PETERSEN MEDIA
Taking his King of the West point lead into the penultimate event of 2013, Kyle Hirst turned in a strong performance that saw him overcome a late race mistake to score a third place finish.
“We had a great racecar, probably should have won the race, but I made a mistake in traffic, and we fell to third,” Hirst said. “I have to thank Troy Welty and the boys for their hard work, and Dennis and Teresa Roth for continuing to support me.”
With 27 cars on hand at the Kings Speedway, Hirst timed his Roth Enterprises entry in fifth fastest, putting him in the second row of his heat.
Getting off to a slow start in his heat, Hirst slipped back to the fifth spot, but the current KWS point leader picked his way up to the third spot, and then slid Jonathan Allard off of turn four on the last lap to take the second spot, and gain a valuable point.
Starting second in the Dash, Hirst lost the drag race into turn one to DJ Netto, and went on to score a second place finish, putting him on the front row of the feature event.
When the green flag waived, Hirst jumped into the lead, as Netto did a monster wheel stand, and felt early pressure from Jason Meyers.
Pulling out to a sizeable lead as he worked the bottom of the speedway, traffic erased his lead, but the yellow dropped on the 10th lap, bunching the field back up.
Back to green, Hirst jumped back out front, but now had a battle with his Roth Motorsports teammate, Tim Kaeding on his hands.
The duo brought the crowd to their feet as they battled for four laps, but Hirst held the top spot, and the caution flew on the 14th lap halting their fight.
Hirst nailed his restart, and broke out to a sizeable lead over Kaeding, and got into traffic in just a few laps.
Working traffic on the 19th lap, Hirst looked to diamond under a lapped car in turns one and two, and got his entry sideways, allowing both Kaeding and Meyers to get past him, putting him back in the third spot.
Gathering his machine back up, Hirst saw the lead duo get away over the final 10-laps, and he held on to a third place finish.
“It’s great for our team to get another great finish as we go after a championship, but I really wanted to take one of those cotton filled trophy’s home,” Hirst said. “We will move forward and look ahead to Trophy Cup.”
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, Kaeding Performance, and Astro Titanium for their support in 2013.
2013 ROTH MOTORSPORTS BY THE NUMBERS: Starts-48, Wins-5, Top 5’s-23, Top-10’s-35
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Starts-68, Wins-7, Top 5’s-31, Top 10’s-49
ON TAP: Hirst and the Roth Enterprise team will be back in action this Friday-Saturday night at the Trophy Cup in Tulare, CA.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected to Kyle by following him on Twitter, @kylehirstracing, or by visiting www.rothmotorsports83.com.