LINDSAY, Okla. (Aug. 29, 2024) – Tim Hamilton enjoyed his interview with Wade Aunger at his first IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.
He’s hoping to have more to talk with Wade about at his second.
From Lindsay, Okla., Hamilton returns to Boone Speedway as the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified champion at Southern Oklahoma Speedway, and eligible to qualify for both the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational and the Rage Chassis Race of Champions.
“This was the first time we ever stayed at one track and tried to run for points. We won the first two weekends there and one of them was an All-Star qualifying race,” said Hamilton. “Then I was like ‘heck, let’s run for a track championship’ and get the opportunity to qualify for the race of champions, too.”
He didn’t find victory lane at Ardmore again but was in top five the next eight nights – he also worked in an early July trip to race with Kansas friends at Salina Speedway and Dodge City Raceway Park – and wrapped up crown with seventh place finish on season championship night.
“We’ve been trying some new stuff with the car (a 2023 DeVilbiss) and it didn’t like it,” Hamilton explained. “We’re going to go down to Texas (and the Bryan Mize Memorial at Rocket Raceway Park) and try it one last time. We’ll change it back if it doesn’t work. We feel like it will work but we’re not there yet.”
Hamilton followed his grandfather George Sr., announcer at the old Goldsby Speedway, south of Norman, and his father George Jr. into the sport, getting to race limiteds with his dad for a couple seasons.
He raced a factory stock his dad built, then the limited modified and a Smiley’s Racing Products IMCA Southern SportMod before the sanctioned Modified.
“I wanted to be in a bigger, better, more competitive class. That’s why we got into IMCA,” he said. “We didn’t even know that much about IMCA until maybe 2015 because we never ventured out much from home.”
Hamilton won the opening night Smiley’s Racing Products IMCA Southern SportMod Stampede special in 2022, switching divisions midway through the season and taking his first IMCA Modified checkers late that August at Ardmore, right before making his first trip to Boone.
“We won our heat race and didn’t do that great in our qualifier, then wrecked the next two nights, but it was pretty cool getting interviewed by Wade,” he said. “Everybody wants to talk to Wade. I would like to make the ‘A’ – of course, that’s what everybody says. We had a good first year at Boone, then we ended up working last year (he hauls crude oil) during Super Nationals and didn’t get to go last year so I’m really focused this year, trying to make a qualifier.”
He tuned in on IMCA.TV but would have rather been at Boone last September.
“You root for your friends, like Zane DeVilbiss, Jake Nightingale, Brett Berry and John Webb and the Southern Oklahoma guys, even though you’re not there, Hamilton said. “It wasn’t all bad, but I would have rather been there more than anything.”
Super Nationals are the third and final event on his annual list of races to attend if work allows, along with the Ice Breaker at Abilene and Southern Oklahoma’s Stampede.
“Those are the only races that are set in stone,” he said. “Everything else we play by ear.”
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