Hirst takes Civil War opener in Placerville’s Wild Winged Wednesday
By Bill Sullivan
PLACERVILLE, CA – Elk Grove’s Kyle Hirst became the first winner of the 2008 Hoosier Tires Civil War Series at Placerville Speedway during the special “Wild Winged Wednesday” event that undoubtedly lived up to its name. Aboard the GP Development #6 sprint car, Hirst bested a 42 car field in an event that was the survival of the fittest with a dozen different cars going upside down throughout the night.
In Saturday’s feature event alone, more than 80 laps were turned overall, combining gren flag circuits with those completed under the caution flag. Eight different drivers went upside down during the 30-lap feature event, adding to the already numerous crash victims that suffered damage in the preliminary events.
When the green flag waved in Wednesday’s feature event, the early lead went to Placerville’s James Sweeney as he muscled ahead of pole sitter Brad Furr of Pleasanton. Fourth place starter David Robinson Jr. of Foresthill quickly overtook Furr for the second position by the first lap.
With just one lap in the books, the red flags began to wave. The first coming out for Placerville’s Jimmy Trulli when he went upside down on the front stretch. By the end of the race Trulli would be joined in the pit area by seven additional drivers including Andy Gregg, Justin Johnson, Furr, Miles Bishop, Doug Machado, Christian Stover and Matt Petty who was involved in one of the scariest feature event crashes, sending him atop the grandstand safety fence high enough to shear off one of the speakers of the public address system.
Throughout the red flags, Hirst worked his way from his tenth place starting position towards the front while Robinson and Sweeney dueled for the lead. After a restart on the fifth lap Robinson went low in turns one and two and took the lead from Sweeney who was being chased down by Gregg, prior to Gregg’s rollover late in the race.
With 15 laps complete Hirst closed in on Sweeney for the bridesmaid position and overtook him on the following lap and Tyler Walker of Los Angeles moved into the top three one lap later but would later suffer a flat tire and fall out of contention. After racing sided by side for the five laps with Robinson, Hirst took the lead in the fourth turn of lap 21.
Once in front, Hirst maintained a lead of several car lengths over Robinson, Sweeney drifted off the fourth turn on lap 28 and fell back several positions while Robinson and Andy Forsberg of Auburn completed the top three at the with Steven Tiner of Elverta in fourth followed by Kyle Larson of Elk Grove.
“I’m glad to get this win for Gary Perkins and the whole crew, I hope this is a sign that things are turning around for us,” said Hirst. “Tonight the red flags didn’t bother me too much. They actually gave me a chance to catch my breath and rest a bit. I’d like to thank everyone involved with this team this year and all the fans for coming out tonight on a Wednesday night.”
Racing continues at Placerville this Saturday night with point racing action featuring the Placerville Speedway Pro Stocks and Pure Stocks together with the Wingless Midgets and Midget Lites of the Bay Cities Racing Association and the wingless sprint cars of the Joe Hunt Magnetos John Padjen Motorsports twin track championship series.
The front gates will open at followed by warm ups at . For additional information visit www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com.
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