Nick Hamilton has impressive first day of 2014 Rumble
By Zach Tasker
Danville Community High School senior Nick Hamilton had high hopes for this season's annual Rumble in Fort Wayne, and they got off to a great start on the opening day of racing on Friday December 26. The driver of the #1 Curtis Motor Sales/Danville Community High School Beast/Focus owned by Gregg Steel started off the night with a decent qualifying run timing in with a lap of 8.244 seconds which was good enough for 16th place.

The first-year national midget driver would start in pole position in the night's first heat race and would dominate the ten lap affair. Veteran driver David Gough would close in on the younger Hamilton, but he would not be pressured into a mistake and would take his first career Rumble Series heat race victory. “I had to drive it as wide as I could just to make it into the show. I just ran my line and made him work for it and we came out on top, and I am just happy to put it in the show finally after a few years.”

Even though his Ford Focus power plant was down on horsepower to some of the national motors in the field, Hamilton drove a smart and smooth 50 lap feature after starting in 7th spot. He would fall back initially before clawing his way back into 9th spot which is where he would finish. “It was just good to finally get our stuff together here as a team and I think everybody here worked hard to earn what we put together tonight. I think we can come back even stronger tomorrow if we can figure out our setup. We had some setup issues that we will get figured out and hopefully we can put it in the show again tomorrow. I think we can as a team, and if we keep working hard together, we can put it in all 3 nights.”

Nick along with his older brother Kyle are still in contention for the overall three-day Rumble Series championship. Racing continues Saturday in Fort Wayne, Indiana at 7:30pm with Sunday afternoon racing at 2pm. Follow Kyle Hamilton Racing on Facebook for live updates.