Bad Luck Burdens Hirst To Open AU Trip

From Peterson Media

Though Kyle Hirst has been bad fast to open up his first trip to Australia, bad luck has seemed to follow the California on a nightly basis as mechanical woes, and an accident has caused three DNF’s in four races.

“It’s frustrating,” Hirst said. “Isaac and Josh Ruhs have given me a great car all four nights but we have simply had some bad luck knock us out of good finishes, and the one night we finished we had a great run and ended up fifth.”

Opening up World Series Sprint Car Speedweek at the Adelaide Speedway, Hirst got off to a great start as he timed in fifth fastest out of the 34 entrants aboard his High Race 24 Hours Towing/Kaeding Performance/Kistler powered machine.

Scoring fifth and sixth place finishes in heat race action, KH finished sixth in the dash, to start the feature off in the third row.

“I was pleased with how strong we were out of the box, and was looking forward to the feature,” he said.

The feature however, didn’t go as planned. Working his way into the fifth spot, Hirst was battling for the fourth spot, when his car went up in a puff of smoke as the oil filter had worked itself loose, and ended the team’s night.

“It’s unfortunate that happened, because we had a really good car, but I don’t think we hurt much, thankfully.”

Disappointed with how the opener went, the team headed to Murray Bridge to right the ship and get their season going in the right direction.

Hirst again timed in well as he was the fifth fastest qualifier against 38 other cars, and proceeded fifth and seventh place finishes in heat race action to qualify for the dash, where he would score an eight place finish.

The feature went off with any hiccups for the team, as KH looked strong aboard the Ruhs No.99USA machine. Working his way up to the second spot, Hirst made a self admitted mistake, and took the checkered flag in the fifth spot.

“Thursday night was much better than Wednesday, that’s for sure,” he said. “We had a car that was capable of winning, but I made a couple mistakes late, and we ended up in the fifth spot, but we will take it.”

Taking Friday night off, action picked back up in Mt. Gambier on Saturday. Still showing some serious speed, Hirst would time in sixth fastest, and score fourth and third place finishes in heat race action.

A fourth place finish in the dash set Hirst up in the second row of the feature event, until bad luck again, found the Sacramento, CA driver, as a broken combo arm stud, put the USA99 machine in the trailer.

The bad luck seemed to follow the team to Avalon. Qualifying on a very tricky track Hirst turned in his first qualifying lap outside of the top-10 as he was 30th fastest.

Though he scored a heat win a fifth place heat finish, Hirst’s points put him the B main, where his second place finish put him in the feature event, thought again it would be a quick feature.

On the opening lap of the race, a car half spun in front of Hirst, and the car show down and made contact with KH’s right-rear sending him upside down. With the crew rushing in the work area, thy were unable to make repairs and his night was over.

“I sure hope our bad luck is out of our system,” Hirst said. “We have had a great car in each of the four races, but only one finish to show for it. We are all a little down, but we know some good nights are ahead of us.”

Though four races, Hirst sits 10th in the standings.

ON TAP: Hirst will return to action on January 1st at the Premier Speedway in Warrnambool.

Hirst’s Down Under Tour Schedule-

January

World series speedweek round 5 1stWarrnambool, Victoria

World series round 6 4th Brisbane,Queensland

World series round night 2 5thBrisbane, Queensland

Capalaba cup 8th Brisbane,Queensland

360 sprintcar cup 12th Adelaide,South Aust

World series round 7 night 1 18th Sydney, New South Wales

World series round 7 night 2 19thSydney, New South Wales

Feb