MORTENSEN RACE REPORT FOR 9/19/09

With the race to the 2009 Sportsman Championship now complete a couple of special events were on the schedule to close out the 2009 racing season at the Track of Champions Fonda Speedway. An unlucky pick in the draw as you enter the pit area put Sportsman driver Mark Mortensen in a hole before he ever hit the race track in the Jumpin’ Jack’s Drive-In sponsored #1M. Starting 10th in the third heat race Mortensen finished out of the top five which qualified for the feature event. With a large field of 30 Sportsman cars on hand a consolation event was run with Mortensen starting third in the event which qualified nine more cars into the feature event. Mortensen finished a disappointing ninth in the event but on the positive side of it all he did make it into the feature event. For this event the rules were opened up for the Sportsman cars allowing four barrel carburetors to be run on the motor instead of the traditional two barrel carburetor which was run on the motor during the entire 2009 racing season. Unfortunately the four barrel carburetor wasn’t working up to par on the Boyd’s Motorworks power plant in the Mortensen Motorsports #1M as it was out of adjustment causing the motor to run rough and the car to be under powered. With nothing to lose the Mortensen Motorsports crew put the two barrel carburetor back on the engine as Mark started the feature in the 24th starting spot. With nothing to lose Mortensen worked his way to the front and when the checkered flag flew Mark passed the most cars and ended up eighth at the finish line in an impressive run where he passed a total of 15 cars during a 20-lap event. This event completed the 2009 racing season for the Mortensen Motorsports Racing Team with Mark’s career statistics in his seven year racing career at the Fonda Speedway in the Sportsman division including nine feature wins, 25 top five finishes, 66 top 10 finishes, 91 top 15 finishes, and 102 top 20 finishes in a total of 117 racing events to go along with 16 heat race/qualifying event wins. In summary Mark has finished in the top 10 in 56% of the feature events that he has competed in. For more information on the Mortensen Motorsports Racing Team you can go to their website www.pmmexpress.com/markmortensen