(Image: Hammer Down Racing Media)
26 Promotions – Tucson, AZ – (January 29, 2020) – The 7th Annual Chilly Willy started off tough for Cody Cambensy as motor issues arose for the Arizona native right out of the box. Luckily for Cambensy and the team, Robert King with Klein engines was on hand to get things tightened up to give the No. 22 a chance to start the 2020 season much like they finished off last year.
Unfortunately compacted with the motor issue was a broken power steering line and the team was forced to withdraw from some of the practice time allotted to make the precious time left before qualifying count.
Once the truck finally got on track Saturday, the speed charts reflected the same strength that showed throughout the 2019 season with Cambensy cracking the top three in both practice sessions.
A major strength for Cambensy has always been qualifying and the Chilly Willy was no different as the 22 went straight to the top of the charts, setting a quick time of 16.493 seconds. The pole run would place Cambensy in comfortable territory to pick up the heat race win before heading to the grid to take the green flag for the 25-lap feature Saturday night.
An inverted lineup would roll Cambensy off from the sixth position with some notably quick race trucks in the way of grabbing the victory on night one. It wouldn’t take long for that march to the front to take place though, as it was lap five by the time the truck found its way into the second position and began to stalk race leader Ricky Bogart. Cambensy was meticulous through lap traffic and stayed glued to the rear bumper of Bogart as both trucks battled loose conditions. The checkered flag flew in the air and it would be Cambensy and Bogart door to door coming off of the final turn in an exhilarating finish with Cambensy barely edging out for the victory with a margin of just .002 at the line.
“I knew I just had to be patient and keep the truck under me while not burning off the tires,” said Cambensy. “I wanted to keep close enough to make the pass if he made a mistake. Coming to the white flag, I knew I had to push it a little harder to get door to door. Coming to the checkered, I saw him slip up the track a little and I was able to hit my marks and come across the line just ahead of him for the win. I really wish we had my family and car owners here after that one but my wife, Ashley, and car owner, Joann, are recovering from surgery. Hopefully this will make it a little better for them.”
Sunday was the day that everyone was waiting for as the trucks faced a 50-lap feature with $2,000 up for grabs.
Again, Cambensy would roll off from the sixth position. Without too much hassle, Cambensy jumped out front and began to set the pace for the field growing that margin to about 25 truck lengths. With tires a concern if a late race caution was to fly, Cambensy started to back his pace up to conserve what he could for the last half the feature. That proved to be a huge benefit as the yellow rag began to wave almost continuously after the halfway point. Cambensy had great information from spotter Gary Goodrich and was getting relayed a lot of good tips as to where the rest of the field was. A final caution would wave with just five laps remaining, but Cambensy had saved enough rubber to pull away again on the restart and claiming his second consecutive Chilly Willy feature event.
An excited Cambensy exclaimed, “It’s pretty awesome to start the year off as strong as we did. I pushed myself as much as I could the whole race and felt I still had some left in the tank if we needed it at the end. The work that we did in the offseason showed and that’s all because of TMI and Brandon Farrington.”
Cody Cambensy would like to thank Brad and Joann Corneilsen, TMI, Temperature Control, Davis Motorsport, Sun Shield, Wells Johnson, AZ Litho, Fiveone Media and King Dyno.
Results:
Saturday
Qualifying – 1st (16.493)
Heat – 1st
Feature – 1st
Sunday
50-Lap Feature – 1st
Stats:
Races: 2
Wins: 2
Top 5’s: 2
Top 10’s: 2
Article Credit: 26 Promotions