By Bryan Gapinski (Belleville, KS) — Tracy Hines won the 50-lap “Hustle at the High Banks” USAC TRAXXAS Silver Crown Series event Friday night at the Belleville High Banks. It marked the first ever appearance for the series at the track.
Polesitter Hines jumped into the lead at the followed by Bobby East and Robert Ballou. The caution appeared on lap five for a stalled car.Ballou moved into second place on the restart. The caution again appeared five laps later when Tim Barber spun.
Hines again pulled away on the restart and began lapping the tail of the field on Lap 18. Sixth place running Shane Hollingsworth flipped exiting Turn 4 on Lap 24, escaping injury. On the restart East passed Ballou for second place. Hines led East, Ballou, Jerry Coons Jr., and Chris Windom at the halfway point. Hines encountered lapped traffic on Lap 32 and maintained his advantage over East.
Hines ran the remainder of the race on the high side, and finished 1.84 seconds ahead of East driving the Lighfoot Racing owned Beast/Mopar No. 16. Ballou, Jerry Coons Jr., and Chris Windom completed the top five.
It’s great to finally win a race at this track, we’ve been close many times in the midget” commented Hines on his first career victory at the track. Hines now holds a one point lead over East heading into the next series event Aug. 17 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds (Springfield, Ill.), Dustin Vannontwick and Will Polelka won the 15-lap Cruisers feature.
Racing continues on Saturday Night at the track with preliminary races and the 36th annual “Belleville Midget Nationals 40-lap Midget championship feature, along with the 2nd annual 305 Sprint Nationals.
TRAXXAS USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RACE RESULTS: August 2, 2013 – Belleville, Kansas – Belleville High Banks – “Hustle on the High Banks”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Tracy Hines, 16, Lightfoot-16.856; 2. Bobby East, 10, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-16.949; 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 27, RW-17.050; 4. Robert Ballou, 63, DePalma-17.068; 5. Shane Hollingsworth, 20, Nolen-17.211; 6. Chris Windom, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-17.274; 7. Kody Swanson, 25, Sachs-17.421; 8. Brian Tyler, 21, Six-R-17.502; 9. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-17.747; 10. Miranda Throckmorton, 33, Six-R-17.765; 11. Tim Barber, 28, Finkenbinder-17.963; 12. Dave Darland, 14, McQuinn-18.090; 13. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-18.672.
FEATURE: (50 Laps) 1. Tracy Hines, 2. Bobby East, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Chris Windom, 6. A.J. Fike, 7. Kody Swanson, 8. Brian Tyler, 9. Dave Darland, 10. Tim Barber, 11. Shane Hollingsworth, 12. Miranda Throckmorton, 13. Chris Urish. NT
**Hollingsworth flipped on lap 24 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5- Hines
NEW TRAXXAS SILVER CROWN SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1-Hines-247, 2-East-243, 3-Swanson-239, 4-Coons-235, 5-Windom-213, 6-Tyler-204, 7-Hollingsworth-182, 8-Fike-155, 9-David Byrne-127, 10-Bobby Santos-108.
NEXT TRAXXAS SILVER CROWN RACE: August 17 – Springfield, IL – Illinois State Fairgrounds – “Tony Bettenhausen 100”