The Keeppers

During the Heat race at Midway the 6.00 gear stripped due to the axle not being the correct length on each side of the rearend so only one tire was spinning…I pulled off the track. We had a 5.83 back up gear and we had enough time to put it in between the heat and feature. Since I won last time I was at Midway I had to start the feature in the 12th position next to Dylan. After a little over half the race was over I had worked my way up to 3rd…when making a clean inside pass on Rattree (20) whom was in 3rd. On the pass Rattree came down from the high side trying to block me off before corner 3-4 but I was already there so instead of acknowledging the error he was about to make he thought he could try and cut me off which resulted in him actually side swiping me and my car turning around. I had to restart in the back and there were not enough laps left so I was only able to get back to 6th. I would have finished 2nd for sure if not won if it hadn’t been for Rattree.

So I drew 62 out of 70 so that means I’m going to be starting at the back. Since Monett uses passing points that is not always a bad thing. It was the last night of points racing so there were 20 cars, enough for 3 heats…and most of the really fast ones were there. During the heat my car was great. Within two laps I was in 2nd place…and with no cautions I made it to the bumper of B. Brown (69) who started on the pole and didn’t have to pass any cars. Brown is fast and has won a couple features at Monett this year. During the feature I was on the outside front row with J. Holloway (21) on the pole. He is very fast and I believe has won 3 races at Monett this year. On the green I beat Holloway to corner 1-2 which was very important…I felt the high side had the advantage. I noticed going into each corner the track was slick going in so I had to play it safe as I didn’t want to go in too hard and slide off the track. I quickly found that I had two choices, either run the ridge all the way along the high side or point my car down and try and bring my car off the top catching some of the tacky stuff on the inner part of the track. I choose the latter which worked well on both sides of the track. It is unusual that both sides of the track would be so identical like this but it was and so I used my strategy in both corners and it worked. I went soft into the corners, slid up the track a little, pointed the car down, tapped the gas to get to the tacky part and then floored it through the straight away. I had the whole track so I could do whatever I wanted and my strategy worked well enough that no one could catch me. There was one restart and I was told I put a 7 car lead on Holloway by the first corner. He eventually got passed on the last lap by B. Brown (69). Even after the restart I didn’t so much as see the nose of another car the entire race. The good news is my car was awesome, the motor was awesome and I managed to pull off my 3rd win at Monett…which I believe ties Holloway for the most so far this season. On the racing blog today someone posted… “Solberg’s new motor is a rocket! Dude was bad fast last night…congrats on the win in the FS!!”

Let’s get the embarrassing part out right away…I ran out of gas during the heat race. We knew we were low but thought we had enough to get us through the heat…plus we didn’t think we had enough time before the Heat so that was a mistake. During the feature I moved from 11th to 7th. Mostly just sat behind a big blockade of cars which I couldn’t get around. After a caution on lap number 4 a bolt came out of my upper rear trailing arm so on the restart my car leaned over and slashed my right rear tire. This was the first night back racing with my new motor and my engine builder was pretty concerned when he saw all the smoke and then we told him it wasn’t the engine that was smoking but the tire. When I watched the video back I can see why as that was a lot of smoke for one blown tire.

He started the heat forth and spent most of the time getting the feel of the track but still got second. They drew a three so he started third. On the second lap the top two cars wrecked but one of them got there spot back so Dylan was in second. It took four laps but got by with Sundance right behind him. Sundance was a little faster but got taken out with about half the race left. From there on Dylan led it to the checkered.

Isaac took the car out for hot laps and we discovered that the right rear rotor had broken off. Someone said they saw something spark and come off the car. We had the parts to fix it but not the time to bleed the brakes so I had no brakes during the heat. K Jackson (65) was on my inside, 2nd row. I was able to use the high side to my advantage, the car would push up the track, then I would slam on the gas so the back end of the car would turn my back side around and then I moved nicely down the track. Racing with no brakes is no fun but the fact that this track is high banked and I was running the high side I was able to work myself into first place. Then the engine blew. It was my back up engine and this is the first time I had raced it at a big track. The engine could have not been ready for the demands on such a track and so we’ll wait until my primary engine gets rebuilt and we’ll get back to racing. Until then it looks like I have at least a week off. L Henderson (76) won. With a heat race win I believe I would have had a good chance at a feature win but it wasn’t in the cards for today.

During the Heat I had to start in the back at Midway. I got side swipped twice by K Jackson (65) and the second one caused my left rear to go flat. I decided to continue racing since I had moved up to 4th from 8th. During the next two or three laps my electrical problem surfaced again but I stayed out and only got passed by one car so finished 5th. Since the 83 won last week they didn’t count his finish (winner starts 11th) and so that put me in the top 4 for the lottery. They drew a 4 and that put me from 4th to on the pole. Isaac found the electrical problem before the feature. The car was the fastest yet at Midway and at one point I had about a 1/2 track lead on the 2nd place car. Only one caution and I then took off and put a distance on again. I was proud to be the first driver at Midway to have two wins, up until now there had been no repeat winner. The car was so good that Harold the track owner told the tech barn to look over my car well before giving me my trophy. The truth is that I hadn’t changed a thing on my car other than fixed the electrical problem. After the race Cook (37 camaro) said that before the caution that he thought he was racing L Henderson (76) for the lead and didn’t realize that he was actually racing 76 for 2nd as I was so far in the lead he didn’t even see me. The car couldn’t have been any better and I was thrilled with the win.

Here is the write up on Midway’s website:
In Factory Stock action, Ben Solberg became the 1st repeat winner in 10 races this season over a very talented field taking advantage of his outside front row starting spot. Solberg jumped to the lead over Sundance Keepper on the start as all eyes were back on the battles with Robbie Bryant, Todd Cook, Bobby Ratterree and Lonnie Henderson. On lap 7, Bryant moved around Sundance Keepper to grab second place but the 2 would make contact in turn 2 sending both to the rear. From there Solberg checked away from the field as Todd Cook came charging from 13th to grab the runner-up honors with Henderson, Kris Jackson from 15th and Terry Green completing the top 5.