From Dick Jordan
A 66-year tradition continues Sunday night as the USAC Silver Crown Championship Cars make their annual trek to the beautiful DuQuoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds for the “Ted Horn 100.”
Round seven of the 2014 series will witness Kody Swanson trying to remain undefeated on the dirt after victories at Terre Haute and Indianapolis, Ind. and Belleville, Kansas. He enters Sunday’s race with a 42-point lead over runner-up Tracy Hines.
Swanson was the 2010 DuQuoin winner, while Hines won the race back-to-back in 2005 and 2006. Swanson was 12th and Hines 14th last year, both out of the race before the completion of lap one.
Chris Urish of Elkhart, Ill. is the defending race winner and former winners, along with Swanson and Hines expected to compete Sunday include Russ Gamester (1997).
Urish surprised the series regulars last year with his late-race charge, taking the lead three laps from the finish when Chris Windom ran out of fuel.
This year’s field is expected to include a number of Illinois hopefuls in addition to Urish. They include Patrick Lawson of Edwardsville, A.J. Fike of Galesburg, Zach Daum of Pocahontas, Windom of Canton, Tiffany Wyzard of Williamsville, Steven Russell of Springfield, Randy Bateman of Murphysboro, Shane Cockrum and Jerry Bruce of Benton and Tad Roach of Granite City.
Tyler Walker holds the one-lap track record of 123.550 mph set in 2004.
The race honors the driver who lost his life in a DuQuoin accident in 1948. Horn’s Indianapolis 500 record is remarkable. Between 1936 and 1948 he never finished worse than fourth in nine starts, despite never winning the 500!
2014 USAC Silver Crown Standings:1-Kody Swanson-390, 2-Tracy Hines-348, 3-Bobby East-336, 4-Chris Windom-288, 5-Jacob Wilson-240, 6-Jerry Coons Jr.-222, 7-Caleb Armstrong-200, 8-Dave Darland-173, 9-Tanner Swanson-165, 10-Christopher Bell-165.