From Peterson Media
Rebounding from a rough Friday night at the 42nd Annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup, Kyle Hirst charged from his ninth start position to score a fifth place finish aboard his Roth Enterprises/HR Livestock Transportation/3H Cattle entry.
“We did not get off to a great start on Friday night, but my guys worked their tales off on Saturday, and we ended up with a pretty decent weekend,” Hirst said.
With 31 cars on hand, Hirst got off to a nice start as he timed the Mobil 1/FK Rod Ends/Weld Wheels backed machine in seventh fastest.
Heat race action saw Hirst struggle a bit, and the Sacramento, CA driver slipped back to the fifth spot, forcing him to make a quick stop in the B main event.
In the B main, Hirst ran in the second position behind Sam Hafertepe, Jr, until the last lap, when he made a strong move on Hafertepe, and stole the win on the last lap, putting him in the 16th starting spot for the feature event.
In the feature event Hirst found bad luck on lap 24 as he was involved in a three car pile up, and his night was over, leaving behind the eight ball in event points.
Retuning to action on Saturday night for a double-header event, Hirst again timed his Roth Motorsports entry in seventh quickest, hopeful that was the only similarity to Friday night’s race.
Starting in the second row of his heat, KH tallied a second place finish, putting him in the feature event, where he would start in the 6th row of the 30-lap feature on the very slick track.
With his elbows up, Hirst had a very strong machine in the feature as he was able to carve his way up to a fifth place finish, propelling him to ninth in Dirt Cup points, putting him in the fifth row for the 40-lap feature event later Saturday night.
Grabbing as much rest as he could while the track crew went to work on getting the night portion of the event ready to rock.
Taking the track just past 11:30pm local time, Hirst continued to show speed, as he worked around the slicked off Skagit Speedway as he clawed his way up to the fifth spot, when the lone caution of the race waved just past the halfway point.
Lining up behind Travis Rilat, Hirst worked on the him over the next handful of laps looking to take over the fourth spot.
Losing ground to Rilat in lapped traffic, Hirst would go on to finish in the fifth spot.
“I can’t thank Dennis and Teresa Roth as well as all my guys for giving me the chance to get back up to the Dirt Cup to race,” he said. “It was my first weekend working with Troy Welty, and I think we did a pretty good job, and hopefully we can get back home next weekend and get a win with the King of the West series.”
Kyle and his Roth Motorsports team would like to thank Roth Enterprises, HR Livestock Transportation, 3H Cattle, Mobil1, FK Rod Ends, Weld Wheels, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions, Kent Performance Center, Kaeding Performance, and Astro Titanium for their support.
2013 ROTH MOTORSPORTS BY THE NUMBERS: Starts-28, Wins-1, Top 5’s-12, Top-10’s-18
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Starts-42, Wins-2, Top 5’s-17, Top 10’s-28
ON TAP: Hirst and his Roth Motorsports team will now head to the Placerville Speedway to return to action with the King of the West Series.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with the Roth Motorsports team by visiting www.rothmotorsports83.com. You can also follow Kyle on Twitter @KyleHirstRacing.