By: Chris Santos
4/17/23... Merced California: Saturday Night, AJ Bender would once again be in action, this time in the Pete Davis owned 00 Midget in Merced. A solid field of 13 Midgets would be in action with the USAC Western States Midgets.
The night would get started with qualifying. He would be the 8th car to hit the track in qualifying. Going out 8th, AJ would end up laying down a pretty solid lap. That would put AJ 6th quickest overall & set himself up nicely for the night.
"It started good I felt comfortable after a lap or two. We qualified 4th only a tenth off of fast time. So I was confident we had the speed."
AJ would roll off from the outside of row two in the 4th position for his heat race. He would have some intense battles with Ben Worth & Brody Fuson in the heat race. AJ would get to first at one point however, there would be some contact & some mistakes, and AJ would end up finishing the heat race in 3rd.
"I Started the 4th in the heat and got to the lead. Brody and Ben and I had a fun battle going on until I messed it up and wanted to have a group discussion in turn 1, AJ added. "I got really crossed up and was about to lose it into 1 and Brody finished me which collected ben as well.(My bad ,sorry guys). Ended up finishing 3rd."
In the feature event, AJ would start on the inside of row two in 3rd. They would try & tighten up the car but the track would be ve try tricky. About halfway through while trying to reel in the lead pack, AJ would spin out & have to go to the back. He would start to battle his way forward & would finish in the 5th spot.
"Then started 3rd in the main. Unfortunately I spun out again halfway through the main. The first part of the main I struggled to have confidence in the car and it showed. The lead pack pulled away from me which is just soul crashing, AJ stated "Once I spun out I adjusted the shocks and my got going a lot better. I wasn't able to go forward but was happy to at least have the pace. Managed to pull out a 5th at the end of night."
Overall it was a solid night for AJ in Merced. It would be his first Midget race of the year & despite the mistakes, AJ showed a lot of speed & was pretty fast!
AJ would like to thank; Pete Davis & Kiwi Alexander for making this happen!
Next Race: TBA
2023 season stats: 9 events, 5 features, 1 win, 2 top-5, 2 top-10's
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