BELLEVILLE, Ill. (Aug. 7, 2013)—Nathan Benson has become a bona fide title contender in his first full season in the POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series, a two-time feature winner who is second in the championship with nine events remaining beginning with Sunday’s 22nd annual Arnie Knepper Memorial at Belle-Clair Speedway.
Benson has eight top-seven finishes and has made the feature in all 10 events in 2013. The 29-year-old from Concordia, Mo., is chasing Cale Thomas, the sensational 15-year-old from Fairland, Ind., who has a 200-point lead, 1,640-1,440. Thomas has three victories—including back-to-back at Belle-Clair–and eight straight top-fives.
Does Benson have a chance to overtake Thomas?
“I think so, but I’m not really big on points racing,” Benson said. “I think it changes the way you race. We’re just going after each win. It’s so rewarding to win one of these POWRi races. If we can win a couple more and end up second in the championship, it’s icing on the cake.
“We really didn’t set out to win the championship. We wanted to start the season and see how it went and it’s gone pretty good. We came to race in POWRi because of the competition and the professionalism of how the series is run. But if we get down to the last few races and have a chance at the championship, we’ll have to take a look at how we race.”
Benson has tested the waters in POWRi for the past several seasons. His first victory was a Macon (Ill.) Speedway in 2010. He entered three events in 2011 and eight in 2012 and had best finishes of fourth at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway and fifth at Jacksonville (Ill.) Speedway.
“We’re right on the (distance) limit where we can justify racing in POWRi,” Benson said. “It’s three and a half hours to Belle-Clair, five to most of the other Illinois tracks, eight to the Indiana tracks. POWRi does a good job of putting together two-event weekends and it’s another reason we can do it. We have good competition around home, but not many tracks and we like the diversity.”
Benson began racing in go-karts at 15, moved into micro sprints from ages 19 to 21, bought a winged 360 sprint car and raced in the Warrior division of the American Sprint Car Series in 2005 and 2006 and went back to micros in 2007.
“I grew up going to the races as a fan,” Benson said. “I always had to work and save money to get into go karts. I wanted to have a career in racing, drive full time, and went to sprint cars, but it wasn’t realistic. I couldn’t build up the equipment and afford to run and maintain the cars. It was too overwhelming. I settled into the micros, it was a good fit for my budget and for the time it took to maintain it.
“It’s something that I can do competitively and still race at the highest level of competition.”
Benson has been able to make a career out of racing through a combination of driving and being a distributor of the Pace chassis. He’d previously been a distributor of the Stallard chassis.
“It’s been great,” Benson said. “Just getting out and racing in bigger races has helped me get my name out there. I’ve sold close to 15 new cars and I also buy and sell used cars and parts and do some prep work in the winter. The business has really taken off.
“My wife and I had a son three years ago. She works full time and I’m able to be a stay-at-home dad by making the race shop a full-time business.”
Benson’s POWRi wins this season have been at Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway and Jacksonville, both quarter-mile tracks. He’s finished fourth, sixth twice and 12th at one-fifth mile Belle-Clair. Benson was sixth in his most recent run at Belle-Clair in the 66 Mike Phillips Memorial on July 19. It qualified him into the feature for the $10,000-to-win finale, which was rained out the next night and has yet to be rescheduled.
“I like Belle-Clair and we’ve had some good runs in the past, but kind of struggled in the features,” Benson said. “But we learned some stuff at the 66 Mike Phillips. We were running up front (fourth with eight laps to go) and had a shot at winning, but lost the brakes and faded to sixth. I’m really optimistic going into Sunday’s race.
“We’ve been really happy with the car on the big tracks and we’ve been working on the tracks like Belle-Clair and Macon. We feel like we’re getting on top of them.”
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series top-10 points standings (after 10 of 19 events): 1. Cale Thomas 1,640, 2. Nathan Benson 1,440, 3. Jake Neuman 1,205, 4. Jeremy Camp 1,185, 5. Joe B. Miller 1,030, 6. Dereck King 1,015, 7. Aaron Andruskevitch 945, 8. Jason Harms 860, 9. Max Pozsgai 755, 10. Kyle Schuett 665.
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature winners: Jacksonville, Ill.—Dereck King; Belleville, Ill.—Joe B. Miller; Macon, Ill.—Dereck King; Jacksonville, Ill.—Mike Dicely; Lincoln, Ill.—Nathan Benson; Macon, Ill.—Cale Thomas; Bloomington, Ind.—Nathan Benson; Belleville, Ill.—Joe B. Miller; Belleville, Ill.—Cale Thomas; Belleville, Ill.—Cale Thomas.
For more information, go to www.POWRi.com.