Civil War #10 at Petaluma Speedway was a homecoming for Geoff Ensign as he came back to the place he cut his sprint car teeth after a week of frustration when he went 16 hours one way to get rained out twice in Elma, Washington. Undeterred, the Finkenbinder #3f crew and Ensign were in the pits at Petaluma Speedway to take on the traveling Hoosier Tire California 360 Sprint Car Series in their 10th of 14 races.
Ensign would time in 6th fast in qualifying in Finkenbinder’s Western Industrial X-Ray/Les Schwab Tire/ Eagle #3f, putting him on the inside of row 3 in his heat race. Luck wasn’t in the cards for Ensign in the heat race as this heat was stacked with talent and he ended up 5th after a duel with Civil War point leader Andy Forsberg and had a ticket to the B Main Event.
Ensign finished a solid 3rd in the B Main, earning his time back from qualifying behind the inversion draw, which again went against Ensign when a 10 was pulled. Ensign would start 13th.
As the A started, Ensign and Alissa Geving made contact on lap 3 as Ensign tried to pass Geving on the outside. Both cars spun, bringing out the yellow and sending both to the back. Ensign would pass Geving and move up through the field near the top 10 until a flipped car sent cars scurrying for open track. Ensign was a victim of circumstances and couldn’t avoid the stopped traffic in front of him and headed to the back for the second time in the A. Ensign would again have to start from scratch but truly made the best of a bad situation as he threaded his way through traffic in the fashion which earned him the nickname of the Human Highlight Reel, up on the high side, wheelies, near misses and an essentially doing things that has to be an only child’s mother’s worst nightmare. When the checkers flew, the Finkenbinder #3f was 10th. “I must’ve passed a hundred cars in the A.” Ensign joked. “I kept going to the back, and kept coming forward. A top 10 feels almost like a win. It was pretty simple. We just started too far back and were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Ensign reasoned.
Ensign and the Finkenbinder crew are undecided about their next move. “It’s up to Ted whether he wants to run the ASCS deal (Placerville Speedway, July 29th-30th) or not, so we’ll just see what happens.”
To contact Geoff Ensign, search Geoff Ensign Motorsports on Facebook or email him at geoffensign@rocketmail.com.
- Ron Lingron on Jul 24, 2011
- Article Date: 7/24/2011