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Photo's courtesy http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
Mike Henry earns hard-charger in Civil War Series feature at Petaluma with Ocean and Placerville double-header up next
By Gary Thomas
Petaluma, CA – September 21, 2009…Returning to the site of his Civil War Series victory on July 3 Sacramento, CA's Mike Henry made the most out of what could have been a tough night as he "turned up the heat" in the main event and charged from 20th to eighth this past Saturday night at the Petaluma Speedway.
It was a good way to the end the event after the previous series race in Chico on Wednesday September 9 had seen him make hard contact with the turn two wall, while trying to avoid a slowing car after he had carved his way from 17th to fourth in the A-main. "It was definitley a good run in the main event at Petaluma to rebound from the Invitational race," Henry said. "Getting an early number in qualifying really hurt us and we just started too far back, but we passed some cars and were really fast in the feature so I can't complain."
Henry so far this year has been very strong at the Petaluma Speedway with the California Sprint Car Civil War Series, having scored the victory on July 3 as well as tallying a runner-up finish to defending series champion and current point leader Sean Becker on July 25. The event this most recent weekend was the third to final night of action for the traveling 360 circuit and with a very greasy track to start the night Henry timed-in uncharacteristically 24th quickest out of 32 cars, as he was the second driver to hit the track in qualifying.
The former two-time Civil War Series champion was the last car to make the heat race inversion and utilizing the pole in his heat Henry rocketed away from the field aboard the Rudy and Bev Warrington No. 18 sprinter to claim victory in the 10-lap event. In fact his fastest lap of 12.421 was the quickest of any driver during heat race competition and was even under Myles Bishop's fast-time at the start of the night, showing that the surface continued to get faster as it often does in Petaluma.
With the lower qualifying time however, Henry was still forced to start way back in the 20th position for the main event and with the track staying lightning fast it would force drivers to be extremely aggressive to make moves through the pack. At the waving of the green flag the veteran throttle-masher got his "elbows-up" and started to pick off cars as he headed towards the front. Making passes high and low Henry charged around the 3/8 mile clay oval, at times bouncing around violently on the hooked-up surface and at the checkered flag brought home an eighth place finish.
The effort earned Henry the hard-charger award in the main event and marked his sixth top-10 finish in nine Civil War Series starts this season. "We were good in the main event, but just wish we could have started a little further up front," said Henry. "This team is running on a real tight budget, but we've done really well and even with missing three Civil War races this season we're closing in on the top-five in points and have a shot this final weekend to get in there. I have to keep giving thanks to Rudy and Bev Warrington for giving me the chance to run this car and I'll be trying hard to give them a win this coming weekend."
Up next for Henry and the No. 18 team will be a double-header of Civil War competition to finish off the season for the series starting with an event on Friday at Watsonville's Ocean Speedway. The evening of action will be a co-sanctioned show between Civil War and the GLR Investments 360 Series that runs at the track throughout the season. "This is going to be a pretty big event on Friday when you throw in Tarlton, Kaeding, Statler, Suggs and all the regulars down there with the Civil War drivers," Henry said. "It should be a fun show and will be one of the toughest 360 fields of the year out here along with Fall Nationals and Trophy Cup."
On Saturday night Henry will then bring the Rudy & Bev Warrington, A.R.T. Chassis sprinter into his home track of Placerville Speedway for the California Sprint Car Civil War Series season finale. The 2002 Placerville track champion finished off the Red Hawk Casino weekly season at the high-banked bullring by scoring a trio of top-five finishes, including a runner-up during championship night on September 5. Going into the weekend Henry sits sixth in the Civil War standings, 56-points behind fifth place Stephen Allard heading into Friday's event at Ocean Speedway.
More info on this weekend's events can be found at http://www.oceanspeedway.com and http://www.civilwarsprints.com
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Two-time California Sprint Car Civil War Series champion Mike Henry charged to an eighth place finish on Saturday night at the Petaluma Speedway. With the effort the Sacramento racer has moved up to sixth in the series standings despite missing the first three events of the year.
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