Largest Silver Crown field in 3 years expected for Bettenhausen 100 at Illinois State Fair

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Kody Swanson, of Kingsburg, Calif. enters the Tony Bettenhausen 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on Aug. 16 with a 45-point lead over Tracy Hines in the USAC Silver Crown Championship series following his third victory of the season last Friday at Belleville, Kansas.

Swanson will lead a field of cars expected to eclipse the 30-car starting field. It could mark the largest Silver Crown field on dirt since the 2011 Hoosier Hundred in Indianapolis, Ind.

Friday’s Hustle on the High Banks 50-lapper at the Belleville High Banks saw Swanson catch Chris Windom on lap 45, and he led the final six laps around the half-mile oval in the Radio Hospital Maxim/Hampshire. Windom led the first 45 laps but encountered problems and was relegated to a ninth-place finish.

Tracy Hines, the 2013 Belleville winner, finished second ahead of Christopher Bell, Bobby East and Dave Darland. Swanson was the fastest qualifier and the win was his third of the campaign.

At Springfield, Swanson will try to improve on his seventh-place finish a year ago. Windom finished second last year at Springfield behind Illinois’ A.J. Fike, the Galesburg,Ill., dirt ace who has won back-to-back Bettenhausen 100’s.

For tickets, call 217-764-3200.

Silver Crown standings

Kody Swanson 345, 2. Tracy Hines 300, 3. Bobby East 291, 4. Chris Windom 243, 5. Jacob Wilson 195, 6. Jerry Coons Jr. 177, 7. Tanner Swanson. 165, 8. Bobby Santos 159, 9. Caleb Armtsrong 155, 10. David Byrne 147.

I hope this hype turns out to be true but will remain cautiously optimistic.

30 would b awesome but a full field would b great !

18 cars used to be a full field. Not sure when that stopped. 2008? Earlier?

Pretty sure they were starting 24 when dirt cars went from being part of the USAC Champ Trail to the Dirt Car (Silver Crown) Division.

As a kid it was either 20 or 24, and the last 10 or 6 were filled in through a 15 mile last chance race. 30 cars was the norm for a starting field, with 45-50 total cars being normal.

30 has been a full field on the miles since the Mid 80s at least. Normally 24 on a half mile.

Just checked the book, 1971 and 1972 were 24 count fields. Starting 95 and 96 several races had 30 count fields while others were still 24.

I hope they have at least 24 cars . Boy ! You USAC guys r sticklers when it comes right down to it!

A little video from Ross Wece to get everyone a little more excited and maybe make it past hump day today.