During the June 16, 2017 Central States Region Super Cups third race program of the season, Tinkle is fastest qualifier, heat winner, and spun in the feature race
Zachary Tinkle went to familiar Grundy County Speedway for the first race of the season for the Central States Region Super Cups with hopes of maintaining his lead position in championship points. He went out for practice and showed the fastest time from the rest of the field. There were a couple adjustments made to the car and it was time for qualifying.
During qualifying, Tinkle went out on the track first and scored at time of 15.415, which, after all the other cars qualified, turned out to be the fastest minicup time of the night.
Video of qualifying:
Because of being the fastest qualifier, he participated in the opening ceremonies in his car on the track during the National Anthem.
Video of National Anthem:
Before the races, Grundy County Speedway held an autograph session on the track with all racers and their cars. It was a wonderful time to meet, greet, and mingle with race fans that came out to support their local race track.
Autograph video:
In the heat race, Tinkle went out on the pole position. He led over half of the laps, but the #13 car was fast and caught up with him. Tinkle had to work to keep his first place position up until the last minute with a photo finish with the two cars crossing the line at almost the same time, but with Tinkle edging ahead to win the race by .028 (twenty-eight one thousandths) of a second.
Video of heat race:
Because he won the previous week’s feature race, Tinkle had to start at the back of the field. One by one, he passed cars on the field and made his way up to third place and battling for second for several laps. Just when he was in position to make a move with two laps to go, they came up on lap traffic. Pinched behind a slow car, Tinkle moved to avoid hitting a lap car and spun. In the end, he placed in seventh place in the race. This finish should keep Tinkle with a lead in championship points thought standings have not yet been published.
Video of feature race: