4/10/2011
Sprint Source
Ensign Scores Podium Finish at Civil War Petaluma, This Time Under a Wing
Currently sitting fourth in USAC Western Classic Sprint Series points, a series for wingless sprint cars both on dirt and pavement, Geoff Ensign was making his 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 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 part of the deal.”
Whatever changes Ensign and crew agreed on 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. When 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. Business in 2011 has just begun to pick up for Mr. Ensign.
To contact Geoff Ensign, search Geoff Ensign Motorsports on Facebook or email at geoffensign@rocketmail.com.
Submitted By: Ron Lingron
