Lake Erie Three-peat
for Benny Gordon
(July 31, 2007) - DuBois, PA.
For Benny Gordon pit strategy was as much of the win
Saturday night at the BFGoodrichTires.com 250
presented by Longhorn as the excellent handling
racecar. There was no doubt about the tires because
the BF Goodrich radials have consistently shown they
can take the abuse. However, fuel mileage was a
major concern. The question of the night was; Would
there be a sufficient amount of caution laps to make
the race without a fuel stop? A pre-race meeting in
the hauler with driver, crew chief and gasman was
needed to review last year’s race data and draft a
strategy. The tough call would be how soon to pit
and make that important decision that would likely
cast the race results in stone. Three different
scenarios were developed. |
The Samuel Metals team poses for the second win in
2007, and Benny's third consecutive win at Lake Erie
Speedway. |
“We did not want to put ourselves in the same situation as we were
at Motor Mile and run out of gas under green,” said Benny. “Stopping
early and not taking gas meant running on “wat’cha brung” or having
to make a late race stop for a splash of fuel. Last year there were
over 70 laps of caution and almost half over those happened before
lap125. So we felt that there was a good chance based upon our
mileage in practice that we could make the race without a fuel stop
– but it would be close.”
The pit stop came early on lap 54 with over 75% of the race yet to
run. It was time to make that very important decision, two tires or
four tires, add fuel or do not add fuel. The decision was to bolt on
four fresh BF Goodrich G-Force radials and not to come back in for
fuel even though many of the other front-runners had done so. “We
put faith in the fuel numbers and the odds of having enough
cautions”, said crew chief Todd Gordon. “Seeing most of the others
stop early or come back in for fuel after tires was rough on my
nerves.” It was tense in the pits as the laps wound down and Benny
got closer and closer to the bottom of the fuel window. The crew
kept looking at the gasman seeing that he never took off his gear
and wondering if Benny was going to come back in for fuel. However,
Todd had a plan and stuck with it. As the race played out, the
caution flag flew for 83 laps including two red flags while the
track was cleared of wreck damage. “Having to stop for the red flags
and restart was not good for the fuel mileage and made the decision
that much tougher to live with.” said Todd.
On each of the restarts, Benny was able to consistently pull away
from the field and build a comfortable lead that allowed him to take
it easy on the gas petal. “I was a little concerned about the fuel
and I took every opportunity to save gas when I could”, said Benny.
“The car was rolling though the corner very well and that was where
I was making up most of the distance on the rest of the field. I
knew that the Predator Performance engine in my Samuel Metals,
Johnny’s Suzuki, Murray’s Freightliner, ADG Ford Fusion was making
good horsepower, I was just not sure we could make the distance.
Todd kept reminding me to stay off the gas and my “world renowned”
spotter Billy Farley kept coaching me to hit my marks.”
The caution laps were sufficient, the fuel was just enough and Benny
rocketed across the finish line winning the Lake Erie race for the
third time in as many years. “I was very pleased to have such a good
car that stayed with me the whole night and have the race turnout as
it did, “said Benny. “This was a huge night for us with a big crowd
from my home town of Du Bois and all but one of my sponsors here for
the race. Most importantly we had a group of over 150 guests of the
Samuel Metal Company here to watch the race including Wayne Bassett,
president of Samuel, Son & Co., Limited and Al Bromley President
Samuel - US. The Samuel folks have been very good to us this year
and we wanted give them the opportunity to share in the excitement
and celebrate with us in victory lane.”
As a footnote to the race and to put Todd and Benny’s minds at ease,
in the after the race tech inspection the car was refueled for
weight and it had just a bit over 1 gallon left in the tank. That
was cutting it close.
About Samuel
The Samuel Company is a family owned metal processing and
distributing company headquartered in Ontario, Canada with more than
80 facilities located throughout Canada and the United States and
more than 4500 employees. For more information about Samuel,
please visit www.samuel.com.
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