Ben Rhodes headed to Newport Speedway (TN) on Saturday, October 22nd, to make his debut in the UARA-Stars Late Model Stock Series. After qualifying fourth, 0.028 seconds off the pole, Rhodes was biding his time in the feature when he was swept up in an incident, ending his race early.
Rhodes headed to Newport Speedway on Thursday to get some lap times in on the track, a facility he was new to.
“We practiced on Thursday and Friday,” said Rhodes. “The track is an interesting place. It is really fast and a lot different to drive on than Hickory. We were able to get some good track time in so I could get used to the facility.”
On Saturday, Rhodes and the Fat Head Racing team made adjustments to the car during the two practice sessions that paid off as he qualified fourth for his first UARA-Stars event.
“The times in qualifying were really close,” explained Rhodes. “We were less than three hundredths off the pole and ended up fourth. We were ready to see what we could do in the 150-lap race.”
Rhodes took the green flag and early on was just waiting for his car to come in. Once it did, he started moving in on the cars in front of him when two cars tangled, collecting the #4 machine, ending his race early.
“There wasn’t anything I could do. One car was completely sideways in front of me and I ended up hitting him. It was a disappointing end to our day, but we learned a lot in my first experience in UARA.”
Watch a video interview with Ben Rhodes after the race. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKfjSlW1B0I