wheel flattening the tire in the process and causing significant damage to the right side of the top wing. In the interest of making repairs for the B main the team took a DNF (did not finish) in the heat eventually being scored in eighth place in that event.

With high expectations the team lined up inside the third row of the 12 lap B main hoping for a transfer to the 30 lap A main. Right off the start disaster struck again as a car towards the front of the starting line up spun in turn one. Benson did his best to avoid hitting the spinning car and was nearly clear but ended up clipping it with the right rear wheel which knocked the rear-end out of the car. Fortunately for the team the incident resulted in a lengthy clean-up period which allowed the team to make repairs and return to the speedway. In the end the team was extremely happy with a third place finish in the end and a solid transfer to the A main.

The green flag dropped on the 30 lap A main with the team starting eleventh on a speedway which despite seeing an entire evening’s racing program for two different divisions still had not “come in”. In other words the speedway was still very greasy. Benson settled into a steady rhythm and tried to avoid incidents that were taking place among the leaders ahead of him. The strategy paid off as the team was solidly in the top 10 when disaster struck again. On lap eighteen a car began to flip in turn one and Benson was not able to avoid having it land right on top of the front end of the car crushing the top wing in the process. A smart move by Benson had him keep the car moving after the incident which resulted in not getting charged with the incident. In other words the team got to keep their starting position when the race re-started.

The team had to make a tough decision during the red flag period for the last incident of the event. Even though they had time to change the top wing they had only brought two of them with them to this event and the other one was mangled from the earlier heat race incident. The decision was made to make sure the wing was secure and finish the event the way it was. On the final re-start the team lined up 6th as Benson kept the car as straight as possible given the circumstances. Incredibly only one car got by on the outside late in the race so the team got to celebrate a hard earned seventh place finish.

Next week the team makes a relatively short tow to the Contra Cost County Fairgrounds in Antioch for round two of the Golden State Challenge Series at the newly re-configured Antioch Speedway. Benson hasn’t raced at the speedway in many years but did enjoy success there early in his career while he was still competing in a Minisprint. Hopefully the going won’t be so tough this time around and another top ten finish will be the end result.

The 2009 Season Begins for the Benson Racing Team!

Photo by Kenneth Flynn

More Images at John’s Racing Photos:
http://www.johnsracingphotos.com/main/2009/gscplac0309