Benson Smokes
Labonte at Berlin
By Steve Kaminski
The Grand Rapids Press
First, Johnny Benson Jr.
invites his friends up from North Carolina to race with
him at his home track. Then he proceeds to whip the
lugnuts out of them. That has become a habit for
Benson, and Bobby Labonte was his latest victim.
Benson outran the field in
Wednesday night's The Chet Late Model Invitational, a
125-lap feature race at the Berlin Raceway in Marne.
Benson held off the T.A. Gentry cars of Joe Bush and Lee
Anderson, just as he did in June when his NASCAR buddy,
Michael Waltrip, made the trek up to Marne.
Labonte finished 14th after
qualifying 26th in the No. 1 Late Model he borrowed from
former track champion Randy Sweet of Kalamazoo. It was
Labonte's first Berlin appearance, and he was never in the
hunt for the $5,000 first-place cash prize.
The same can't be said for
Benson, who started second and ran in the top-five
throughout the race. Still, it was Tim DeVos' misfortune
that opened the door to Benson's victory.
DeVos, the defending track
champion, was out in front with nine laps to go when he
was pinched into the frontstretch wall by lapped traffic.
That gave the lead to Benson on the restart, and he rode
off to a nearly one-second win over Bush, the division's
point leader.
"Tim would have beaten us,"
Benson said. "We happened to be in the right place at the
right time. We had a good car, I'm not saying we had a bad
car, it's just that Tim had a great car."
Labonte arrived on the
Berlin Fairgrounds around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, and fans
were already waiting to meet the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup
champion. Labonte, who is ninth in Nextel Cup points,
signed autographs and posed for pictures throughout the
afternoon and early evening while acclimating himself to
the car and race track. He said he hadn't raced a Late
Model since 1989.
Wednesday's program drew
6,277 spectators, and he signed the usual items, from
caps, T-shirts, diecast cars and photos. He headed to his
souvenir hauler outside the track after the race and
continued to sign.
But ask Labonte to identify
the strangest thing a fan has ever wanted him to sign, and
he won't say.
"I can't repeat it,"
Labonte said, while taking a break before Wednesday
afternoon's practice session. "But I can tell you the
second strangest thing.
"One time a fan wanted me
to sign a prosthetic arm -- off her body. She took her arm
right off, gave it to me and asked me to sign it."
Labonte's race was nearly
cut short when he was tapped from behind on lap 97.
Labonte bobbled, drifted up and pushed Billy Shannon of
Kalamazoo around and hard into the frontstretch wall.
Shannon was transported to the hospital to treat his
injured arm, while Labonte was able to continue.
Whitecaps Racing
Development, Inc., has made a commitment to lure stock car
racing's biggest stars to the track since purchasing the
operating lease in the fall of 2000. The fact that Berlin
is Benson's home track and that he is an equity owner has
helped made that effort smoother. Labonte penciled in this
week since Nextel Cup is racing Sunday at Michigan
International Speedway.
"Johnny asked me, and I
like Johnny a lot, he's probably one of my better friends
at the race track," Labonte said. "It looked like a fun
night during the week, and I'm already in Michigan, so I
told him to let's make it all happen."
All three of Berlin's class
ran Wednesday. Defending Sportsman champion Lee VanDyk won
his second straight and third feature overall when he beat
out Dave Hull and Dave Lake in the 30-lap main event.
Brian Wiersma continued his charge to the Super Stock
title, winning his fifth main of the season over runner-up
Nick Shotko and John Smith Sr.
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