Ben Rhodes and the Marcos Ambrose Motorsport #9 Stanley / Alpha Energy Solutions Ford Fusion team headed to Tri-County Motor Speedway (NC) on Friday, August 10th, to race in the UARA-STARS Late Model Stock 150-lap event. After starting fifth, the handling of the car went away, dropping Rhodes outside the top 15. However, not giving up, he battled his way back in the late stages of the race to finish 10th.
On Thursday, Rhodes turned 124 laps during practice, timing in eighth fastest, trying various different set-ups to get the car prepared for race day. On Friday, Rhodes was second fastest in the first practice while he ended up ninth in the second, prior to qualifying, where he qualified fifth of the 32 cars on hand.
“Qualifying was pretty intense,” said Rhodes. “With that many cars here, it was important for us to start the race somewhere up front so we wouldn’t be caught up in any possible mid-pack incidents. I went out second from last during the qualifying session, and while my first lap wasn’t that good, I was able to pick up enough time on the second lap to get us up there.”
When the green flag flew, Rhodes was able to avoid a few incidents during the early stages of the race. Unfortunately though, the car started dropping back through the field. By lap 115 of 150, he was in 16th. In the final stages of the race, he was able to avoid a wreck in front of him, and even though he received a little damage from another incident, was able to race his way back up to finish 10th.
“We just missed the set-up,” explained Rhodes. “The car was really tight, and it kept me from being able to get through the corners. It really hurt the corner exit speed, and that allowed the others to get by us, but I didn’t give up and drove what I could and we got back to 10th at the end of the race.
“These races happen every once in a while for race teams. It is frustrating, but we are taking that frustration to make sure we are better next time. We always keep great notes, and we have already discussed what changes we can make to free up the car and go forward.”
The next race for Rhodes and the #9 Stanley / Alpha Energy Solutions Ford Fusion will be the Bobby Isaac Memorial Late Model Stock event at Hickory Motor Speedway (NC) on Saturday, September 1st, 2012.
For more information on Ben Rhodes, please contact Jason “Stix” Buckley of STIX FX Entertainment at (704) 519-5528 or [email protected], and make sure to keep up to date on Ben Rhodes’ racing career at www.benrhodesinc.com, and follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/benrhodesinc and Twitter at www.twitter.com/benrhodesinc.