North Carolina teenager Austin Cindric put on a powerful performance to win his first feature at the Bryant Heating & Cooling Indianapolis Speedrome on Friday May 18th. While his father Tim was working long hours across town to get Team Penske another 500-mile race victory, his son piloted his #77 INEX Legend car into the winner’s circle. He and many other division teams from across the country have plans for the upcoming National Qualifier holiday weekend. Full programs are set for Friday and Saturday with a big 50-lap feature to cap it off.
This evening’s festivities launched with a pair of preliminary contests. The first heat saw Cindric hoist the checkered flag over Tyler Payne and John Robbins. The second heat had Spring Fling series champion Mike Hacker victorious besting Joe Thurman and Jon Watson. The main event began with former open-wheeler Watson charging to first. A few circuits later, INEX Thunder Roadster point leader Marty Griffin moved into the top spot. He was then pressured by 2011 Young Lion titlist Payne. An inside move did the trick giving us a new race leader. Payne was first shadowed by current season standing topper Robbins. That runner-up withholding changed to Cindric heading into the final segment.
With the checkered flag coming into view, the final lead swap was made as Austin completed his charge from the 9th starting position. Two events happened as the drivers crossed the stripe for the final time. First was Cindric taking that treasured initial victory and second was a spectacular crash. Thurman had his car break loose clipping the rear of Doug Dugger’s machine sending him barrel-rolling down the front straightaway shedding parts the entire way. The incident was spectacular, but the most important item was that Doug thankfully got out under his own power.
“I am thrilled to win here at the Speedrome”, stated the rising star. “We have gotten our car so much better for here. This is a fun track”. Austin was the fastest qualifier at the 2011 Speedrome INEX National event. He finished runner-up to Louisville, Kentucky’s Ben Rhodes. Following Cindric across the line in the May 18th feature top five were Payne, Eric Black, Robbins, and Thurman.