Pensinger Looks For A New Challenge

By Brad Vores February 7, 2008

When the 2008 racing season kicks off at Hagerstown Speedway, Charlie Pensinger will be doing something a little different than in years past.
After competing in Enduros and Xtreme Stocks, the Shippensburg driver will be moving into the pure stock division full time in 08 with his Pensinger Performance owned No. 10 machine.
It’s a move that Pensinger and his team have wanted to make for several years.
“We’ve wanted to move up for a few years and it never seemed like the timing was right,” said Pensinger about his move. “We won the championship at Susquehanna in 2004 and we wanted to prove that that wasn’t just a fluke and have been competitive every week and was always one of the cars to beat. But it was just time to make the move.”
Pensinger, who started racing in enduro races at Williams Grove before earning the SSP championship and 10 feature wins along the way, raced in the pure stock class twice last season.
His results were very humbling.
“It was certainly an eye opener,” Pensinger said of his starts in the Shamrock Small Car Nationals at Hagerstown and the Winchester Speedway Small Car Nationals. “I ran seven years and never failed to make a show. We didn’t have to qualify a lot but when we did, I always qualified. We went to Hagerstown, basically just bolted four racing tires on our car and didn’t make the show. Then at Winchester, I had a flat tire in the heat, had to run the consolation and was involved in a crash and that was our night. So we failed miserably in our first two attempts.”
But failure won’t be in Pensinger’s future as he settles into a new groove on his favorite speedway this season.
“As a driver I want to get as much seat time as possible and I’d like to get feature seat time more than anything,” he added. “I’d like to be consistent and make the shows at the start of the year and then be in position to become a top ten car every week and prove that we can be competitive and run up front at times. I’m not sure how quickly we can get ourselves into that position but that’s our goal.”
The team will concentrate on weekly competition at Hagerstown Speedway with possible late season stops at some other speedway’s for special events.
“We’ll start the season off with our updated car we ran the last two years at Susquehanna,” he said. “We’ll build as we go on working on the new car and the plan is to have the new car ready to debut before the conclusion of the season. The team and the sponsors are happy with the change and I’m very excited as a driver.”
Long time sponsor Sollenberger’s Messenger Service will return to the team this season along with Smith’s Appliance, Red’s Body Shop, SYSC Productions and a host of other associate sponsors that contribute to the success of the team.
Pensinger’s debut as a pure stock rookie will be March 29 in the track’s Grand Opening for its main divisions.

RAHMER A FLORIDA WINNER
Fred Rahmer scored a win for the Pennsylvania Posse last Saturday night in the second night of O’Reilly All Star Sprint car competition at North Florida Speedway.
Rahmer outgunned Lucas Wolfe on the start of the 30-lap feature and held Wolfe at bay for the $5,000 win. Wolfe was second over Lance Dewease, Danny Smith and Brandon Martin. Chad Layton finished seventh, Greg Hodnett eighth and TJ Stutts 14th.
On Friday night, it was Sam Hafertepe, Jr. scoring the upset win over Dale Blaney, Randy Hannagan, Dewease and Brian Paulus. Wolfe was seventh, Layton ninth, Rahmer 11th, Hodnett 14th and Stutts 15th.
A little further south, the ASCS 360 Sprint cars were in action at East Bay Raceway where it was Jason Johnson bringing home the big $10,000 payday in the King of the 360s Ron Laney Memorial on Saturday night.
Johnson’s win came over Gary Wright, Terry McCarl, Travis Rilat and Kenny Adams. Carlisle’s Dave Calaman finished 21st.
Adams won the opening night of the King of the 360s over Wright, Rilat, Danny Smith and Daryn Pittman with Calaman finishing 19th.
McCarl won the Friday night event over Johnson, Wright, Wayne Johnson and Rilat. Calaman did not make the feature.
The Micro Sprints were part of the East Bay events as Brent Marks had two runner-up finishes and a 24th while Enola’s Jake Murphy had finishes of 12th, 21st and eighth.

PIT STOPS…
The Sidewinders 1000cc micro sprint group is gearing up for its second season and it appears the series will have a larger driver roster in 2008. Shippensburg’s Rich Halter is making the move into the class as is Mechanicsburg’s Chad Hough. Both raced 600 micros in the past. The Sidewinders are a more economical way of micro racing with more power, spec tires and weekly teching of the cars. The series competes at Path Valley and Trailway Speedway’s. Check out www.SidewinderSprints.com for more information…
TNT Tractor ‘N” Trailer Mobile Repair Service, Inc. has joined the Cale Grubb Motorsports for the 2008 racing season. Grubb will also utilize HP Engines for the season and will compete regularly at Port Royal Speedway along with some stops to Williams Grove and some other tracks during the season…
The Motorama Races and Car Show is next weekend at the Harrisburg Farm Show. The show will take place on Saturday and Sunday and will feature indoor racing and a speed show. Check out www.motoramaevents.com…
This will probably jinx the start but racing is just two weeks away and so far, Mother Nature has been kind to us. But will she bring us the usual mid-February storm and set racing back a few weeks. Only time will tell but the countdown has begun…