By Tracy Hines Racing PR
New Castle, Ind.—Oct. 7, 2012— Tracy Hines was on a mission in the opener of the Gold Crown Midget Nationals at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Ill. After having one of the fastest cars in the previous USAC Mopar National Midget Series event at Eldora Speedway during the 4-Crown Nationals, only to have a mechanical problem end his night two laps into that race, he was seeking redemption. He left little doubt that he had the car to beat on the opening night of the marquee event, with a heat race win and a trip to Victory Lane following the 25-lap preliminary feature.
Hines would lead all 25 laps on Thursday, Oct. 4, to score the win on the opening night of the 4th DuPont Gold Crown Midget Nationals, which marked his second career USAC Midget win at the track located just outside of St. Louis. For the native of New Castle, Ind., it was his fourth victory of the season in his Parker Machinery Toyota-powered Spike.
“I had been close in the past to winning during the Gold Crown, so it feels great to finally win one during the event,” said Hines. “It had been a long time since I won at Granite City, and I’ve always enjoyed racing there. We’ve had a really good season in the midget and have a few more chances to pick up a couple of more big wins down the stretch.”
Hines lined up on the outside of the front row for the 25-lap main event and got the jump on pole sitter Tim Buckwalter at the drop of the green flag, and quickly began to pull away. Hines negotiated heavy lapped traffic for a large portion of the race and wound up lapping all the way up to the 10th-place finisher. He withstood a late race charge from Kyle Larson to win by over a half-a-second.
The night began for Hines in the third eight-lap heat race, where he lined up fourth and charged to the front to pick up the win over Caleb Armstrong, Rico Abreu and Jerry Coons Jr. With finishing points and passing points being used to determine the starting line-up for the main event, this performance earned Hines enough points to start on the outside of the front row.
“It was definitely important to do well in the heat race and coming from fourth to win it, is what helped us be able to start up front,” noted Hines. “I had a great start in both the heat race and the feature and our car just took off great. We’ve been fast in the midget all year, and after having some trouble while up front at Eldora, I knew we’d have another strong car and set-up in the Gold Crown National.”
In the finale of the 4th DuPont Gold Crown Midget Nationals on Saturday, Oct. 6, Hines finished ninth, after a trip to the work area early in the 50-lap main event. He worked his way back through the field and was running as high as fifth in the late going. Hines opened the night by coming from fourth to finish second in the second eight-lap heat race and came from fifth to finish second in the first qualifier, which put him in the dash, where he would finish seventh.
“We didn’t quite end the weekend how we were hoping, but we were fast again and passed a lot of cars,” he noted. “You never want to go to the work area during a main event, but if it happens, it’s better it’s early in the race like it was and then we had plenty of time to work out way back through the field. We have a very good set-up right now on the midget and I can’t wait to climb back in it in a few weeks.”
The second night of the Gold Crown Midget Nationals on Friday, Oct. 5, was rained out, and thus the event became a two-night program.
The next USAC Mopar National Midget Series event for Hines, who is second in points, will be a stop at Canyon Speedway Park in Peoria, Ariz., Nov. 9–10. He’ll return to action next weekend with the USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series at the Terre Haute Action Track in Indiana on Friday, Oct. 12, followed the final race of the season for the USAC Traxxas Silver Crown Series on Saturday, Oct. 13, also at Terre Haute, with the weekend concluding on Sunday, Oct. 14, at I-96 Speedway in Michigan with a USAC Sprint Car event.
Tracy Hines Racing would like to thank: Parker Machinery, AFCO Racing Shocks, Bell Race Gear, FatHeadz, Kenny’s Components, Race Bumpers, Rod End Supply, Schoenfeld Headers and Stanton Racing for their continued support.
For more information on Tracy Hines Racing, including a complete 2012 schedule, visit http://www.tracyhinesracing.com. Follow Tracy on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TracyHinesRacin.