PETERSEN MEDIA
– With the World of Outlaws rolling into California, Kyle Hirst spent the last six nights running six races in three different cars with a third place finish with the California Civil War Series highlighting his week.
Piloting the Rod Tiner Racing No. 83 on Wednesday in the winged division, and the Ted Finkenbinder No.3f machine in the non-winged portion of the event, Hirst ended up having polar opposite nights in both cars.
In the non-winged division Hirst was involved in a first lap tangle that resulted in his night being completed.
Regrouping for the winged race, the Sacramento, CA driver lined the potent Tiner Racing machine up in the third row behind Kyle Larson and Andy Forsberg.
As the green waved, everyone began fighting for the bottom of the speedway, as the top had gone away.
In what was relatively a single file freight train, Hirst was able to keep his nose clean through lapped traffic and fend off a pesky Rico Abreu as he did what he could to utilize the top.
While he got close to Forsberg for second, KH wound up in the third spot.
“Rod and all of his boys gave me a great car tonight, it was just very tough to make up any ground on anyone,” he said. “Larson was in his own lead, and Forsberg didn’t make any mistakes and kept us behind him.”
Running as a teammate to Tim Kaeding, Hirst climbed aboard the Roth Motorsports No.83jr for the World of Outlaw portion of Gold Cup, as well as the remainder of California Speedweek.
A couple of average finishes put KH 17th in Gold Cup points, and lined him up on the front row of the B-main event for one last shot at making the feature event.
Winning the B main in convincing fashion, Hirst lined up in the ninth row of the 40-lap feature event. Early in the race, the track proved to be very tough to pass on, but as laps clicked up it gradually widened up and got racy.
Hirst seemed to get going as the track widened out as he carved his way from the 17th starting position to a seventh place finish and earned the KSE Hard Charger award.
“We got going in the Gold Cup feature, and really ended up with a nice finish,” he said. “It’s a bummer what happened to my teammate (Tim Kaeding), because this could have been a great night for Roth Motorsports.”
Sunday night, Hirst and his Roth Motorsports team continued on with the Outlaws as they took to the Calistoga Speedway. Qualifying 19th fastest, Hirst found himself lining up in the last row of the feature event.
On what was a very narrow and rough track, KH was able to work his way forward to a 12th place finish when the checkered flag flew.
Closing out the California Speedweek with the World of Outlaws didn’t quite go as planned in Antioch, CA as the No.83jr car lost a radiator early in the feature event, and KH’s night was done.
“Overall we had a good few nights with the World of Outlaws,” he said. “We had a better car then some of our results showed, but that will happen when you take on the best of the best.”
Kyle and his Roth Motorsports team would like to thank HR Cattle, and HR Livestock Transportation for their support in 2012.
ON TAP: KH will be back aboard the Rod Tiner Racing No.83 machine this Saturday night with the California Civil War Series as they invade the Petaluma Speedway.