By: Fast Time Media
4/25/23... Hanford California: Saturday Night, AJ Bender & his team would make the trip to Hanford California for the Spanky Matthews Memorial with the USAC CRA 410 Sprint Cars. 12 Non Winged 410 Sprint Cars would be in the pit area, ready to roll on Saturday Night.
AJ would roll out for qualifying & try to lay down a good lap. Hanford has been a track AJ never liked & he would look to try & turn that around. When qualifying came to an end, AJ would end up 8th quick overall.
"Qualifying was okay nothing great, I think I debated with myself too much on where to run and the result ended in 8th."
That would line AJ up on the inside of row two in the 3rd position for his heat race. Early on, AJ would struggle, falling backwards to 5th or 6th. Once AJ got in a rythm, he would start to charge forward again. When the checkered flag fell, he would finish in the 3rd spot.
"Heat race started 3rd and fall back to 5th or 6th early but was able to find a good line and start marching forward," AJ added. "I was able to get up to 3rd by the end of the heat race."
For the feature event, AJ would get going on the outside of the front row in the 2nd spot. Early on, AJ would fall back to around 5th. He would make some contact with another driver that would break his right front shock. Towards the end of the feature, AJ would stick the car on the bottom & start to move forward. He would end up finishing the feature event in the 6th spot.
"In the main I started 2nd and just got a terrible start. I think I was 4th by the first corner. A few laps into the race while trying to pass Faria we made contact and spun. That broke our RF shock and radius bar. Which made the car very difficult to drive," AJ Continued. "With just a handful of laps left I just stuck that thing to the bottom and was able to pick my way back up to 6th."
It was an up & down night for AJ Bender & his team. He would have some struggles in qualifying, but would show some solid speed in both the heat race & the feature event.
AJ would like to thank; Pete Davis & Kiwi Alexander for making this happen!
Next Race: TBA
2023 season stats: 10 events, 6 features, 1 win, 2 top-5, 3 top-10's
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