Ben Rhodes and the Hawk-McCall Motorsports team headed to Myrtle Beach Speedway (SC) to race in the Late Model Stock portion of the Myrtle Beach 400 event that was scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 18th. After a great few days of practice and qualifying in the No. 41 Alpha Energy Solutions Ford-powered ride, rain moved into the area, forcing the postponement of the event until 2013. Even though the weather ended the weekend before Rhodes could take the green flag, it was still another successful outing with the Hawk-McCall Motorsports team.
On Wednesday, Rhodes and the team unloaded the car to shake it down and do some testing. Thursday was supposed to be more of the same, but rain throughout the day forced track officials to cancel the practice session. Still, the team worked at the track throughout the early evening to get the car prepared for Friday.
“Lee (McCall) and the guys braved the weather and made some changes to the car Thursday night,” said Rhodes. “We all stayed late while everyone else had left the track just making sure we were good to go on Friday.”
The preparations paid off as they were able to try multiple set-up combinations on the car Friday. Rhodes was second fastest of the 50 drivers there in the second practice, and was fastest in the final practice.
Saturday, after a quick practice session in the morning, Rhodes rolled off in qualifying, looking to time in at least within the top 20, which would lock him into the field without having to race in the heats. With a 20.599-second lap, Rhodes was seventh fastest, locking him into the show.
“The car was really good during qualifying,” said Rhodes. “Since it was an impound race, we wanted to make sure the car would be good on the long run. It is a fine line between making sure it is good for qualifying as well as the race. We were able to walk that line, putting us into the race.”
With three guaranteed starting spots inserted in front of Rhodes, Sunday he was scheduled to take the green flag from the 10th position. Unfortunately, weather moved in, and with flooding all around the track, including in the infield, the track was forced to postpone the event. Rain was scheduled to stay in the area for a few days, putting the make-up date March 22nd, 2013.
“It was disappointing to not be able to race Sunday, but there is nothing anyone can do about the weather. Besides, we still had a really successful weekend in our second outing with the Hawk-McCall Motorsports team. The No. 41 Alpha Energy Solutions Ford had great power and was handling really good. We will ride on the momentum of a great run at Martinsville (VA) a few weeks ago and the great start to this event this weekend throughout the entire winter.”
Stay tuned to BenRhodesInc.com for an all-new website and 2013 race schedule, which will be released in the near future. More updates during the off-season can be found on his social media outlets at www.facebook.com/benrhodesinc and www.twitter.com/benrhodesinc.