by Tracy Hines Racing PR | Mark Miefert photo
NEW CASTLE, Ind. | Nov. 13, 2013— The Western World Championships have been around for over 40 years, and while sprint cars have always been the mainstay on the bill for the event, what type of sprinters has varied over the years. This year, it will be non-wing 360s, paired with midgets. Tracy Hines is a past winner of the historic event and looks to continue to add to his success at Canyon Speedway Park, in Peoria, Ariz., during the event this week.
Hines will pilot the familiar Parker Machinery/Powered By Toyota No. 24 Spike in the midget portion of the Western World Championships with the Honda USAC National Midget Series. In the sprint car segment, he looks to drive the No. 21 of Rick Pollack, with details of that arrangement still in the works.
The 46th Annual Sands Chevrolet Western World Championships presented by the Racers Advantage Store is scheduled to open on Thursday, Nov. 14, continue on Friday, Nov. 15 and will conclude on Saturday, Nov. 16. The Honda USAC National Midget Series will compete all three nights, with points earned on each of the two preliminary nights being used to determine the feature lineups for the finale.
The sprint car portion of the Western World Championships, which is sanctioned by the USAC Southwest and USAC West Coast Sprint Cars Series, will see the field split in two on Thursday and Friday, setting the stage for the finale on Saturday night. The winner of both the midget and sprint car A-features on the final night will collect $7,500, with a $5,000 bonus courtesy of E&K Construction on the line if one driver can win both features.
“The Western World has always been one of the biggest events of the year,” said Hines. “With the extra money they are putting on the line this year, that makes it even bigger. It looks like there will be a very strong field for both the midgets and sprint cars. We’ve done pretty well at Canyon (Speedway Park) in the past, so hopefully we can keep that up this week.”
Last season in the Western World Championships, Hines earned a pair of podium finishes. He was second on the first preliminary night and came home third in the finale in the event that was sanctioned by the American Sprint Car Series Canyon Region. Hines lined up fourth for the preliminary feature after passing points from the heats and the qualifier were tallied to determine the lineup.
Hines started in the fourth position for the 30-lap championship race, after a coin toss was used to determine inside/outside row starting positions. The native of New Castle, Ind., moved into third at the drop of the green and would remain in that position for the remainder of the race. The yellow flag flew once, on the sixth lap, bunching the field back up.
“We had a pretty good run last year,” he noted. “After winning it the year before, we really wanted to back that up with another strong performance. With the field of cars that was there, it was definitely tough competition. Everything has to be spot-on and you also need a few breaks to fall your way to be in contention.”
With the Honda USAC National Midget Series last season, Hines finished fourth at Canyon Speedway Park. That originally scheduled two-night event was cut to a single day show, due to inclement weather. Hines opened that night as the seventh-fastest qualifier of the 28 cars that took to the track. He followed that up with a fourth-place finish in the third eight-lap heat race to earn a spot in the 30-lap A-Feature.
“We’ve been so close to winning a midget race on the dirt this year, and have a few more chances to get that done,” said Hines. “We were decent in the midget race at Canyon (Speedway Park) last year and learned a few things that should help us this time around. It’s been a while since we ran the midget on dirt, so hot laps will be pretty important to make sure everything feels good.”
The 2002 Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series champion raced at Canyon Speedway Park last month with the series, earning a pair of runner-up finishes. In his career at the one-third-mile, Hines has three wins, with all of those coming during the Winter Freeze event in January of 2012.
Entering the Western World Championships, Hines is third in points with the Honda USAC National Midget Series Dirt Championship. He has 11 top-10 finishes on the dirt this year with the series, with nine of those being top-five performances. In a sprint car in 2013, the veteran driver has won twice, while earning 19 top-10 finishes, with eight of those being top-five showings. He finished sixth in points with the Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series.
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