Weather dampens Johnny Benson's first race at Berlin Raceway since June crash
By Steve Kaminski | The Grand Rapids Press
May 10, 2010, 8:00AM
Adam Bird | The Grand Rapids PressJohnny Benson talks about the setup of his car with team members before racing Saturday night.MARNE -- Johnny Benson Jr. exorcized any lingering demons that he might have had for his home track when he finished third Saturday night in the CRA Super Series 125-lap race at Berlin Raceway.
It was an even better night for Brian Campbell of Wyoming, who won the race. It also was awfully good for runner-up Chris Anthony of Walker, who now has four top-five CRA finishes in five career starts.
Unfortunately, not many people saw it. The cold, wind and threat of rain Saturday resulted in a sparse crowd of about 1,000 spectators.
The weather forced second-year promoter Mike Blackmer to make one of the toughest calls of his young reign. Should Berlin race or not? It wasn't an easy decision for Blackmer.
In fact, The Press was able to find only one other short track across the state that was open Friday or Saturday. Galesburg Speedway also ran Saturday.
"The deciding factor was that a lot of teams from out of town called me Wednesday and Thursday," Blackmer said. "For instance, a lot of people from Kyle Busch's team were flying in to work with Johnny Benson, so they called me before they flew in and wanted to make sure I was committed to getting the program in, knowing that the weather was bad. They wanted to know if I was at least going to try, and I said yes.
"You can't make money if you close, and you can't make money if you are open. I was going to have to take a risk. I have no idea how we came out, but I think we will be OK.
"I did have some sponsors come up to me and tell me that I at least earned respect of some of the drivers today because I hung it out there when a lot of people would have called this at 10 o'clock (in the morning)."
Weather has played havoc with the start of the 2010 area racing season. Berlin's April 24 season opener was rained out, and when officials tried again on May 2, they were only able to complete one feature race.
"We had a scheduled practice (Friday), and we came here and were canceled, and it caught me emotionally," Blackmer said. "I'm like, 'What am I doing wrong here?' But it worked out. We got the race in, and we are OK."
Campbell established himself as the driver to beat when CRA returns for the June 15 Rowdy’s Revenge 251, which will pay the winner up to $25,000 -- the final figure will be determined by car count. Campbell, the defending ASA Late Model champion, passed Benson on Lap 35 Saturday and was never headed in a race that was slowed 11 times by caution.
Benson never was able to make a serious challenge on Campbell or Anthony the rest of the way. However, the night ended much better than the last time he competed at Berlin last June 13. That was the night Benson was involved in a vicious accident that kept him sidelined from competition for the next eight months.
"It was the first race since the big wreck, so it feels good to be back here," Benson said. "We always have great fans. I hated that the weather was bad and the crowd was down, but it was a pretty good race for the people that did show up. It was cold, but the race itself was good."
Benson has a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series ride with Billy Ballew Motorsports for Friday's race at Dover.
Mike Bursley of Zeeland won the 35-lap Modified feature, while Jason Scheid won 4 Cylinders A and John Norder captured the 4 Cylinders B main.
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