GUELPH, ON- After tallying a podium finish in Sunset Speedway’s hotly contested Velocity 250 event last Sunday, second-generation racer Matt Bentley will head to Flamboro Speedway’s Frostoberfest Twin-30s this Friday and Saturday, eager to claim his share of the weekend’s $2000-to-win purse.
“I love being a part of these big late-season events,” explains Bentley. “There’s an energy at these shows that you can’t match anywhere else. We’ve been close in a lot of them – but haven’t been able to win one yet. Hopefully, this weekend ends that streak”
Bentley turned in a crowd pleasing performance at Sunset last Sunday, racing alongside two-time Sunset Speedway champion Cayden Lapcevich and 2015 Sauble Speedway champion Ken Grubb for a third place finish.
“The car was really good at Sunset last weekend, we just couldn’t close on Cayden and Kenny late in the race,” says the Guelph, ON resident. “But, you have to remember, that’s now close this division is. When you’re talking fractions of a second, there’s no shame in claiming any step on the podium. This weekend could be ours just as easy as it could be theirs”
Now three full seasons into working with his Bev Thring-manufactured chassis, Bentley has all the confidence in the world that his team will find a way to rise to the occasion in Saturday’s twin features.
“It’s taken a long time for us to massage and tweak this program to the point where we can be competitive night-in and night-out,” says the young veteran. “Now, after a lot of ups and downs, we’ve learned enough to have some great notes and a lot of experience to know what this car likes and what it doesn’t”
“If you look at the schedule for the weekend, it doesn’t seem like we’re going to get a ton of track time in practice, so we’ll just have to use it wisely and do our best to get an understanding of the car’s attitude and what we can do to make it better,” continues Bentley. “Twin-30s offers up a completely new approach than what the other Playoff Season races do”
“We’ve been really good in extended races on long runs, but it’s going to take a different kind of skill set to succeed this weekend. Obviously the goal is going to be the win both, but you don’t have nearly as much time to work as you do in a 50-lap or 75-lap event. We have to get to the front in a hurry, but not take any damage on our way there. Easier said than done sometimes.”
For more information on Flamboro Speedway’s Frostoberfest, visit www.FlamboroSpeedway.ca.
By Spencer Lewis (@itsspencerlewis)
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