It was a fierce night on the track at the annual WA Sprintcar Championship at the Perth Motorplex on Saturday night.
For Ben Butcher, it was always going to be an uphill battle for him going into the night with a smaller 360 motor compared to the 410 engines that most competitors had in their cars, but he wasn’t daunted in any way.
After a 19th in qualifying for the W42, Ben was understandably accepting of where he sat in the overall scheme of things for the night. His first heat was positive moving forward from a 10th place start to finish in 7th position.
In the second heat of the night, it was an inverted start for the team starting out of position one on the grid. With the smaller motor he slipped back to 7th place and finished there, after an interesting dice with Kerry Madsen mid race. This would see him out of 18th in the A Main field later on in the evening.
On the green light cars jostled for position early in the 30 lap feature race. Butcher held his own, fighting to move forward wherever he could and managed to do so before there was an incident on lap nine.
A further three laps saw another stoppage but the W42 had gained two more places and sat in 12th place on the restart. After a another accident on the final lap, he guided the car home in 8th place.
A finish he and the team are more than happy with the engine they had in the car.
“We’ll take a top ten finish in this sort of event, absolutely,” he said. “We’re a little short in horsepower but at least we gave it a crack, so yeah, I’m happy.”
With the 410 under repair, the team now look to their next outing on December 28th for the annual Sprintcar Muster at the Perth Motorplex and Butcher is adamant that he has what it takes to hold a firm line of improvement and go for another podium.
“We’re sticking at it for sure,” he said. “It’s tough in the sport but I have come from a strong competitive background and I’m here to get better, without a doubt.”
Ben and his team would like to wish all of our supporters the very best for the festive season and thanks everyone for their continued support across the 19/20 racing season.
MHM Contracting
PWR Fire Systems
Maskill
Scardifield's Smash Repairs
Coastal Finishing
Fortus Group
HRP Specialties P/L
Higg Built Race Engines
Smith Titanium
- administrator on Jan 07, 2020
- Article Date: 12/9/2019