|
Currently sitting fourth in USAC Western Classic Sprint Series
points, and after a third place finish in his first ever pavement race at Madera Speedway with that group, Geoff
Ensign was making his 2011 debut under a wing last Saturday night at his home track
of Petaluma Speedway as both the speedway and the Hoosier Tire California 360
Civil War Series opened their 2011 seasons.
Ensign, driving the Civil War Series for Dave Vertullo in the Starr
Property Management, North County Plastering 83v, narrowly missed grabbing all
the marbles in his first outing of the year with the traveling 360 group,
finishing second after leading the first 27 laps of the 30 lap main event.
Ensign’s night started slow in hot laps, as both the recent pavement
experience and the lack of a real setup in the car put the crew and the 21 year
old behind the 8 ball to start. “I came
back to the pits after hot laps and I guess the crew was ready to make some
changes, but I wanted something different.
It’s part of coming together as a driver and crew. I’m not going to just show up with my helmet
and tell them what’s wrong and assume they’ll make the same changes I
would. I can set up a car and giving
good feedback to the crew is crucial for both me and them (to be successful).”
Whatever changes Ensign and crew agreed upon worked, as Ensign
would time in 12th quick of the 33 car field, which lined him up
outside of the second row in his heat race.
Civil War procedures automatically lock in the first four
finishers of heat races, and with a few good moves, Ensign found himself
solidly in second in his heat race and locked into the A Main. A great pill draw for the inversion put The
Human Highlight Reel on the pole for the main event.
The start of the A was delayed twice by yellows. The initial green saw a spinning car negate
an early Ensign wholeshot, and the second yellow negated an Ensign blunder,
which saw him up on two wheels, adding to his personal highlights, albeit one
he’d like to forget. Ensign is never dull. This much is fact.
Once the A Main got underway, it was clear who the fastest
car on the track was, and Ensign was behind the wheel of it. Turning the fastest lap of the main event of
13.126 at nearly 103 miles per hour, Ensign had checked out from the field
early. Yellows brought two time Civil
War Champion Sean Becker within shouting distance, but a battle never
materialized as yellows kept the leaders out of traffic and Ensign had the
fastest car on the track. While Ensign
was clicking off laps, 5 time Civil War Champion Andy Forsberg came calling
after coming from the 8th spot.
On lap 25, a yellow flag stopped Ensign’s charge to the checkers. Ensign, who had been flirting with a rut
in turn 4 all race long finally hooked it, Forsberg was there to capitalize. At
the checkers, Ensign had his second straight podium finish, the first of which
came on pavement without a wing in a 410 sprint car at Madera Speedway and this
time just one week later on dirt under a wing in a 360 sprint car. “I don’t know what happened. I thought I’d miss it(the rut). Really, I thought maybe a tire was going down
because I thought I missed it again and the handling suddenly changed or
something. I guess I just hooked it.”
Ensign said after the race.
Dejected but not disappointed, Ensign now turns the page to
another non winged pavement race in two weeks at Shasta Speedway and the Jimmy
Sills classic with the USAC Western Classic Sprint Series where he will drive
Ted Finkenbinder’s #3f for the third point race of that series.
To contact Geoff Ensign, search Geoff Ensign Motorsports on
Facebook or email at [email protected].
|
