After a Civil War top ten at Wild Winged Wednesday in Placerville in Dave Vertullo’s Starr Property Management/North County Plastering #83v, and an 11th place finish on pavement at Madera Speedway in his most recent efforts in Ted Finkenbinder’s Western Industrial X-Ray #3f, Geoff Ensign switched gears yet again and took to the road from his Sebastopol hometown in the Finkenbinder #3f and the USAC Western Classic Racing Series.
Ensign is used to the travel, and used to coming up with plans that maybe don’t match other driver’s itinerary when races come in bunches. When races call and car owners are not available to haul the car to the races, Ensign gets it done himself, often driving to Elk Grove from his Sebastopol hometow during the week to do a once over on the car, then on race day, a 2 hour drive at least to grab the Vertullo race hauler, then taking the car to the races wherever they are and then back to Elk Grove afterwards and then back to Sebastopol. Like James Brown, Ensign just may be the hardest working driver in the business. Earlier, the Finkenbinder trailer was in Anderson, CA for a USAC race and got rained out, so Ensign and crew hot footed it back to Finkenbinder’s shop in Suisun City and grabbed a 360 winged car and took back to the road to get rained out again in hotlaps at Petaluma Speedway the same day, about 8 hours of driving to get rained out twice. Make no mistake about it, the 21 year old “Human Highlight Reel” wants to race.
Last weekend, the traveler that is Geoff Ensign put more miles on the odometer, going to both USAC Western Classic races, where he sat 4th in series points by the way, at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway and Santa Maria Speedway on two consecutive nights. At Watsonville, after qualifying in the middle of the field and transferring through his heat race to the A Main event, Ensign found himself on the outside of the front row of the feature next to WCS point race rival Scott Pierovich. On the initial green, Pierovich took himself out of contention by taking a tumble and Ensign all of a sudden had a legit shot to make up serious ground with the other two involved in WCS points, Shauna Hogg and Tony Hunt, buried in the back after Hogg was caught up in that tangle as well and Hunt starting towards the end of the field. Ensign was relegated to 3rd once racing stayed green, as the Watsonville specialist Cory Kruseman took the point and Ryan Bernal was second. Bernal dropped out, and Ensign, although a solid second, was only given one legit shot at the lead on a restart, which came up short. Ensign settled into second, and finished there on the podium, his best finish this year in the WCS, topping the 3rd in Madera on his first try on pavement in Madera earlier this year.
Santa Maria was a different story, as Ensign fought through a mid pack qualifying effort, a miss in his heat race to go directly to the A Main and a trip to the B to start 14th on the grid in the A. Ensign was still looking to head to the front and gain more points on Hunt and Hogg, both admittedly better on pavement. Fate would not smile on Ensign as a flat left rear ended his night on lap 3. In the big picture, Ensign gained on Pierovich and Hogg and actually passed them in WCS points, and now sits second, albeit 60 points behind point leader Hunt. That said, numerous dirt races remain on the schedule and Hunt admits it’s not his surface, so Ensign will keep his nose to the grindstone and keep churning out the miles from track to track, working hard as always, the only way he knows how.
To contact Geoff Ensign, search Geoff Ensign Motorsports on Facebook or email at geoffensign@rocketmail.com.
- Ron Lingron on Jun 21, 2011
- Article Date: 6/21/2011