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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Mike Henry races to 4th place finish at Antioch Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Antioch, CA – July 19, 2008…With the Golden State Challenge Series season winding down Sacramento’s Mike Henry is closing out his initial campaign on a good note after tallying a fourth place result at the Antioch Speedway to score a top five finish for the second Saturday in a row.
The third to final Golden State Challenge Series event of the season began with Henry clocking the fourth fastest lap of the night in qualifying and driving the Royal Lagoon Pools, World Environmental No. 93 to a fifth place finish in the opening heat race.
He then drew the number two pill to give him a front row starting spot in the dash, but at this time of the night there wasn’t much traction off the corners as Henry slipped back to third on the start. He then proceeded to hold off a strong challenge from point leader Jonathan Allard to finish in the third spot and give him a second row starting position for the feature.
The Antioch Speedway surface routinely becomes tricky to navigate during the main event and this night was no different as various rough spots had developed, creating an interesting 30 laps of racing. Henry fell into line fourth on the start and after a couple of laps would lose a spot to Tyler Walker. The former two-time Civil War Series champion then had an exciting wheel to wheel duel with Tommy Tarlton over a number of laps.
Henry fought off Tarlton as they battled it out on the tight-bullring going nose to tail and side by side through slower traffic. The driver of the C & H Veteran Enterprises Maxim was able win out on the battle as Tartlton bicycled in turn two and fell back. After a long green flag run, the red flag then appeared on lap 22 as Allard flipped on the backstretch after contact from a lapped car and it moved Henry up to fourth for the restart.
With eight laps remaining in the race Henry drove smooth and consistent over the final laps to bring home a fourth place finish and record his sixth top five of the Golden State Challenge Series season. It capped off a good weekend for the No. 93 team as Henry also started 15th and finished eighth at the Ocean Speedway to score his best finish of the season at the track on Friday night.
Henry and HMH Motorsports will now head to the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico next weekend to finish off the Golden State Challenge Series season with the annual two-night finale. On Friday night the A-main event will pay $4,000 to win with extra money coming in from Specialized Parts Planet and Saturday’s finale will be the first Tribute to Gary Patterson held at the track.
The entire weekend will also feature a $1,000 bonus put up by Cherry St. Mini Storage to the driver who tallies the most points over the two-night show. Henry will look for a strong weekend to conclude his first full season of competition with the traveling Golden State Challenge King of California 410 Sprint Car Series. Going into the final two nights the Sacramento driver sits fourth in the GSC point standings.
More info on the big weekend can be found at http://www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com in the coming week.
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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