By: Chris Santos
3/20/22... Perris Ca: Saturday Night, AJ Bender & his team would return to action at the always exciting Perris Auto Speedway. A solid field of 25 Non Winged 410 Sprint Cars would be in the pit area, ready to roll on Saturday.
AJ's night would begin with qualifying. Unfortunately, things did not start off the way AJ wanted. Having some seat belt issues, AJ would just have to roll around at a slower than normal pace for qualifying. That issue put him 17th overall in qualifying.
"I qualified awful, had a little scare because my seat belt slid off my HANS device." AJ stated, "So I just drove around like a wuss & qualified 17th."
That would line AJ up on the pole of his heat race. Starting 1st, AJ was able to get things going. Despite dealing with some ongoing motor issues, AJ would still look fast in the family owned #21 machine. He would finish off the heat race in 1st & take home the win. "I was able to pick up the win but the ongoing motor issues continued. It would miss in every corner on every lap."
Unfortunately because of his qualifying efforts, AJ would roll off from the 17th spot in the feature. Even with the motor issues carrying into the feature, that didn't stop AJ from moving forward. He would look comfortable in the new GAS Chassis & was able to move forward to 8th where he would finish.
"I started 17th in the main & was able to move forward even with motor issues." AJ added, "The new GAS chassis seemed to work flawlessly. I had a lot of fun battles with a bunch of cars in the main. Ended up getting to 8th at the end of 30 laps."
Overall it was an impressive night for AJ despite all of the issues. Even with nothing going his way, AJ & the team would rally forward to an 8th place finish.
"Overall it was a good night. Car is getting better we just need to dive in deeper and figure out this motor issue."
AJ would like to thank; his dad ,Alex Bisset , Mike and wink Schweitzer, Matt parson and Dwight Cheney for all the help trying to get that motor working properly.
Next Race: 3/25, Keller Auto Speedway, USAC CRA
2023 season stats: 6 events, 4 features, 1 win, 1 top-5, 4 top-10's
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