At some point before racing on Saturday night, Brett Lay, owner of the Les Schwab tires #24b which Geoff Ensign is driving leaned over to Ensign and said, “I did all I could to give you the best car you ever drove. Get out there and drive the hell out of it and maybe someone will notice and get you out of here.” What Lay was saying was he knows Ensign would rather be on the road driving sprint cars, and knows the ambitions of the 24 year old gasser from Sebastopol, CA do not include racing locally for peanuts, but racing for a living. Lay knows Ensign’s plans, and he supports him wholeheartedly, but while he’s here in California, Lay has him behind the wheel of his car, happy as a car owner can be with one of the best young drivers around behind the wheel. Paying your dues is what it’s called, and Ensign is firmly at the table right now, checkbook figuratively in hand.
To see the entire picture, first you must understand where Ensign comes from. Not unlike many others in the world of sprint car racing, Ensign comes from a middle class working family, and he himself is a regular 40 hour a week guy, specializing in welding, but paying bills with jobs which allow him to work around his race schedule. He’s pure blue collar. There is no asking Daddy to open up the checkbook for a new motor and refuses to put money in someone else’s pocket for a rent a ride to increase someone else’s wallet while he takes all the risks involved with sprint car racing. As old school as it comes, Ensign would rather let his driving do the talking. It leaves Ensign in the category of “win and get noticed or sit home and watch” category. He takes his relationships with his car owners seriously, enjoying a great relationship with Lay, Ted Finkenbinder, who has helped him move around the country in his equipment and Jason Smith, his Australian car owner, whom he met via the Ted Finkenbinder connection. All of these owners allow Ensign to chase that dream to drive sprint cars for a living. In return, Ensign feels obligated to save their equipment, drive the wheels off of the car, and win as much as possible. However, when races are over, and Ensign finds himself on the frontstretch as he is wont to do, it comes as no surprise when he shows up on the podium like last weekend in Marysville and he is met with crickets in the stands. No one knows who he is, or cares to appreciate what he's accomplished. He’s just not that household name in Northern California because he bounces around so much in different cars. He’ll be in a Wingless 410 one week for Finkenbinder, then a Winged 360 for Lay on another week. You can’t identify with Ensign being “one of the guys” because he’s never where you expect him to be. There’s an equal chance you’ll see Ensign in a wingless spec car one weekend at Antioch as there is seeing him race versus the World of Outlaws the next in Chico. Case in point: There was a Facebook poll of possible winners at Marysville this last weekend and out of the 50 or so responses on who is likely to win, the only two who said Ensign were his girlfriend’s father and the car owner’s mother. Lack of respect? It’s almost a chip on his shoulder Ensign sports these days, fighting for that coveted spot of acceptance amongst his peers, most of whom have nowhere near the resume he has. Ensign has wins on two different continents, two USAC Championships won in the only full schedule of point racing he’s ever ran, and has won two thirds of the triple crown of Australian 360 racing, the SRA Gold Cup at Hamilton Speedway and the Victorian State Championship. There is one driver allowed to sport the v1 for the next year in the entire country of Australia for 360 Sprint Car racing and it’s Geoff Ensign. He’s won 30 times in a sprint car, and is as easy on equipment as it comes. On his recent Australia trip, Ensign raced upwards of 20 races, won three times, and hit the podium countless others. He came back with a couple of bent wheel covers, and hoards of Aussie fans who appreciated his efforts. He never so much as bent a wing. Car owner Jason Smith came out of pocket for roughly zero high dollar parts for Ensign’s entire trip down under. He’s also only been driving sprint cars for five seasons. Ensign, despite the moniker “Human Highlight Reel”, which suggests he may crash a lot, is a car owner’s dream dream. He wins, saves equipment, and willing to build a car from scratch if needed. You’ll find Ensign watching all sorts of racing on television when available, subscribing to various racing publications to keep abreast on the happenings nationwide, watching his favorite movie “Senna” multiple times for motivation prior to racing, and in backyards working on sprint cars and shops during the week getting cars ready for the weekends, all while balancing his worklife and his personal life. He has a Facebook account, but leaves his motorsports page and his Twitter page in the hands of his family because he’s got other things to do. Ensign would feel at home in the 70’s, when racers jumped in and out of rides multiple times, and would have driven for the big money owners without a doubt who picked and chose drivers based on merit on the track, not based on money they brought to the table. Car owners with multiple cars would have loved having Ensign at the controls because he’s so damn versatile, even to the point of racing on pavement. Seeing Ensign get brushed aside while hitting yet another podium this last weekend is par for the course, but something the 24 year old wise beyond his years will not let bother him as he fields a phone call from his equally blue collar car owner, Lay. It seems Lay has just attempted to get an enclosed trailer for his operation but the deal was taken out from under him at the last minute: “No worries man. We’ll keep showing up on that open trailer and doing what we do. I’ll buy the valve. Keep what you were gonna pay me and put it back in the car. I know how it works. I appreciate being able to drive your car.” Ensign hangs up, and sits at his kitchen table “I can only go out there and wheel a sprint car. That’s all I can do. The rest is gonna have to take care of itself.” With that, Ensign packs his bags, in anticipation of a Friday night date at Stockton Dirt Track and the Ted Finkenbinder #3f. Ensign is going to spend the week at Finkenbinder’s shop, getting the car ready to race, most likely sleeping on a cot at night in the shop itself. That’s how he rolls.
As far as the last race went on Saturday night at Marysville at Civil War #1 with 33 cars signed in:
Qualified 8th without the benefit of brakes
Started 3rd, finished 2nd in heat race
Started 12th, finished 2nd in A Main event
Completely ignored on most post race videos, recaps.
Welcome to the world of Geoff Ensign, sprint car driver.
Facebook at Geoff Ensign Motorsports. Twitter @ensignmotorspts.
- Ron Lingron on Mar 17, 2014
- Article Date: 3/17/2014 by RJM Promotions