In the seventh Central States Region Super Cups race program of the season, Zachary Tinkle survives chain issues during qualifying and heat race to finish second in the feature race
Zachary Tinkle’s car had yellow ribbons in honor of Suicide Prevention Night
Grundy County Speedway had an impressive crowd with wonderful weather for their Suicide Prevention Night. The Central States Region Super Cups were the first group on the dusty track. Zachary Tinkle came off from first practice with handling changes needed for the car. With adjustments made, he returned from second practice extremely pleased.
As soon as Tinkle went onto the track for his qualifying round, he came over the radio and said, “Something’s wrong.” After conversation and coming off the track, it was immediately realized that the chain had come off the clutch. This meant that he was listed as DNQ (Did Not Qualify). His crew chief swiftly got the chain back on the car, but not in enough time to get him back on the track to try for a qualifying round. Because of this, he was slated to start at the back of the field in both the heat and feature races.
Unfortunately, Tinkle suffered dé·jà vu when he went onto the track for the heat race. As soon as he started to get up to speed with the field, he knew that the chain came off again and ended up leaving the field to go to the pits. Apparently, the chain suffered an undetected crack when it came off the first time and broke the second. Luckily, the heat race and qualifying did not count toward championship points so there was still hope for the night.
When he went onto the track for the feature race, the #53 team was crossing its fingers and holding its breath. Luckily, things went well. Tinkle came up through the field right away, but there was a complete re-start as the result of a wreck and spin of the #75 car in turn 4. On the restart, Tinkle continued his progress, making it up to third and then second within a few laps — the position he maintained even after another caution on the track for a spin in turn 4 by the #75 car. Finishing in second, not only maintained his championship lead, but increased his lead by three more points over the second-place contender.
Feature race video