(Image Credit : Ben Thrasher)
26 Promotions – Peoria, AZ – (June 1st, 2017) – Colton Hardy made his first Non-Wing Micro Sprint starts of the season this past weekend at Canyon Speedway Park in preparation for California Speedweek coming up at the end of June.
Saturday night got off to an unusual start with two rounds of track prep and mud packing, resulting in last minute adjustments prior to Heat race action.
“Right after the final hot lap session for the night, the track decided to flood both tracks with water which resulted in us having to go mud pack again,” Hardy explained. “After we packed it in again, I watched the Restrictor Heat and the first Non-Wing Heat to determine what I wanted to do to the car. The track still seemed greasy so I tightened it a little bit to help in the slime. Turns out the slime blew off by the time my heat went out.”
Starting third in his Heat, Hardy grabbed the lead on lap one. But, rapidly changing track conditions caused the car to tighten up on him.
“As the race went on I kept getting tighter and tighter,” he said. “So I started yoking it in the corner harder to get the car to rotate. I ended up clipping an infield tire and fell back to third but was able to pick up one of the spots and ended up second.”
Hardy’s second place finish from third lined him up on the pole for Saturday night’s Feature. After examining the track condition, Hardy and the Bandit Racing team made a few small adjustments to the number 41 Hyper Chassis. Hardy fought a tight race car early in the race, but the adjustments paid off late as the track conditions deteriorated. He’d lead all 25 laps to pick up the night one win.
Hardy kicked things off Sunday night with a dominating Heat race win from the outside of the front row, winning by a straightaway.
Starting fourth in the Feature, Hardy grabbed third on the start and ran nose to tail with the leaders.
“I changed my line in one and two and pulled almost equal with second but got chopped the next corner,” explained Hardy. “Once I showed him that line, he changed his so I changed mine and starting diamonding three and four instead of following him in on the bottom.”
During the three-way battle up front, the car running ahead of Hardy clipped an infield tire and flipped directly in front of him.
“On the restart, I started working the bottom in one and two again finally pulling equal with the leader and slid him in three and four,” said Hardy. “After that I never felt pressured from behind, knowing that if I just hit my marks, we were the car to beat.”
Hardy led the final 13 laps of Sunday’s Feature on his way to the weekend sweep.
“It feels good to be able to pick up a couple wins before California. Knowing that I am running this car over there Non-Wing is a huge confidence booster going against the nation’s best for a week,” he said. “I can’t thank my dad, Jake and everyone enough for helping out.”
Hardy has the weekend off before making his first appearance of the year in a Non-Wing Sprint Car on June 10th with the USAC Southwest Sprint Cars at Arizona Speedway.
Colton Hardy would like to thank A & C Remodeling, NPS Race Engines, Engler Machine and Tool, CSI Shocks, Schoenfeld Headers, Hyper Racing, Bandit Racing, M & J Trophies and Apparel, Mark’s Nuts and Bolts, Diamond Mechanical and Napa Auto Parts for their continued support.
Saturday’s Results:
Heat: 3rd -> 2nd
Feature: 1st -> 1st
Sunday’s Results:
Heat: 2nd -> 1st
Feature: 4th -> 1st
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colton.hardy41
Twitter: https://twitter.com/colton_hardy41
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colton_hardy41/
Website: http://www.coltonhardy.com/
- Darren Ward on Jun 01, 2017
- Article Date: 6/1/2017 by 26 Promotions