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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Mike Henry races to podium at Placerville
By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA – June 2, 2008…Returning to Placerville Speedway for the first time since winning in March, former track champion Mike Henry put together another strong night this past Saturday by driving to a third place finish, marking his third top five result of the Golden State Challenge Series season.
The podium finish was a nice rebound for the Sacramento driver after a few weeks of finishes that weren’t up to his liking. Early in the year Henry started out his inaugural GSC campaign very strong, but the last month or so hasn’t gone quite as well and he looked forward to getting back to his home track of Placerville Speedway hoping to change things around.
The event on Saturday at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds bullring marked the 14th race of the Golden State Challenge Series season and a total of 23 winged sprint cars were on hand for the night. Henry was the very first driver to take to the clocks in qualifying and his fastest lap of 10.596 was good enough to the place the Royal Lagoon Pools, World Environmental No. 93 fifth fastest overall.
Henry then lined-up in row three of his heat race and quickly locked himself into the fifth and final transfer spot. After a handful of laps however, a nozzle line got knocked off and started spilling fuel out. Henry decided to keep running and was able to bring home the final transfer spot at the stripe. As he got off the gas though he was hit from behind and came to a stop in turns one and two. Henry leaped from the car and rolled around on the ground for a few seconds until the fire crew got over to put the fire out.
After being taken back to the pits on the quad Henry had some good fortune in the dash pill draw as he got the number two pill which gave him a front row starting position for the six lap contest. The two-time Civil War Series champ got the jump in the dash and led all the way to the final corner when 410 veteran Tim Kaeding was able to get underneath him and steal the win away. The runner-up finish still gave him a front row starting spot for the feature however, and put him on the preferred outside groove.
The 30 lap Golden State Challenge Series main event went green with 22 competitors battling it out on the tight, high-banked, red clay bullring. Henry blasted into the lead off the fourth corner and would lead for three laps until Kaeding got a run off turn two, relegating the C & H Veteran Enterprises Maxim back to the second position. He then had to deal with current GSC point leader Jonathan Allard who was coming quickly.
A number of cautions and reds plagued the main event and slowed the flow of the feature as Henry tried to chase down Kaeding and keep Allard at bay. With the race winding down Allard was able to slide underneath Henry in the fourth corner for the runner-up spot, putting the HMH Motorsports No. 93 back to the third position. Henry then had to hold off Tyler Walker over the final laps and did a good job to do that and bring home a third place finish at the checkered flag.
“I’m happy to be standing up here after earlier in the night when we had a nozzle line come off in the heat race,” Henry said following the race. “We needed a good run and I’m happy to be up front here in Placerville. I want to thank my car owners Steve Harris & Joe Maffara as well my crew who have been working hard. I also want to thank all my sponsors and especially the fans for coming out and supporting us tonight,” he concluded.
After the night of racing in Placerville Henry now finds himself sitting fourth in the Golden State Challenge Series standings as the traveling 410 circuit heads for the Petaluma Speedway this Saturday night. During the previous series visit to Petaluma Henry made a couple late race passes to give him a third place finish in the 30 lap feature.
Following the event this Saturday Henry will gear up and get ready for the his first visit to the Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington for the 37th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup, which will happen on June 19, 20 and 21. The Golden State Challenge Series will go dark on June 14th allowing competitors a chance to have everything fresh for the huge event that will pay $25,000 to win at the blazing fast Skagit Speedway clay oval.
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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