From Gary Thomas, photos courtesy of John’s Racing Photos
Tulare, CA – October 28, 2009…Despite a pair of tough breaks that took him from the front of the order both nights at the annual Trophy Cup Sacramento, CA’s Mike Henry was able to fight through adversity and bring home a 13th place finish in the overall standings this past weekend at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway.
Benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation the 16th annual Trophy Cup saw one of the strongest and deepest fields in event history and considering the tough luck Henry was happy to score a top-15 finish. “It seems like over the past few years I’ve been getting more comfortable in Tulare and at the Trophy Cup I felt the best I ever have there so I’m real excited about that,” said the veteran driver. “We were really good all weekend long and without the power steering problem on Friday and the flat on Saturday I think we definitely could have been right at the top-five in points.”
Having to deal with thick lapped traffic it allowed San Jose’s Tim Kaeding the chance to close in and the pair put on a great show for the fans battling for the lead, until “TK” took advantage of a slower car to get by with just four laps remaining for the win. Finishing second it put Henry into the feature and allowed him to start towards the front of the field with the 12-car invert based on points tallied up till that part of the night. It was apparent right from the get-go that the former two-time Civil War Series champion had hit the set-up for the main event as he charged up into third during the first part of the race, but the party would come to a stop just past the midway point when a power steering fitting broke and forced him to pull into the infield.
The power steering issue resulted in him finishing 21st in the order and was a major hit during an event that is based so much on accumulating points. “We looked to be sitting really good in the Trophy Cup standings so that deal definitely cost us pretty big,” said Henry, who ended opening night 17th in the points. “When the fitting cracked I got a bath in fluid and I tried to keep going, but my hands had so much fluid on them that I couldn’t grip the wheel and had to pull in. During the b-main I had the car a bit tight and Tim was able to get by in traffic, but in the feature the car was perfect and would have liked to see what we could have done late in the race with McMahan and Forsberg.”
Coming back on Saturday Henry kicked-off the night by bringing home a fifth place finish in the fifth heat race and with his point total it was enough to put him into the 50-lap totally inverted A-main. An extremely racy track was put together by Steve Faria and the Thunderbowl Raceway crew, with cars dicing it up right from the start of the feature as there was plenty of room to battle it out on the 1/3 mile clay oval. Henry was sitting in the sixth spot early on and looking for more when contact with another car left him with a flat tire and having to go to the pits to get it changed. Returning to the raceway the Sacramento driver would work his way back up into the 10th position by the time the checkered flag was unveiled by starter Willie Williams after 50-laps of exciting competition.
When the final tallies were added up Henry sat 13th in the final Trophy Cup standings, just behind 2009 King of California Tyler Walker and right in front of Knoxville, Iowa’s Wayne Johnson. “The flat tire definitely hurt because we certainly could have finished higher up if it wasn’t for that,” he commented. “This is a great track though and we need to get a Civil War race here next year because it’s too good of a place to go only once a season. The Trophy Cup is a great event and we were fast every time we hit the track so that made it a lot of fun and I feel like I’ve finally gotten the hang of this track now with more and more laps on it.”
The Trophy Cup puts a wrap on what has been a strong season for Henry since returning to action aboard the Rudy & Bev Warrington, A.R.T. Chassis No. 18 sprinter and he looks forward to having even more success next year. “I have to thank the Warrington’s for giving me the chance to run the car because we had a great go of it to come out midway through the year and be fast right away,” said Henry, who finished fifth in the Civil War Series standings even despite missing the first three events of 2009. “We don’t have the biggest budget out here, but we do the best with what we have, although it would definitley be nice if we could pick up a sponsor or two for 2010.”
Henry next year will look to challenge for the California Sprint Car Civil War Series title in the No. 18 mount and based on his performances this season he appears to have as good of a shot as anyone. “We’re going to give it a good run at the Civil War title next season and try to just keep focusing on having fun like we have been,” he said. “I had a blast running with Sean Becker this year in Civil War and hopefully next year we can keep doing the same and try to get that championship. I just can’t wait till next year because I have a lot of confidence going into the off-season and feel that we can be competitive no matter what track we go to and that’s what it takes to win championships.”