This message was edited on
January 22, 2011 at
11:17:19 PM by HeavyMetalRacing
21 year old Geoff Ensign did some great things in 2010 and had a season most sprint car drivers would look back on and say was a rousing success. Running a part time at best, and an outright "lucky to have a car to drive at all" at worst schedule in 2009, 2010 was essentially the Sebastopol native's rookie season behind the wheel of a 360 sprint car. His family pooled their collective monies, a motor was acquired, and down the road they went. The alphabet run from the C to B to A main event at Silver Dollar Speedway ending with Ensign on the podium third in the A had to be one of West Coast Sprint Car Racing's best drives of the year. Not wanting to be pigeon-holed as a winged sprint car driver, he also put his 360, this time without a wing, in the second row of the the main event opening night of the Louie Vermeil Classic at Calistoga versus the higher horsepowered USAC 410 Sprint Cars. Just for good measure put Dave Johnson's Wingless Spec Sprint in the winner's circle twice. He logged countless miles on the family hauler on trips to races going from Chico to Tulare and everywhere in between tearing up tracks and making every race he could in a true barnstorming schedule of winged and non-winged sprint car races throughout California. He raced with USAC, Civil War, ran the Louie Vermeil Classic, the Trophy Cup and also raced for points at his home track of Petaluma Speedway when he felt like taking a break from it all. Ensign was "all over the map". Literally.
Fast forward to now, and the 2011 season is upon us and "The Human Highlight Reel" is looking at a very different scenario this year. He has tire and fuel sponsorship via Able Maintenance of Santa Rosa signed, sealed and delivered. There is a problem, however, as his motor is in serious need of refreshing. Ensign has no desire to detonate the power plant by running it further. "We can't run it without freshening it up, and the money just isn't there. We weren't a big money operation to begin with, and pretty much the family funded deal isn't available this year.", which brings us to the issue at hand....
Ensign is without a ride.
Through the doubt and the dark cloud that hangs over the 2011 Sprint Car season for Ensign, he still smiles. "I'm making some calls and have had some conversations so hopefully things work out. Winged or non-winged, I could care less as long as I'm out there."
Any plans if something doesn't work out? "I don't even want to think about that."
Geoff Ensign can be reached via his Facebook page or at [email protected].
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