TOTH Pit Notes 5/28/23 – Brian Hirthler Wins Thunder on the Hill “Balls to the Wall 50” at Grandview for his First Career Modified Win

What does Brian Hirthler and Moses Malone have in common? 4-4-4 wins.  Brian started the 50 lap Balls to the Wall 50 in 4^th starting position.  At the end of the first 20 lap invert phase Brian was in 4^th and earned the invert to the pole position.  At the end of the 35 lap Invert phase, Brian earned the 4^th finishing position once again and this time by just inches over Jeff Strunk earning.  Just like Moses Malone, Brian Hirthler turned 4-4-4 into a championship win.  Moses may have won the NBA Championship, but Brian Hirthler won the Thunder on the Hill “Ball to the Wall 50 Championship” at Grandview Speedway.

Brian started the race off in 4^th starting position and after 20 laps found himself still in first with only Billy Pauch Jr., Duane Howard, and Brett Kressley in front of him.  The first invert moved Brian to first place for the state of phase two on lap 20.

After the 2^nd phase concluded on lap 35 Brian found himself again in 4^th place by inches over Jeff Strunk taking the pole position again after then 2^nd and final invert.

When the race ended on lap 50, Brian was in victory lane having survived an assault from Brett Kressley from the high side and Mike Gular from anywhere he could try.

This win was also Brian Hirthler’s first modified win of his racing career followed by Mike Gular, Duane Howard, Brett Kressley, and Jeff Strunk in 2^nd through 5^th.  The race ran with only two invert cautions during the entire 50 lap feature.

Feature (50 Laps) – 1. Brian Hirthler 2. Mike Gular 3. Duane Howard 4. Brett Kressley 5. Jeff Strunk 6. Craig Von Dohren 7. Billy Pauch Jr. 8. Doug Manmiller 9. Jack Butler 10. Jared Umbenhauer 11. Louden Reimert 12. Rick Laubach 13. Mike Lisowski 14. Alex Yankowski 15. Ryan Watt 16. Jimmy Leiby 17. Eddie Strada 18. Kevin Beach 19. Bobby Gunther Walsh 20. Eric Kormann 21. John Willman 22. Ron Haring Jr. 23. Steve Young 24. Bobby Trapper Jr.

Did Not Qualify: Kevin Graver, Dylan Swinehart, Kyle Smith, Mark Kratz, Eric Biehn, Craig Whitmoyer, Bobby Trapper Sr, Jesse Leiby, Justin Grim, Adrianna Delliponti and Ray Swinehart

TOTH BALLS TO THE WALL 50 PIT NOTES –  5/28/23

Brian Hirthler finished 1^st when it counted from his 4^th starting position on three different restarts to take the “Balls to the Wall 50” $5,000 check.  The night started out with a draw of the pole position in the 3^rd heat race.  From the heat race Brian made to redraw and drew his first 4^th starting position of the night.

Brian commented “The process to improve the modified program is ongoing and supported weekly by things I experiment on with the sportsman car.  Without my testing on the sportsman car, I would never have won the modified race this week.”

“The draw effects what we will try with the car.  After we get our draw position, we then set the car up.  My niece picked # 1 spot for the heat race.  We had a balanced car and missed the quick lane but with knowing that 4 cars were making the redrew I stayed a bit conservative to keep from beating the car up while getting an ideal of how we stack up with the likes of Duane and Mike.”

“After the heat we began to make some changes for the feature, as the track was looking like it was going to be pretty close to our normal sportsman track surface which was lucky for me since I know that pretty well.”

“After the redraw, where we picked #4, I went back to the pit and came up with a game plan for the race.  I decided with the top guys Manmiller, Howard & Pauch JR starting in front of me that I wasn’t really concerned about trying to win stage 1, so I decided to race like it was a normal 50 lapper and let the chips fall where they may.”

“When feature time came around and we rolled off 4^th.  Things didn’t really start off well for us and we were bad in the first 5-10 laps.  We were falling from 4th to 5^th, but after lap 10 the car really started coming in and I was able to catch back up to the leaders.  It felt like we were good enough to run with them and I was able to by Doug Manmiller on lap 17 just before the first 20 lap invert.  That was probably my best laps of the night as I was able to secure 4th and invert back to the lead which was not in the original plan it just worked out that way.”

“ The second segment I was probably overconfident and spun the tires on the restart. I went 1st to 3rd before I ever got to the start/finish line, a few laps later Gular passed me for 3rd and a few laps after the Strunk went by for 4^th.  At that point I was just racing the best I could and trying to get back to 4^th, but I really struggled in that segment to get back into rhythm, the last lap of segment 2 I got a real blessing when Strunk slowed up high, I was able to pass him off turn 4 for the 4th spot securing the invert back to the lead.  That was a real surprise and I basically found myself in the same situation inverted back to the lead with Kressley to my outside and Howard behind me.  I always take pride in being good on restarts so having the experience from 15 laps prior and I knew what not to do, but I also had 15 more laps on the track, so I knew where I needed to be to get a good jump to secure the lead and get back into rhythm.  I wasn’t too concerned with Kressley on the restart as it appeared to me before the caution on lap 35, he was hanging quite a bit on the top so I didn’t think he could get me as long as I didn’t make any mistakes and did what I needed to do.”

“Restart went off as planned and we secured the lead and held off his challenges on the top, I guess around lap 44 I looked at the score board and saw there wasn’t much time left which was a relief.  At some point however Gular rolled up on my outside and I had to dig deep and get a little more out of the car and I was able to pull away a bit.  On lap 47 I glanced at the score board in turn 1&2 and missed my mark on exit letting Gular make a pretty strong run down the back stretch.  I think we made some contact on entry which got me a little free and we ended up kind of side by side at the apex, but I was able to get the jump off the corner as the car had really good forward drive all night and I raced away the final 2 laps winning with just over a .5 margin.”

“All in all, a huge success of a night, I equate it to Nick Foles Eagles Super Bowl victory having everything happen that needed to happen for that particular outcome. The car was working well, I got great draws, was good enough to race into first invert, got lucky to make second invert, and was balanced enough to secure it at the end.”

“This is a 2015 car and thanks to my brother Kevin’s maintenance plan it has never been broke and never been apart.”

Mike Gular came from 11^th to 5^th by the end of the first 20 laps and stayed in the top 5 for the final 30 laps.  Mike finished the final 7 laps all over Hirthler’s bumper and got as close to the lead as a mere one tenth of a second but couldn’t get around Hirthler after trying both high and low lines.

Mike reflected “I got side by side with Brian, but he had enough drive that I just couldn’t clear him. Can’t ask for a better track in a feature race than what we ran on tonight.”  

Duane Howard returned to his old Saturday stomping grounds and finished 3^rd from his outside pole redraw position.   Duane noted “We did run our Bridgeport car with a few changes. We had a good comfortable car all night and made a minor change for the 50 laps.  Started a little too snug and then the middle segment was probably the best the car felt in the entire 50 laps. Late in the race, we had difficulty turning and rotating around the bottom against the rail. I really thought we started positioned perfectly on the bottom for the last 15 segment, but the 4* car did a great job holding the bottom with no mistakes. It was good to be back at our old stomping grounds, just very disappointed that we did not win.”

Brett Kressley finished 4^th from his 6^th starting position and was in contention for the win getting into 2^nd on two different occasions but he couldn’t keep the car from hanging in the turns and he couldn’t make the pass for the lead. 

Brett reflected “We had a 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th in three days of racing this weekend and I’ll take that any day.”

Jeff Strunk had been racing since Thursday and also had a good holiday weekend racing with a 5^th, 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th but just no elusive top spot.  Jeff started 9^th and got as high as 4^th but couldn’t get in contention for the win.  He just missed making the final invert to the leader, but Brian Hirthler got by him on lap 35 to claim the 4^th place position on lap 35 which inverted him into the lead.”

Billy Pauch Jr had a good car early and took the $1,500 bonus for leading on lap 20 and then inverted to 4^th.

Mike Gular lead only one lap which was lap 35 that paid a $1,500 bonus and put him to 4^th place after the invert for the final 15 laps.

Craig Von Dohren finished 6^th from his 20^th starting position in the feature.  He started his night with a huge turn 2 wheel stand on the first lap of his heat race which set him back to the consolation.  In the feature Craig was able to run through the field from 20th to a 6^th place finish.  

The next Thunder on the Hill event is the “Jesse Hockett Classic Easter Storm on Tuesday, June 13^th at Grandview Speedway with racing at 7:30.