NEW CASTLE, Ind.— May 9, 2013— April and the first weekend of May were not the most friendly when it came to weather conditions for Tracy Hines and his fellow USAC competitors. Rain, cold and even snow led to the postponement or cancellation of a total of seven races across the three USAC National Series. With the calendar now fully turned to May, a stop at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind., for a USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series event awaits.
Hines is set to compete in the Spring Showdown at Tri-State Speedway on Saturday, May 11 aboard his own Hansen’s Welding Inc. DRC with a Stanton Mopar under the hood. The event will again be co-sanctioned this year by the USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series and the Midwest Sprint Car Series.
“With all of the rainouts over the last four or five weeks, we’ve spent more than enough time in the shop and are ready to get to the track,” said Hines. “Haubstadt usually draws a pretty good field of cars and with it being a MSCS race as well, that will certainly add to the car count. Knock on wood, the weather looks great, so it should be a pretty good weekend.”
Last season Hines made three starts in a sprint car at Tri-State Speedway, which is a quarter-mile bullring in Southern Indiana. Two of those races were USAC/MSCS co-sanctioned events. In the spring race, Hines finished 20th, while during Indiana Sprint Week, he came home 19th. The 2002 USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series champion crossed the line 17th in the Haubstadt Hustler in the fall. He also made one start in a midget at Tri-State Speedway in 2012, with that coming during Indiana Midget Week with the USAC National Midget Series.
“We didn’t have the best of luck or results at Haubstadt last year and certainly want to make up for that this year,” he noted. “Haubstadt can be a pretty challenging place and you have to be on your toes, especially during the feature when you have a whole field of cars out there on that tight of a track. We have only raced a couple of times on small tracks this year, so we’ll see how our short track program stacks up this weekend.”
Hines was victorious with the USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series at Tri-State Speedway in 2002. This season, he has made one start on a quarter-mile in a sprint car, with that coming at Gas City I-69 Speedway where he finished eighth on April 26.
The veteran driver raced last weekend at Fremont Speedway in Ohio, with the Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series (BOSS). Hines won the second eight-lap heat race to earn a spot in the 30-lap main event. After an inversion of six was draw, he lined up on the inside of the third row in the fifth spot for the A-Feature. Just two laps into that contest, Hines retired to the pit area with a mechanical problem.
Hines enters this weekend’s race at Tri-State Speedway fifth in the USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series standings, following the first five races of the season. He is just 20 markers out of the top spot as he chases his second-career USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series title. The native of New Castle, Ind., has two wins to go along with three top-10 finishes this season.
“May really starts to get us into the heart of the season and that’s the time of the year we have been gearing up for,” Hines stated. “As long as Mother Nature cooperates we’ll get to run each of the three cars in the next few weeks and have races on both the dirt and pavement. It will be good to race more than once a week or once every couple of weeks as has been the case lately and hopefully we can get into a rhythm and stay in a rhythm.”
Tracy Hines Racing would like to thank: Hansen’s Welding Inc., Parker Machinery, Motor City Auto Transport, Turbines, Inc., Afco Racing Products, Daum Crop Insurance, Schoenfeld Headers, Allstar Performance, Kenny’s Components, Race Bumpers and Bell Racing.
For more information on Tracy Hines Racing, visit http://www.tracyhinesracing.com. Follow Tracy on Twitter atwww.Twitter.com/TracyHinesRacin.
