DEUCES ARE WILD FOR RED HOT ENSIGN
He stepped on it Friday night.
In racing circles, "stepping on it", means an entirely different thing than when you are driving down the freeway and need to get somewhere faster. The "it" in this case is located in the lower half of the male human body equidistant from the mid thigh and the belly button
A night of hard work and good finishes set up Sebastopol's "Human Highlight Reel" Geoff Ensign perfectly for the A Main event in the $3,000 to win USAC Western Classic Sprint Car Series main event at the new Stockton 99 Dirt Speedway. Qualifying 3rd and then finishing 2nd in his heat race, Ensign started third in the A Main event aboard the VSR, McClish Motorsports, Advanced Auto Detail, Rapid Rooter, Rod Buntjer Bail Bonds, Sonoma County $100 Club, Able Maintenance #5v 360 Sprint Car.
On lap 3, Ensign went up to the top where he ran his heat race to see if there was anything left up there. "It was early enough to check it out." Ensign positively ran his car right off the track in 3 and 4 and lost 10 spots as the cars had yet to sort themselves out. "I stepped on it." Ensign would say later.
Making lemonade out of lemons, Ensign kept to his #1 gameplan on the slicked off track, conserve his tires. "It was slicked off and tires were going to be an issue. I had to do everything I could to keep the tires as good as I could for the end, regardless of where I was running." As the laps clicked off, Ensign, in conservation mode, picked off one, then two, then three cars and before you knew it, Ensign was positively on the charge from 13th, finding himself in 7th place at the halfway point, still babying his tires for later. "We were fast and I knew it, but I had to keep my tires fresh. I couldn't go go go. I had to wait wait wait but we were still passing cars." said Ensign. With less than 10 laps to go, Ensign had went through the field and caught the top 4. With 5 to go, Ensign showed up in the top three, with leader Richard VanderWeerd in his crosshairs. "It was time to go." Ensign smiled. Sneaking underneath VanderWeerd down the front straightaway, VanderWeerd slammed the door in turn 1, but Ensign stuck to the bottom, and it was winning time. "I may have gotten into the throttle more than I had been to make the pass off of 2." Ensign laughed. Two laps later, Ensign flew under the checkers to a spectacular win, from 13th after causing his own problems at the beginning. "Yeah, I had to do something good when I blew it there at the beginning." said Ensign from victory lane. "I'm glad I could win it for VSR and all my sponsors. We were fast all night long."
Less than 24 hours later and a trip 130 mile trip back home in the wee hours and another 150+ mile trip to Placerville Speedway, Ensign found himself behind the wheel of his second ride for the 2013 season, the Johnson Custom Machine #32 Wingless Sprint Car. Following a familiar pattern, Ensign qualified 2nd, ran 2nd in his heat race and this time found himself on the pole of the Joe Hunt Magneto Wingless Sprint Car shootout event. As the green flew, so did Ensign, and he hugged the bottom of the slicked off Placerville Speedway and got to the front almost immediately. Keeping to the bottom, Ensign never noticed his right front shock was useless as it had broken off at the fastener and was dangling while he stayed on the bottom. "It ended up probably being better for me. Transferred weight quicker." Ensign laughed from the pits later. Fending off all challenges Ensign flashed off of turn four and under flagman Ed Entz's checkered flag and won his 2nd race at his 2nd track in his 2nd different car in 2 days, and as a capper his lifetime victory is now 22 main event wins in just over 3 years behind the wheel of a sprint car. "Thanks as always to Dave Johnson for the rocketship tonight, I hope the fans had fun watching us." Ensign said, with his arm around owner Dave Johnson.
With a $4,000 in two days weekend, life is good for the Human Highlight Reel.
Plans are up in the air for next week, but Ensign will most certainly be racing somewhere. To find out where, LIKE his Facebook page at Geoff Ensign Motorsports, or follow him on Twitter @ensignmotorspts.
- Ron Lingron on Jun 24, 2013
- Article Date: 6/24/2013 by RJM Promotions