Kevin Hirthler Tracks Down his Second 38er Victory at Grandview Speedway

76er weekend opened in grand style at Grandview Speedway with fall sunny breezy and cool conditions that put the shorts and race tee shirts away and brought out the Bob Hilbert race hoodies but with 108 cars on the premises and it was a great night of racing despite the cooling temps.  55 sportsman entries were on the grounds for the 38er while 53 mods were testing for Saturdays 76er and the $35,500 to win modified purse.

With 18 drivers in the redraw it was Joe Toth in his Dad’s #89 and Steve Davis in Howie Finch’s #4 leading the field to green with Davis taking the led for the first 5 laps.  After the first caution on lap 5; Brett Kressley in the Hoffman Speed shop # 6over took the lead until lap traffic breifly bottled up Kressley on lap 30 which was all that Kevin Hirthler needed to jump into the lead after coming through the field from his 19^th starting position.  From there Hirthler negotiated the lapped traffic for the final 8 laps and opened up nearly a 2 second lead right into the winner’s circle for his second 38er win.   Kevin Hirthler becomes the first driver to win two Freedom 38er’s with his second win securing the biggest check ever written for the sportsman 38er – $3,550.  Kevin Hirthler also adds his first sportsman win of the season to three modified wins while his brother Brian won the sportsman season points championship.

The top 10 was rounded out by Brett Kressley, Mike Gular, Steve Davis, Kyle Smith, Jack Butler, Brand Brightbill, Ryan Lilick, Dakota Kohler and Jimmy Leiby.

The top 4 drivers were all modified drivers entered in the sportsman race in addition to the 76er. The highest finishing regular sportman driver was 17 year old Kyle Smith who finished 5th.

Heat race winners: Brandon Edgar, Cole Stangle, Ryan Beltz, Tommy Myer, Brett Kressley and Brett Gilmore.  Consolations were won by Lex Shive, Kevin Hirthler and Ryan Higgs.

53 modifieds took part in practice for tomorrow’s Freedom 76er.  The faster 3 modified drivers of the night were Frank Cozze (14.38); Jeff Strunk (14:42) & Dominic Buffalino (14.51).

Today’s Freedom 76er at Grandview Speedway has hot laps at 6:00 PM with racing starting at 7:00 PM.