(April 18, 2007) - DuBois, PA.
The first race weekend for the newly formed
North/South Motorsports began Friday with bright
sunshine and a very enthusiastic Benny Gordon.
Benny was anxious to start the 2007 Northern
Division season and proud to unveil his freshly
completed racecar and hauler emblazoned with the
colors of his new primary sponsor- Samuel Metals.
“It has been a hectic 3 weeks putting it all
together since signing our new primary sponsor,”
said Benny. “We worked hard to find a premier
company such as Samuel Metals and we are very
pleased to have them on board with us.
We have Brian Sewell of the Samuel Metals here with us to see what
it takes to field a car on the competitive Hooters Pro Cup circuit.
This is Brian’s first race and he is very excited to be here.”
Adding to the pressure of the first race weekend for 2007 was the
Speed TV crew covering the race. “The series is developing a
new coverage format with added emphasis on the teams and the
personalities,” said Benny. “We were just one of the teams
they are focusing on this week. They spent a lot of time in
the pits during practice filming and interviewing our guys.”
As for the race preparations “I was satisfied with the progress made
during practice and looked forward to a good qualifying spot.” said
Benny. “Unfortunately, the gains made in practice did not show
up in qualifying because the car was tight.” Starting twelfth
put the 2006 Division Champion at a real disadvantage with an ill
handling racecar for the beginning of the race.
The race began under heavy overcast conditions with a likelihood of
rain. Despite the threatening weather Todd Gordon, crew chief,
elected to keep Benny on the track until lap 82 before pitting for
tires and fuel. “We planned on an earlier stop but after seeing how
the race was developing I thought we needed to wait to see how the
car reacted after getting some laps.” The scoreboard showed
Benny was able to make slow progress through the field during the
first third of the race while a number of the front-runners stopped
early for their mandatory stop. “I saw that fresh tires helped
some but they fell off quickly after 5 to 10 laps on them” said
Todd.
After the pit stop, Benny lined up in the 21st place. From the
restart Benny was able to resume his progress back through the
field. “The longer the car ran the better it got after we made
those adjustments during the pit stop,” said Benny. “We really
needed green laps to get to the front.” The problem for the
entire field was the rainy weather. Several short showers
slowed the pace with cautions and brought out the red flag several
times. Benny was able to make his way to seventh place before
the final red flag of the evening. On the final restart, Benny
passed the fifth and sixth place cars moving into contention for
fourth place when he was squeezed into the backstretch wall ruining
his night. “I was concerned on each of the restarts with the
slick track conditions and the lap down cars on the inside lane.
I was afraid that we were going to get taken out by one of them
trying to get their lap back,” said Ben. “I did not expect a
veteran driver would turn right on the back stretch, run us into the
wall and take us out of competition.”
Finishing 21st is not how Benny wanted to start the season.
After the race and some time to gather his thoughts, Benny was able
to put the results into perspective. “I am not happy with the
outcome because we were coming to the front and we did not finish
there,” said Benny. “I was passing the fourth and fifth place
cars when we were wrecked. The important fact was we were
making progress and I know we made the right calls to improve the
car.”
Benny and the rest of his North/South Motorsports team will be
headed to Shenandoah in 3 weeks to try to repeat as the race winner
from a year ago.
