(July 30, 2019)- This past week has been a busy one for the Danny Benedict Motorsports team, with a Thursday Night race at Jukasa Motor Speedway with the APC United Late Model Touring series, followed by Twin 35 lap features Saturday night at Sunset Speedway.
Benedict had a strong showing at the mid-week race at Jukasa Motor Speedway in the 54 machine. After qualifying sixth, with the invert, Benedict would invert to the pole for the 100 lap feature event. After 100 circuits around the track, a ninth place finish would be in the cards for Benedict and his team, improving from an 11th place finish the last race at Jukasa.
“Jukasa was a good race for our team. We struggled in practice finding speed on old tires, but felt like the balance of the car was really good. Qualifying a career best 6th was also huge for us, considering how good the APC series really is. I was hoping the car would tighten up more than it did as the race went on, but it just never came to me. Overall I was happy with the effort.”
With a mid-week race, many teams and crew members can find it difficult to attend races, or be prepared while working, Benedict gives props to the series and track for helping out a little extra.
“Week day shows are always a gamble. You never know if you’ll get the crowd or the car count. I’m a fan of having a couple a year, but any more than that and you start affecting peoples work lives. It was awesome that Jukasa Motor Speedway upped the purse for the race, that really helps guys who work normal 40 hour weeks, so big kudos to them.”
Jumping into Saturday night, Benedict was back to his roots at Sunset Speedway behind the wheel of his Limited Late Model. Battling issues at the shop, as well as a tough field, he prevailed with a pair of second place finishes.
“Unfortunately circumstances just weren’t in our favor Saturday. We had some issues at home in the shop and the preparation of the car was a little rushed because of it. So to come out with a couple seconds felt like a win to us. We just needed a little more long run speed.”
With twins features, teams must prepare differently from race to race. Benedict and his team are hard at work to make sure their adjustment are perfect.
“The hardest part of running two features is making adjustments between them. You never know how much the track will cool off, or how much rubber the other classes will lay down. It’s almost just a guessing game, and this past week we just didn’t quite go far enough adjusting the car. We’ve learned from it and I can’t wait to get back to Sunset again.”
Not only is Benedict hard at work in the shop on his two race cars, he is also hard at work to give back to the community. Danny has been selling his race t-shirts to fans, drivers and friends to give back to the father of Sunset Speedway’s announcer. Allan Lankin works weekly at Sunset Speedway as an announcer, and when word of his father Kyle being sick spread, Benedict knew he wanted to help in any way possible.
Danny gave Kyle Lankin a total of $1000 from T-shirt sales to help him out in hard times.
“Anytime you can help out someone from the racing community it is a great feeling. When we heard what happened to Allan’s dad, we started brainstorming ideas to help out. Right away people started rallying behind the idea and sales were booming. It was awesome to see so many people willing to help out. You never realize how the bills rack up when you’re unable to work and we hope that little bit helps him out.”
Benedict will be back on track this week for a triple header. Benedict will spend Friday, August 2nd at Sauble Speedway in his Pro Late Model , Saturday August 3rd at Sunset Speedway in his Limited Late Models, and will head back to Sauble for Sunday, August 4th where he will be back to join the APC United Late Model series.
You can also read about Kyle Lankin’s diagnoses and donate to his cause with this link; https://www.gofundme.com/447jsq-pay-it-forward?rcid=r01-155422191962-7d80d98dca39446c&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_m
Keep up with Danny on social media;
Facebook Page – Danny Benedict Motorsports
Instagram & Twitter – @Dannybenedict54
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