Tinkle Family Racing, with driver Zachary Tinkle, made their 2019 racing season debut with the Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman Powered by JEGS season opener Saturday night at Anderson Speedway. It was also the debut of a whole new team for Tinkle Family Racing who hired Danny Trent as their Crew Chief for the 2019 season and Brandon Grant as their Driver Coach and Spotter. The team also had a new VanDoorn Racing Development car built during the off season, which they debuted Saturday night.
Zachary and the team participated in the open practice on Friday night, after attending two of the track’s prior open practices in March, to help dial the car in and get the team to use to working with one another before Saturday night’s season opener.
Zachary competed in the two Saturday practice sessions, with the car getting better each time he hit the track. Zachary qualified sixth out of the 18 cars on hand for the series season opener. Allstar Performance Fast Qualifier Billy Hutson drew a six for the feature’s invert, placing Zachary on the pole for the event.
At the start of the race Zachary dropped back to a comfortable position, just making laps conserving tires for the 75-lap event. Unfortunately, Zachary was involved in two on track incidents that caused a yellow flag each time. In one he was very lucky after spinning in the grass in turn one and coming back into traffic on lap 18 but avoided any hard contact and was able to continue.
Zachary would come from the tail of the field to get a fifth-place finish, the last car on the lead lap. Zachary passed several cars, masterfully using the high lane to get around a couple of cars, giving him a great finish and a good start to the 2019 season. This earned him the AR Bodies Cool Move of the Race award.
“Had a race of ups and downs but finished P5 after starting on the pole in the Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman race Saturday night,” remarked Zachary. “This was the first race with the new team, and I can’t thank them enough for everything: Danny, Brandon, Kenna, Kent, Dallas, Montana, mom (Laurren) and dad (Brad). Thank you to VanDoorn Racing Development for their help. Thanks to Grandma Linda and Wayne and Brandon Grant’s mom for coming out.”