Hamilton rallies on first day of Rumble for 7th place feature finish
By Zach Tasker
For “the professor” Kyle Hamilton, the Rumble in Fort Wayne is always an event circled on the calendar. The Danville, Indiana native is always looking to improve on his career best feature finish of 2nd in 2011. He had a car certainly capable of that tonight, but some bad luck made the entire opening night of the three-day extravaganza an uphill struggle.

The evening started out great as Hamilton posted the 4th quickest time in qualifying with a lap of 7.937 seconds. This saw him line up in 4th position in heat race number 4. Only the top two would transfer out of each heat. Hamilton quickly worked his way towards the front. He was in a feature transfer position on the last lap when a bizarre finish would occur as a slow car would make contact with Hamilton slowing his progress dramatically allowing Jimmy Anderson to sneak by to take 2nd position in a photo finish. “That heat race was crazy. I just got caught up by a lapped car. You know, everybody is here trying to have fun but getting lapped in a heat and not getting out of the way for the leaders, it made me a little irritated but you know that’s racing.”

That would put the Purdue University student on the pole in the B main, which he would dominate and lead every lap in convincing fashion. The driver of the #33 Curtis Motor Sales/Advanced Racing Suspension/Walker and Sons Construction/Simpson Racing Spike/Esslinger would start the 16 car feature field in 15th spot. The 50 lapper got underway, and Hamilton was automatically on the charge. Amazingly, the black 33 machine would gain multiple positions lap after lap on the tight and tricky 1/6 mile concrete oval. Some of this was due to others mechanical failures and crashes but also due to some spectacular passes.

By the halfway point of the race, Hamilton had remarkably gone from 15th to 4th position, and it was beginning to look like he had a realistic shot at winning. However after multiple late-race restarts he would fade back and finish in the 7th position, still a respectable showing after having to come out of the b main. “We were running great and then all of a sudden I think I overheated my right front and it really started to push on me and I really had nothing for the leaders then. I caught all the way up to them from 15th and got to 4th, and I thought I had a shot and I overheated that right front tire. We have been working to get that tire up to temp tonight, and we finally got it a little too much. That’s why it’s a three-night show, and hopefully we can capitalize on our mistake tomorrow and we will get it. We have a hot rod here; it’s just a matter of fine-tuning it.”

With two days still remaining at this year’s edition of the Rumble, there is a still lot to be optimistic for. “The way this Esslinger and this Spike combination is, it comes off the corner, and I dig up under almost any Volkswagen and that’s going to be an advantage when we get the setup perfect. The setup is not bad; we are very much in the running for the three-day championship, so we will take it and move on from there. All in all, we were a 7th place car tonight in the feature because we were just too tight. We will work on it and get it ready for tomorrow.”

Racing continues at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana Saturday night at 7:30pm followed by a Sunday matinee at 2pm. For live updates as Kyle Hamilton continues to chase his first career Rumble in Fort Wayne feature victory, follow Kyle Hamilton Racing on Facebook.