Copper World, Phoenix

Davey Hamilton Wins SRL Supermodified Race

A month ago Davey Hamilton did not have an Indy Racing ride for the IRNLS season-opener at Phoenix International Raceway. So he made a few phone calls and lined up rides in the USAC Midget, USAC Silver Bullet, and SRL Supermodified events at the Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200.

Then Sam Schmidt called and offered him a ride in the new Sam Schmidt Motorsports Indycar, meaning Davey Hamilton would be attempting something that only the late Rich Vogler and Gary Bettenhausen had tried before.

Such a busy weekend would not ordinarily cause a great deal of optimism. The chances of winning four out of four are slim and none ? and slim just left town.

But after the Saturday SRL Supermodified Race, Hamilton must've felt like nothing was impossible.

After losing the lead at the start to defending Copper World SRL Supermodified champion (and the winner of the '98 and '99 races) Troy Regier after one false start, Hamilton and Regier broke away from the pack. By lap 8 the leaders were in lapped traffic, and on lap 9 Hamilton took the lead from Regier just before a yellow flag due to a spin by Scott Schmidt. On the restart Regier once again grabbed the point, but on lap 14 Regier hit the wall after blowing his engine. From then on it was all Davey Hamilton. Rick Veenstra hounded McKnight until slowing late in the race. Joey Payne pressured Lonnie Adamson until the white flag when he was able to take the position just before the checkers.

Hamilton did not have much time to celebrate. He said a few words to the gathered media and then ran off to jump into his USAC National Midget race car for the second race of his day.

Can he possibly go two for two today?

Unofficial Results:

1. Davey Hamilton
2. Dave McKnight, Jr.
3. Joey Payne
4. Scott Schmidt
5. Doug Saunier
6. Lonnie Adamson
7. Rick Veenstra
8. Mike Beisch
9. Harold Evans
10. Rich Castor, Jr.
11. John Pickard
12. Ron Burger
13. Eric Silsby
14. Mike Bueing
15. Troy Regier
16. Johnny Payne
17. Ricky Otts
18. Harry Stone

Post-race quotes:

Joey Payne, #66 Continental Machine Corp. D&D/Chevy (3rd place):

"I didn't have a ride three weeks ago. This is my first time in the car. As a matter of fact I was planning on coming out here to work with the crew, not as the driver. For the first time on a mile track, I've never been on anything this big; a solid finish feels real good. I need to get more experience, come back, and challenge Davey."

Dave McKnight #94 Patco Transportation (2nd place):

"We just needed a couple of laps for the tires to come in. Hats off to Hamilton and everybody. Davey did a great job today. And what can you say. The man's definitely a talented driver. I wish I was going out to race again. Track conditions changed a lot from yesterday. I think the temperature went up. The track was a little bit loose. We made a couple of adjustments, adjusted the stagger. The longer I ran the better the car got, but on the short restarts I was terrible. All in all I'm happy to be here. I want to come next year 'cause I want one of those little world ball trophies on my mantle."

Davey Hamilton #1 Victory Circle Motorsports Shefchik/Losorwith (winner):

"It's actually a good track right now. It's getting slick right now with all the cars on it this weekend. The car was basically good. We were a little loose at first. Troy had a real strong motor in that thing and beat us off the start at first. I stayed right with him but I was on the loose side. I have a weight jacker on the car and under yellow I put a bunch of weight on the car. It was way too much and I picked up a big push. I tried to dial it out and trying to catch back up with Troy at the restart. When he blew his motor that was pretty much it. The last five laps I got the car to where I actually wanted it. It took me all race to get the car where I wanted it. After the first restart Troy started to huff out the oil pretty good. I was getting a lot of oil from it. I had an idea that something was going down. Every time I'd get behind him I would get in the oil and it was slippery. I was being very cautious because he lost a lot of oil before he blew up."