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NICK HAMILTON SCORES SECOND STRAIGHT TOP TEN AT RUMBLE
By Zach Tasker
Nick Hamilton has spent most of his racing career in the shadow of his older brother Kyle. This weekend’s annual Rumble in Fort Wayne midget races at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum seems to be Nick’s time to shine. On Saturday December 27, he was pumped up to get the nights racing started after an impressive 9th place feature finish the night prior. The night in the Gregg Steele owned car started decently in practice and qualifying which he would time in the 20th position with a lap of 8.336 seconds.
This would put the soon to be Danville Community High School grad in the fifth and final heat race where he would be starting in pole position. Hamilton already picked up one heat race win on Friday night and was looking for two in a row. He would lead the first few circuits before Jimmy Anderson swiftly moved to the inside in turn 1 to take the point. Nick would finish the heat in 2nd position still transferring to the feature. “He (Anderson) was obviously faster but after he got past me, I just tried to get down as fast as I could. “
He would start in the tenth position. Just like on Friday night Nick would quietly stay in the back of the pack and out of trouble and pick up spots when other cars would bang into each other and move themselves out of the race. It was a yellow flag filled affair as there would be no less than ten yellows in the 50 lap feature. Even though Nick spun on Lap two to avoid hitting his brother who had spun out and also spun midway through the race after contact with Bryan Nuckles, he suffered no major damage. He worked his way all the way back up to 6th spot at one point before settling for 8th finishing position.
Two straight top ten finishes in an event such as the prestigious Rumble at Fort Wayne had the driver of the #1 Curtis Motor Sales/Danville Community High School Beast/Focus thrilled with a great weekend so far. “We just didn’t know how it was going to be when we started when we came here but just to put it in the show was good. Just to last the whole race was good there was a lot of crazy stuff going on ahead of us. When there is not even ten cars that finish, it’s not that hard to get a top ten. You just sit back and wait for other people to do stupid stuff, so I don’t have to do it.”
The 3rd and final day of the Rumble in Fort Wayne commences on Sunday afternoon, with a 2pm racing start. Follow Kyle Hamilton Racing on Facebook for live updates as both Hamilton brothers look to close out the 2014 racing season with a strong result.
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