KYLE HAMILTON RUES MISSED OPPURTUNITY AT RUMBLE
By Zach Tasker
Day number 2 of 3 for the annual Rumble in Fort Wayne indoor midget races occurred on Saturday December 27. Kyle Hamilton once again had a strong car under him and looked as he would be a favorite to try once again to pick up his first indoor national midget feature victory. The evening started well with practice and qualifying. Kyle would set the ninth fastest time in qualifying with a lap of 8.128 seconds, even after pulling off on lap two with engine gremlins that the team would later diagnose.

Up next on Saturday nights agenda was the 4th heat race, “The professor” would start in 3rd position with only the top two transferring into the night's feature. Hamilton would put on an amazing clinic wowing the spectators as he quickly started to work the high line in the ten lap affair. He went to the outside of Geoff Kaiser to take the 2nd spot then motored around Matt Westfall on the extreme high line which is very rare on the extremely flat 1/6 mile concrete oval. Hamilton would go on to win the heat race in convincing fashion to punch his ticket to the big dance. “The leaders left the door open for me because they were blocking so much so I decided why not try the top because I had nothing to lose, so it worked. That was just a cool move.”

The feature was up next and Hamilton and the entire #33 team had high hopes as he would start 3rd and not have to come from deep in the field as the night prior to finish 7th. However, things quickly started to unravel as on lap two Kyle lost control in turn 2 and looped the car bringing out the yellow. This drama put him at the tail of the field and on lap four things got even worse. The front bumper fell off of the car which he then ran over causing him a flat tire and an early DNF. The driver of the #33 Curtis Motor Sales/Advanced Racing Suspension/Walker and Sons Construction/Simpson Racing Spike/Esslinger was majorly disappointed and hard on himself after blowing what he felt was a race winning car.

“I was trying to ride there in the pack and just made a really dumb rookie mistake. I drove it in just a little too deep and picked up the rear end when I got on the brakes and looped it. You can't make mistakes like that at this place at this stage in the game. I got guys working way too hard for me. I felt bad for all my guys they have been working their butts off, but you have to move on. You have to have a short memory because we have to get back out here tomorrow, and it's hard to let stuff like that go, but we will do it. I've had dumb mistakes in the past, but you try to forget them as quickly as possible. I'm just kicking myself right now to be honest. I think the front bumper may have got weakened when I bumped somebody, and it slid under my tire and popped it, so that was just a good icing on the cake to a bad night. Tonight proved that racing can take you to hero to zero real quick.”

The Danville, Indiana native will get one more shot at Fort Wayne glory on Sunday afternoon as the Rumble finishes up with its final day. Racing is at 2:30pm, you can follow the progress of the with live updates at Kyle Hamilton Racing on Facebook.