CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM NIGHT 1 OF THE GOLD CROWN MIDGET NATIONALS AT TRI-CITY SPEEDWAY!

Pontoon Beach, Illinois.…..Tracy Hines of New Castle, Indiana led every lap on Thursday night at Tri-City Speedway to notch his fourth Mopar National Midget Series win of the year in the Parker Machinery – Turbines, Inc. #24 Spike/Toyota. The win was Hines’ fourth of the season.

Hines jumped to the lead from the front row and held a commanding lead out front. Behind him, Brad Sweet and Alex Bright diced for the second spot before Sweet took it for good and ran off after Sweet. Meanwhile, after starting fifth, Kyle Larson got off to a slow start but was coming on as the laps clicked off.

After Larson disposed of Bright, he ran down Sweet in no time as the top three were in the thick of heavy traffic. The Elk Grove, California driver was coming strong as he slid in front of Sweet and started to carve into Hines’ substantial lead. With the laps winding down the duo pounded the cushion all the way around, disposing of lapped cars all the way up to tenth along the way.

With the checkered flag in the air, Larson tried one final desperation slide-job on Hines that came up short, and Hines held a 0.654-second advantage over Larson at the line.

Larson came home second in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota fresh off his Mopar Midget win at Eldora Speedway two weeks ago.

Sweet, making his first Mopar Midget start of the season, held on for third in the Three Wide Life – Fatheadz Eyewear #56 Beast/Esslinger.

Bryan Clauson came on strong over the closing laps to net fourth in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #67 Bullet/Speedway Toyota, while Bright rounded out the top-five in the Lightcap Electric – Elite Chassis #77 Elite/Fontana.

MOPAR USAC NATIONAL MIDGET RACE RESULTS: October 4, 2012 – Pontoon Beach, IL – Tri-City Speedway – 4th DuPont “Gold Crown Midget Nationals”

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson (67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Steve Buckwalter (25, Buckwalter), 3. Alex Bright (77, Hemler), 4. Dalton Armstrong (7A, C&A), 5. Andy Malpocker (22, Malpocker), 6. Nick Wean (78, Wean), 7. Robbie Ray (3R, Ray), 8. Tyler Robbins (35, Robbins), 9. Brad Kuhn (17, RW), 10. Michael Koontz (17K, Koontz). NT

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Kyle Larson (71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Jake Blackhurst (25B, Blackhurst), 3. Brad Sweet (56, Hmiel), 4. Darren Hagen (3, RFMS), 5. Chris Windom (11, Wilke), 6. Dave Darland (3F, RFMS), 7. Bobby East (4, Klatt), 8. Jimmy Glenn (07, JG), 9. Tyler Courtney (2A, Bush). 2:00.88

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Tracy Hines (24, Parker), 2. Caleb Armstrong (7c, C&A), 3. Rico Abreu (67K, Kunz), 4. Jerry Coons, Jr. (63, Dooling), 5. Thomas Meseraull (57, Ecker), 6. Hunter Schuerenberg (2, Bush), 7. Chase Barber (191, Barber), 8. Taylor Ferns (55, Ferns), 9. Ryan Criswell (11R, Criswell), 10. Austin Burke (54, Burke). 2:02.44

FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Nick Knepper (55x, Knepper), 2. Colten Cottle (5c, Cottle), 3. Tim Buckwalter (52, Buckwalter), 4. John Campbell (19, Campbell), 5. Justin Grosz (99x, Grosz), 6. Riley Emmel (12, RayPro), 7. Kent Schmidt (5K, Schmidt), 8. Gavin Galbraith (98G, Galbraith), 9. Payton Pierce (2x, Murdock). NT

FIFTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Zach Daum (5D, Daum), 2. Davey Ray (33, RayPro), 3. Brady Bacon (99, BBR), 4. Rich Camfield (87, Mathias), 5. Daron Clayton (10, Moore), 6. Korey Weyant (87R, Camfield), 7. Brenden Bright (88, Bright), 8. Danny Frye (5, Frye), 9. Isaac Chapple (52c, Chapple). 2:03.36

ALSO AT THE TRACK: Casey Shuman (57K, Ecker).

C MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Robbins, 2. Kuhn, 3. Ferns, 4. B. Bright, 5. Criswell, 6. Courtney, 7. Burke, 8. Schmidt, 9. Glenn, 10. Galbraith, 11. Frye, 12. Chapple, 13. Barber, 14. Pierce. 2:47.84

SEMI: (15 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Cottle, 3. Darland, 4. C. Armstrong, 5. Windom, 6. Schuerenberg, 7. Robbins, 8. R. Ray, 9. Wean, 10. Weyant, 11. Malpocker, 12. East, 13. Camfield, 14. Grosz, 15. Clayton, 16. Kuhn, 17. B. Bright, 18. Emmel, 19. Ferns, 20. D. Armstrong. NT

FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Tracy Hines, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. Brad Sweet, 4. Bryan Clauson, 5. Alex Bright, 6. Darren Hagen, 7. Rico Abreu, 8. Dave Darland, 9. Thomas Meseraull, 10. Brady Bacon, 11. Zach Daum, 12. Jerry Coons, Jr., 13. Chris Windom, 14. Bobby East, 15. Jake Blackhurst, 16. Caleb Armstrong, 17. Hunter Schuerenberg, 18. Tyler Robbins, 19. Davey Ray, 20. Colten Cottle, 21. John Campbell, 22. Robbie Ray, 23. Tim Buckwalter, 24. Steve Buckwalter, 25. Nick Knepper. NT

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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1-25 Hines.

**Koontz flipped in Heat 1. B. Bright flipped in the Semi. Camfield flipped in the Semi and was transported for observation. Grosz flipped in the Semi.

NEW MOPAR NATIONAL MIDGET POINTS: 1-Hagen-1,139; 2-Hines-932; 3-Clauson-911; 4-C. Armstrong-818; 5-Larson-731; 6-East-704; 7-Kuhn-690; 8-Abreu-643; 9-Windom-628; 10-Mario Clouser-599.

NEXT MOPAR NATIONAL MIDGET RACE: October 5 – Pontoon Beach, IL – Tri-City Speedway – 4th DuPont “Gold Crown Midget Nationals”