FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Kyle Hamilton put a Kenyon Brothers-owned midget on top of the qualifying charts for the first time in the 21-year history of the Rumble in Fort Wayne during Saturday’s time trial session.

Hamilton toured the one-sixth mile concrete oval in 7.847 seconds (76.462 mph) with his No. 16 Curtis Motor Sales Kenyon/Yamaha to earn his first-career fast time in Rumble competition as well.

The Purdue University graduate won the Saturday portion of the event in 2016 and is seeking his second victory.

“You can usually tell by the first lap whether you’ve got a good run going here, and I knew we had speed, but I wasn’t expecting a 7.84,” Hamilton told SPEED SPORT. “That run was fantastic; we did what we needed to do, but there’s a long way to go yet. We’ve always been good here on Saturdays, so hopefully we can replicate what we did two years ago and park it in victory lane again later tonight.”

Hamilton also paid a nod to the importance of giving owners Mel and Don Kenyon their first pole qualifying effort inside the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

“Man, this is just really special, to put a Kenyon car on top in qualifying here for the first time,” Hamilton noted. “Mel and Don have been fussing and talking about how they’ve done everything here but win a pole, and I’m proud to be a small part of delivering that to them tonight.

“This is a little bit about me, but it speaks to the effort that Mel and Don put into their race cars and making sure they have speed every time they hit the race track.”

Friday night’s winner Geoff Kaiser kept his strong run going with a second-place qualifying effort on Saturday afternoon (7.888/76.065) with the No. 10 Don Moore-owned machine, followed by Cap Henry, Joe Liguori and Cooper Clouse.

Kody Swanson, Derek Bischak, Justin Peck, Travis Welpott and Jim Anderson completed the top 10.

Of note, none of the three Tony Stewart Racing Munchkins turned a lap of qualifying, as all three scratched out for the night with various mechanical maladies.

John Ivy led the non-winged 600cc micro field in time trials, while his teammate Cap Henry topped qualifications for the winged 600xx micro class.

Opening ceremonies for the final night of the 21st annual Rumble in Fort Wayne are slated for 7 p.m.

National Midget Time Trials (best of two laps): 1. #16 – Kyle Hamilton, 7.847; 2. #10 – Geoff Kaiser, 7.888; 3. #67 – Cap Henry, 7.899; 4. #8up – Joe Liguori, 7.907; 5. #7cc – Cooper Clouse, 7.916; 6. #8 – Kody Swanson, 7.936; 7. #31 – Derek Bischak, 7.996; 8. #5x – Justin Peck, 8.020; 9. #18 – Travis Welpott, 8.048; 10. #36 – Jim Anderson, 8.066; 11. #99 – Billy Wease, 8.077; 12. #59x – John Inman, 8.106; 13. #6 – Nick Hamilton, 8.128; 14. #59 – Bryan Nuckles, 8.171; 15. #24 – Cory Setser, 8.218; 16. #88 – Billy Hulbert, 8.233; 17. #19 – Austin Nemire, 8.265; 18. #9 – Matt Westfall, 8.277; 19. #98 – Scott Hampton, 8.288; 20. #63 – Rex Norris III, 8.320; 21. #7dd – Dave Darland, 8.327; 22. #4b – Sean Murphy, 8.365; 23. #67k – Kyle O’Gara, 8.389; 24. #92 – Chris Guingrich, 8.435; 25. #22 – Cory Guingrich, 8.554; 26. #15 – RJ Corson, 8.704; 27. #49 – Billy Lewis, 8.715 (8.835); 28. #65 – Junior Gould, 8.715 (9.021); 29. #63b – Matt Browning, 8.717; 30. #49 – Ron Combs, 9.266; 31. #2 – Tony Stewart, NT; 32. #24r – Rico Abreu, NT; 33. #46 – Russ Gamester, NT; 34. #97 – Mike Fedorcak, NT.

Non-winged 600cc Micro Time Trials (best of two laps): 1. #2 – John Ivy, 8.112; 2. #68 – Tyler Gunn, 8.217; 3. #12 – Josh Ross, 8.319; 4. #46 – Tyler Lindsay, 8.338; 5. #51 – Jason Ormsby, 8.376; 6. #91 – Tyler Fitzpatrick, 8.417; 7. #21 – Larry Joe Sroufe, 8.468; 8. #67 – Jason Hentrich, 8.487; 9. #11e – Ethan Foster, 8.513; 10. #75b – Brian Busz, 8.539; 11. #29 – Jeff Haefke, 8.728; 12. #39 – Tyler Rankin, 8.755; 13. #57b – Michael Busz, 8.761; 14. #07 – Tyler Chalk, 8.776; 15. #7 – Matthew Brannin, 8.792; 16. #69 – Blake Lamb, 8.814; 17. #9 – Keith Gunkel, 8.829; 18. #88 – Steve Myers Jr., 8.834; 19. #79 – Chris Malaterre, 8.914; 20. #88k – Kyle Gunkel, 8.972; 21. #14 – Clarence Hoch, 9.205; 22. #X – Andy Martin, 9.260; 23. #99 – Jason Montel, 9.413; 24. #83 – Jason O’Hara, 9.815; 25. #35 – Justin Harper, NT; 26. #3e – Cole Ketchum, NT; 27. #88m – Steve Myers Sr., NT; 28. #11b – Adam Walker, NT; 29. #50 – AJ Thompson, NT.

Winged 600cc Micro Time Trials (best of two laps): 1. #17 – Cap Henry, 7.805; 2. #51 – Jason Ormsby, 7.981; 3. #87 – Nate Franklin, 8.021; 4. #94 – John Ivy, 8.073; 5. #18 – Cody Tyler, 8.117; 6. #14 – Cory Grenzy, 8.136; 7. #23 – Alexis Adgate, 8.139; 8. #11b – Drew Dorsett, 8.195; 9. #62 – Rod Henning, 8.232; 10. #01 – Tyler Ransbottom, 8.283; 11. #14F – AJ Lesiecki, 8.342; 12. #21 – Clay Sanders, 8.411; 13. #35z – Mark Zumbrun, 8.449; 14. #10r – Ryan Ball, 8.452; 15. #26 – Howard McCormick, 8.466; 16. #84 – Bill Dunham, 8.502; 17. #48 – Bobby Murany, 8.612; 18. #24 – Jonathon Lesiecki, 8.716; 19. #29 – Clayton Mullet, NT.