[Task Force]

HAMILTON BROTHERS SCORE DOUBLE TOP 5 AT GRUNDY COUNTY FINALE
By Zach Tasker

Saturday night September 26 saw the annual running of the Alex Pruett Memorial presented by 3 Wide Life at the Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Illinois. The D’Arcy GMC STARS National Midgets would be in action for their 2015 season finale. A solid field of 13 cars would be on hand to contest the event and one driver looking to improve on his bad luck in 2015 was Nick Hamilton. The Danville, Indiana driver would race the bright orange #33 machine usually piloted by his older brother Kyle.

However on this night Kyle would take over crew chief duties trying to help Nick on set up work. The 2014 Short Track Auto Racing Series (STARS) national midget rookie of the year would start fast right out of the box as during the evenings first practice session he would turn a lap of 14.660 seconds, good enough for the first position. The second practice he would slip to 4th with a lap of 14.701 seconds while continuing to try to dial in the cars handling which was loose on corner entry.

Qualifying would see the second generation driver post the 4th quickest time with a lap of 14.769 seconds. This would slot him into 5th starting spot in the night’s first heat race. The 8 lap affair would be a rocky one as on lap 4 Nick would get loose exiting turn 4 and spin the car. This relegated to 6th potion on the restart. He was able to gain one spot back and come to the checkered flag in 5th.

The 40 lap feature honoring the late Alex Pruett who was a former winner at the Grundy County Speedway was next. The recent Danville Community High School graduate would line up in 5th place for the start hoping to make some ground up early and contend for a podium. The racing early on was fast and furious. Point leader Brad Greenup would check out early but the racing between 2nd and 6th positions was as tight as it could be with cars running nose to tail with virtually no space between them on the 1/3 mile paved oval.

The driver of the #33 Curtis Motor Sales Special/Advanced Racing Suspensions Spike/Esslinger was trying to hang on with the pack and ready to pounce when turn 4 would bite him again as he looped the car while running 5th for the 2nd time in the night. Luckily he was able to keep it off the wall and restarted the race in 8th position. “I was just coming off that hill, I was a little loose and I got into it a little too hard that one time and looped it and that can put you to the back pretty quick.” He then was able to use some smart driving and avoid some accidents in front of him to bring home a 5th place finish all while Billy Hulbert was hot on his tail all over him in the closing laps.

“Definitely not what we were looking for, we were looking for something better coming into tonight especially with Kyles help. I feel like I didn’t hold up my end as much as I should have but I think I learned a lot about the midgets and everything and just a stupid mistake put me to the back and that was my mistake it wasn’t anyone else’s.”

The former USSA Kenyon midget series feature winner hopes to have more opportunities behind the wheel this year and will take any offers that come his way. “Everybody was pretty similar and once it got spread out and everybody had quite a bit of fun, we ended up 5th which isn’t horrible but just like everybody says it's hard to pass here. I'm trying my best, trying to just find whatever I can to get seat time. It kind of proves this year coming back here and not being up front like we were last year that seat time helps and that you need to be in a car no matter what it is. That has kind of set me back this year, but I think we can bounce back from this.”

Nick was originally supposed to be the only Hamilton brother competing on Saturday night, however right before qualifying started that all changed. Kyle Hamilton was working on his younger brother's car when he was offered by Ed Ensor to drive the #16 Illini Racing Series midget usually piloted by Erica Ensor. The young female driver has already picked up wins in the IRS this year and was making her national midget debut for Probst Racing and wanted to only focus on one car during the night instead of jumping back and forth.

A wise driver is always ready to jump in a car and “The Professor” did just that. After missing both practice sessions, Kyle would shake the car down in qualifying turning a lap of 16.240 seconds, good enough for 5th place in the 11 car field. Kyle would spend all night adjusting to the IRS midgets, which use production-based motors and skinny DOT American Racer tires. He would line up in the first heat race on pole position. However multiple time Illini midget champion and veteran Patrick Bruns would quickly take the lead and sail away dominating. Hamilton would finish an impressive 2nd place holding off the rest of the series regulars and a furious charge by Max Pozsgai.

Next on the agenda was the 20 lap feature, which would see the 2015 Tony Stewart Midget Classic champion start in 7th position. A huge calamity would occur on lap one which saw multiple cars wreck including midget veteran Johnny Heydenreich take a nasty tumble in turn 2 which Kyle was narrowly able to avoid. Luckily all drivers would be ok. The Purdue University grad restarted the race in 3rd position but was still trying to come to grips with an unfamiliar car and no practice time. He would turn respectable lap times but ended up getting passed by Bruns on the outside of turn 2 with 4 laps to go and wind up in 5th place, ironically the same place as his younger brother in the STARS feature.

The driver of the #16 Fox Valley Sandblasting/Renzo Excavating/Ruane Construction Twister/Ecotec was pleased with how the night went. “It was fun, I expected to be the crew chief on Nick’s car tonight and I still am, but luckily the Ensor’s, Erica and her dad Ed had a car for me and she was running a national midget tonight and decided to not run the IRS car so I'm thankful to them for letting me drive it. They have always treated me really well over the years running here so it's kind of fun to drive their car and drive with those guys tonight. I really enjoyed running, I've always told my dad when we came over here and STARS ran with the IRS cars that sometimes the IRS put on the better race. The guys are always on the edge and I've always thought they had a lot of talent and I definitely realized that first-hand tonight as jumping out there at the last second was tough. It was different from the national midget mainly because of the tire. That is the main thing. I was also in a different Chassis tonight as I'm used to running a Spike or a Beast. So that was also different as it was a combo car. But the tire really makes you have to run a little bit different line than I was used to and I was trying to run my regular line and it just wasn’t working tonight, but it was still fun to come out here and get a top 5 and hang out with everybody and get to run a car.”

For updates on when the Hamilton brothers will next be on track, like Kyle Hamilton Racing on Facebook.