By Eric Bunn
(Lebanon, IN) The drivers of the UAW American Made Mel Kenyon Midget Series arrived at Columbus Motor Speedway Saturday April 23 to help celebrate the track’s 71st and last season of racing. Danville, IN native Nick Hamilton capped of the night with a hard fought win.
CMS fans were treated to an old fashioned open wheel racing knife fight throughout the 30 lap UAW American Made Mel Kenyon Midget Series feature event. Ryan Huggler took advantage of his front row starting position and jumped to the point in turn one. A hard charging Dameron Taylor took the lead on lap 4 with Hamilton right in his wake.
Taylor and Hamilton dueled with the lead changing hands several times with Taylor continuing to hold serve at the stripe. On lap 14, Taylor tangled with a slower car on the back straight sending him to the pits and ending his night. On the restart Hamilton led the pack to the green.
Sophomore driver and Columbus native Trey Osborne immediately grabbed onto Hamilton’s back bumper and began to work the race leader on the outside grove. Hamilton and Osborne were joined by Ryan Huggler to make it a three way battle to the finish.
As soon as Hamilton led Osborne and Huggler to past the checkers, a multiple car accident exiting turn two brought out the red flag, ending the race. USSA racing rules state that when a red halts the race after one car has taken the checkered flag all scoring reverts to the previously scored complete lap for cars that did not take the checkers. This meant Kent Kriegbaum and Nathan Foster filled out the top 5 showing 29 complete laps.
Ashlea Albertson was transported to Grant Hospital in Columbus for observation and released.
Heading to the Lincoln Tech Indianapolis Speedrome on April 30, Ryan Huggler, Logan Huggler, Nick Hamilton, Dameron Taylor and Trey Osborne hold down the top 5 spots in UAW American Made Mel Kenyon Midget Series points. The Indianapolis Speedrome spectator gates open at 4:30, with qualifying at 6:05 and racing at 7:00.