It was far from a perfect night at Circle City Speedway in Indiana on Thursday.
That’s to be expected, too, with it being the first night of racing action for the brand new race track. However, it was nearly perfect for Tyler Courtney with a feature that didn’t disappoint either.
The first-year winged driver became the first winner in track history by taking the Rayce Rudeen Week opener at a track 30 minutes from his hometown.
“Man, it’s awesome, we just needed to get that first one out of the way,” Courtney said in victory lane about his second victory in three races with the series.
The win for Courtney – who’s in his first full season of winged sprint car racing – came after leading a majority of the feature race, and holding off Carson Short on the restart.
WHAT A FINISH 🤯@TyCourtney7BC returns to FloRacing @ASCoC victory lane at the grand opening of @CircleCityDirt! pic.twitter.com/mKzgnhFpHM
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) May 21, 2021
“I kind of got a little too conservative there on the restart,” Courtney said on the FloRacing broadcast following the race. “Luckily (Short) is a good, clean racer. He left me just enough room coming (out of turn four).”
The track saw an amount of follow the leader heat races that made it seem like the feature race at the end of the night could be a one-lane parade.
Although, the staff worked diligently through the event, prepping the track ahead of the dash as well as the feature, and producing an entertaining feature race.
“It’s a night-and-day (difference) really,” Courtney said. They did a phenomenal job. This was the first night out of racing, but the end of that race was pretty dang good. It’s only going to go up from here.”
With the win, Courtney will take a four-race podium streak into Friday’s running at Circle City for the backend of the doubleheader debut. As always all of the action can be seen on FloRacing, and hot laps are scheduled to kick off at 5:00 p.m. CT.
ASCoC Rayce Rudeen Week Night 1 Results
Circle City Raceway
1. Tyler Courtney
2. Carson Short
3. Hunter Schuerenberg
4. Zeb Wise
5. Bill Balog
6. Justin Peck
7. Gio Scelzi
8. Kerry Madsen
9. Kyle Reinhardt
10. Ian Madsen
11. Clinton Boyles
12. Tanner Thorson
13. Thomas Meseraull
14. Brady Bacon
15. Scotty Thiel
16. Greg Wilson
17. Paul McMahan
18. Rico Abreu
19. Cale Thomas
20. Brinton Marvel
21. Cap Henry
22. Cory Eliason
23. TJ Michael
24. Sam Hafertepe Jr.
