All the stars and the planets seem to be lining up for Tim Russell this season in the Triple Crown Championship Series. The historic three-race series has always been an epic battle of the best Super Late Model drivers in Florida. Back in January, Russell won the first leg of the Triple Crown from the pole position at New Smyrna Speedway (FL). The second leg, which featured the Clyde Hart Memorial race, was held on Thursday night during the Fourth of July weekend, and it had a familiar result. Once again, Russell was victorious at New Smyrna Speedway.
“We just had a really awesome car,” said Russell. “I knew we were going to be strong in the race and we were. We had a little slip up in qualifying, but the draw helped us out and we got to start closer to the front. It feels really good to be back in victory lane. I can’t thank all the guys on the team enough. We have had a strong enough car to win several time in the last few weeks, this time we got the job done.”
Russell started on the front row and jumped out to the lead over the first 20 laps. After a quick caution, he pulled away on a restart and built a sizable lead in the middle part of the race.
“We did get out to a good lead in the middle part of the race,” said Russell. “That worked out well for us as I was able to save some my tires a bit for the last part of the race in case we had some cautions. We never got those cautions and the race went green all the way to the finish.”
This is the second career win for Tim Russell in the Clyde Hart Memorial 125. He also won the Red Eye 125 in January - giving him victories in both legs of the Triple Crown. Russell is a former Triple Crown Champion, but there is still one race that he is eyeing.
“We have won the Clyde Hart Memorial twice now,” said Russell. “We won the Red Eye earlier this year, we also won the Billie Harvey Memorial. Those races all mean a lot, but we want to win the Governor’s Cup here at New Smyrna. We have come close before, but we think we’ll have the momentum going into that race later on this year.”
Tim Russell’s next scheduled race will be on July 10th at Orlando Speedworld (FL) for another Super Late Model event – this time as part of the Brighthouse Challenge Series. At Orlando, Russell will be looking to notch another victory in the win column.
