From Richie Murray
SPEEDWAY, Ind. (January 4, 2019) – Davey Hamilton, Jr. will venture into an expanded USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series schedule in 2019 as he aims to compete full-time on the 12-race trail, racing his for his father’s Davey Hamilton Racing team on both the dirt and pavement.
Hamilton owns a plethora of experience in a wide variety of machines including off-road trucks and Indy Lights throughout his career, but a full slate of Silver Crown racing is the next step in his racing endeavors, and that has the 21-year-old native of Boise, Idaho pumped coming into the new racing season.
“There are so many legends who’ve come from Silver Crown racing,” Hamilton acknowledged. “To finally be able to run the whole schedule is pretty exciting. For the past few years, I haven’t been able to run a full schedule in anything. Basically, I’ve been racing whatever I can instead of racing for points or a championship. To be able to run for a Silver Crown championship is exciting. Finally, I have something to work toward the whole year.”
The son of 11-time Indy 500 starter and 34-time Silver Crown starter, Davey Hamilton, has five career Silver Crown appearances, all coming on the pavement. He made his series debut in 2014 and started four races during the 2017 season with a best finish of 5th at Salem (Ind.) Speedway and a 9th at Lucas Oil Raceway.
However, 2019 will have a different look as he jumps into the seat for six pavement and six dirt races in his busiest USAC season yet. The dirt will be a learning curve and he admits that his previous experience on dirt in a midget at the Chili Bowl in 2017, plus Ford Focus Midget, Mini Sprint and Off-Road Truck racing is a completely different animal than jumping into a Silver Crown car on a half-mile or one-mile dirt oval.
“Yeah, I don’t have much dirt experience,” Hamilton admitted. “I’m not sure what to expect or what it’s even going to be like, but I’m excited to take on a new challenge and learn something new and hopefully I can figure it out quickly to be competitive.”
Hamilton’s busy 2019 racing docket has him bouncing around between full schedules for both the USAC Silver Crown division and the Robby Gordon Stadium SUPER Trucks, as well as putting a program together to compete in the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires series for his second run at the Freedom 100 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.