Geoff Ensign came into Thursday night’s USAC/CRA shootout at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway a Rookie with the USAC Western Classic Racing Series and left a Champion. After the racing was done, he had given the fans a first-hand lesson in how he earned the Human Highlight Reel tag.
Ensign, driving the Ted Finkenbinder owned Western Industrial X-Ray #3f, came in the Western Classic Racing Series point leader, leading Tony Hunt by 10 points. The WCRS races on both dirt and pavement, and Ensign has been absolutely dominant on the dirt versus the WCRS, and tonight was not any different, except this time, the USAC/CRA regulars were in town to disrupt Ensign’s little WCRS party.
At the beginning of the night, USAC Western Director of Operations Tommy Hunt gave Ensign the news that he had clinched the dirt title in the new series and the night was off to a great start.
In qualifying, Ensign came out and lived up to the Human Highlight Reel nickname, biking the car in turns 3 and 4 and nearly flipping on lap 1, but made up for it on lap 2, setting a new all-time track record of 14.03 seconds. The track would get faster as qualifying wore on, and four more cars topped Ensign’s mark, so Ensign would end up 5th overall, earning a 7th place starting position in his heat race. Starting inside of one of his all-time heroes Jac Haudenschild, Ensign knifed through the field to third place and an automatic transfer to the A Main.
Starting 5th in the A Main event, behind USAC/CRA stars Mike Spencer, Matt Mitchell, young phenom Shane Golobic and National ASCS Rookie of the Year Kyle Hirst, Ensign shot to the lead by the end of lap 1, which was negated by a yellow flag. The second restart went differently and Ensign settled into 4th, picking his way through the field. By lap 8, he had found the top side to his liking, and although it wasn’t the smoothest line around, it was Ensign’s fastest and he blew past early leader Shane Golobic on the top side and into the lead on lap number 8, the crowd buzzing at the drive to the front by the newly turned 22 year old from Sebastopol, CA. A yellow would come out two laps later, and Ensign was victimized by the same sword he wielded to the front on the top side, when he picked up a push and was passed for the lead by Matt Mitchell. Ensign was in chase mode and the top side bit Ensign one more time and Ensign did everything but turn the car over, coming to a stop in turn 4. His run to the checkers negated after 11 spectacular laps, Ensign made repairs and joined the rear of the field, noticing right away the car would not handle, a victim of a replaced drag link that was shorter than the one originally on the car. Fighting the handling for the remainder of the race, Ensign still found himself moving forward, and passed Tony Hunt along the way, and ended up finishing the highest of all WCRS regulars, earning first place points in the WCRS field, 13th overall.
After the races were over, Ensign was presented with two honors, one the WCRS Dirt Champion, and the second, the WCRS main event winner plaque winner designating him the fastest of the WCRS cars in competition, his 4th main event win of the WCRS season and 5th overall. At the end of the night, Ensign had extended his WCRS lead to 15 points over Tony Hunt with three races remaining in the overall point chase. With all of the races on pavement, Ensign knows he's in deep. When asked his plan to go faster on pavement, Ensign, tongue firmly in cheek, answered “go ask Tony (Hunt) for some help”.
Ensign is back in action, this time under a wing, for tonight and tomorrow night’s World of Outlaw show at the very same Silver Dollar Speedway before heading to Madera Speedway next week to continue his quest for the overall USAC Championship with the WCRS.
To contact or follow Geoff Ensign, search Geoff Ensign Motorsports on Facebook or email the Human Highlight Reel at geoffensign@rocketmail.com.
- Ron Lingron on Sep 09, 2011
- Article Date: 9/9/2011