Kyle Hirst from Loomis Wins at Placerville Speedway

Kyle Hirst, originally from Loomis, California continued his successful season at Placerville Speedway on Saturday night. The 23 year old is the son of former Northern Auto Racing Club champion, Rick Hirst. He has been racing for 18 of his 23 years and racing sprint cars since 2004 at the age of 16. Kyle was the American Sprint Car Series National Rookie of the Year in 2010. The following is a report of Saturday night’s racing including Pure Stocks and Late Models.

Kyle Hirst from Loomis, a winner in Placerville. Photo by Donna Peter.
Kyle Hirst from Loomis, a winner in Placerville. Photo by Donna Peter.

PLACERVILLE, CA (5-21-11) – The 2011 Fast and Furious Dirt Track Racing Season resumed at Placerville Speedway Saturday night with three divisions of racing on the quarter mile clay oval that has been home to auto racing for 46 consecutive years in El Dorado County. On this particular night, all three divisions produced a night of action that could very well go down in history as one of the most exciting point races in recent history.

In the 360 sprint car division, Kyle Hirst of Sacramento celebrated his first win of the season in victory lane but he was by far, not the only driver to lead the feature event. Placerville’s own Chris Curtiss drove to his first win of the year in the Pure Stock division. In the Limited Late Model division, Les Friend of Galt took home his second feature win of the year.

“This track was incredible tonight, Alan Handy always prepares a great racing surface but tonight it was extremely fast,” said Hirst, after a celebratory fist pumping atop his wing to a cheering grandstand. “I can’t thank my team enough and Steve Smith for the opportunity to drive this car. This was a wild race. I was in the right place at the right time with the car to do it.”

A total of 30 cars entered Saturday’s sprint car division and Hirst was one of the 20 that qualified for the feature event. He started ninth in the field and quickly worked his way into the top five where one of the most heated battles in recent history took place for the lead. Spectators in the grandstands didn’t know whether to stand or sit during the race and most did a little bit of both.

Mike Henry of Citrus Heights was the initial leader after the green flag waved Saturday night. Henry was pressured early in the race by Elk Grove’s Greg DeCaires and the two veteran drivers traded the lead position several times while Placerville’s Scott Russell and point leader Andy Forsberg of Auburn were rapidly closing in right behind the leading duo.

Forsberg worked his way up front and hijacked the lead during a restart on the 10th lap. Once in front the defending track champion appeared to be on his way to his first season win at home until a right rear tire began going down on the F&F Racing #x1 and he spun while leading in the third and fourth turns to draw a yellow flag.

With Forsberg at the rear of the line up with new rubber. The race resumed with Henry, DeCaires, Russell and Hirst all playing in the same sandbox for the lead. DeCaires led the event until the 20th lap when Hirst muscled around him and took the lead for the final five laps. Hirst was chased to the checkered flag by DeCaires and Russell. Sean Becker of Antelope finished in fourth over Placerville’s CJ Humphreys who started 15th in the race.

Placerville native, Chris Curtiss won the Pure Stock division. Photo by Donna Peter.
Placerville native, Chris Curtiss won the Pure Stock division. Photo by Donna Peter.

Saturday’s Pure Stock race was just as exciting as the sprint cars with a track veteran leading the early laps and the defending division champion driving his way into the battle and taking home his first win of the year.

At the waving of the green flag Dominic Stone of Folsom drove from the fourth starting position into second place and then overtook polesitter Dennis Armstrong for the lead. Armstrong battled back and traded positions several times with Stone while Curtiss moved in on the action, driving up from the sixth place position where he started.

For much of the race, Stone, Armstrong and Curtiss battled for the lead, often driving side by side and three abreast at times in a battle for the win. Late in the race Stone experience handling woes that allowed both Armstrong and Curtiss to pull out in the front where they began a two man battle for the lead. On the 17th lap Curtiss was able to overtake Armstrong in the fourth turn to drive his way to his first win of the season. Armstrong finished in second followed by Clarence Holbrook III of Galt, Chris Van Roekel of Grass Valley and Kyle Grunert of Woodland.

“That was really a fun race for me tonight and a good show for the fans,” said Curtiss. “Dennis Armstrong is a veteran at this place and to race hard and clean with him like that for the win is really an honor. Either of us could have won this tonight but racing with him for the win was really special. I really want to thank my wife, my family and all my sponsors for their help with this car. We got the first one out of the way and maybe now we can get a few more.”

Les Friend from Galt got his 2nd win of the year in Limited Late Models. Photo by Donna Peter.
Les Friend from Galt got his 2nd win of the year in Limited Late Models. Photo by Donna Peter.

In the Limited Late Model class, Friend started fourth and worked his way into the lead late in the race. The waving of the green flag saw second place started Matt Davis of Auburn take the initial lead over pole sitter Dan Brown Jr. of Grass Valley.

Two laps into the race Friend powered around Davis on the backstretch to take a lead he would never relinquish. By keeping a tight line all the way around the quarter-mile, Friend defending the efforts of Brown and point leader Tom Arbogast of Auburn, Brown and Jay Norton of Shingle Springs.

“This place is where it is at when it comes to good racing,” said Friend. “I’ve been running up here on and off for the last 20 years and there is no place else I want to race now. Just last week I got an offer to race a modified at Roseville for the rest of the year, all expenses paid and I told the guy no because this is where I want to be and where I want to win a championship. We have the best surface and the greatest fans right here every Saturday night.”

Racing at Placerville Speedway is presented by Handy Racing Promotions Incorporated. The 2011 racing season is sponsored by Red Hawk Casino, Hoosier Tires, Riebes Auto Parts, The Mountain Democrat, Coors Light and Pepsi Cola. Additional promotional consideration includes Carls’ Jr. Resturants, The Windfall Classifieds, Arnolds for Awards, Minuteman Press, The Paint Spot, Dunn Consulting, ADCO Driveline, Roger Miller Concrete and more.

Championship point racing resumes will take a week off next Saturday but will return on June 4th. Tickets for the July 29th and 30th ASCS Bullring Nationals are now on sale at the track business office at (916) 783-DIRT. Learn more at www.placervillespeedway.com. It’s all happening at Placerville Speedway, where more than one million fans have entertained with fast and furious dirt track racing all summer long since 1965.

Media Release from Handy Racing Promotions

As always, our thanks to Donna Peter from racephotosbydonna.com for the generous use of her photos.

J.R. Hildebrand from Sausalito, California Makes the Indy 500

J.R. Hildebrand from Sausalito, CA and the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Car.
J.R. Hildebrand from Sausalito, CA and the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing Car.

J.R. Hildebrand, the 23 year old race car driver from Sausalito, California is a rookie in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Yesterday was Pole Day at Indianapolis and he was able to qualify for his first Indianapolis 500. Can you imagine? How many boys growing up and even men racing right now have dreamed of the chance to race in the Indy 500? It will be great to watch this year with 2 Northern California drivers in the race including Townsend Bell, who is originally from San Francisco. Here is a release from J.R.’s team, Panther Racing about Pole Day.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – (May 21, 2011) – An eventful Pole Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway concluded with both Panther Racing drivers JR Hildebrand and Buddy Rice solidly in the show for the 100th Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. Rice led the team by making the Top Nine Shootout and will start in 7th position in the No. 44 entry, Panther’s highest start in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing since 2006 when Vitor Meira qualified sixth. Hildebrand was the highest-qualified rookie in the field and currently sits in the 12th position as 24 of the race’s 33 positions were filled on Saturday.

This is the second consecutive year that Panther has put a driver in the Top Nine Shootout, after Ed Carpenter made it in 2010 and eventually qualified in the eighth position.

“The car was good all day,” Buddy said. “The track stayed in really good shape (after the rain) and I knew as soon as I got out there everything was going to be OK. Everything’s been good this week; we’re happy. I don’t think a lot of people expected JR and I to be up there, and we were a bit conservative on the last run here, but we didn’t know what we had with the way the weather was after the rain. I’ve just got to thank John Barnes and everybody at Panther Racing for giving me this opportunity. I’m just glad to be here after being gone for two years and it’s the Centennial, so I’m really happy to be a part of that.”

J.R. Hildebrand with past Indy 500 Winner and teammate Buddy Rice.
J.R. Hildebrand with past Indy 500 Winner and teammate Buddy Rice.

For Rice, this marks his best start in the Indianapolis 500 since he was the polesitter in 2004, the same year he captured the Borg Warner Trophy. During today’s Top Nine Shootout he completed laps of 225.925, 225.876, 225.728 and 225.619 for a four-lap average of 225.786 mph. Rice’s speed was almost identical to what he ran earlier in the day (225.746 mph) to qualify for the Top Nine.

Hildebrand becomes the third rookie to qualify a Panther Racing car at Indianapolis, along with Tomas Enge (10th, 2005) and Mark Taylor (14th, 2004). He is currently the IZOD IndyCar Series leader in the Rookie of the Year chase and finished runner-up at Indianapolis in the Firestone Indy Lights race in 2009.

“The racer in me always wants to go back out there and go a little bit quicker, but this was a great job by the entire crew,” Hildebrand said. “The conditions today were catching a lot of guys out. It cooled off a little bit and we had a pretty hefty cross-wind during the run. We feel good about where we’re at and everybody at National Guard Panther Racing has been awesome and having Buddy Rice has been a huge help to the team as well. There is so much collective experience between them that it’s been a fairly low-key setting in our garage, which has made it much easier to make smart decisions moving forward. I certainly owe a majority of the success we’ve had to those guys, and coming in as a rookie you don’t want to set too high an expectation for yourself, but the equipment is awesome. The National Guard car has been running great all week and we have some pretty high hopes for where we can end up at the end of this thing.”

The 23-year-old Californian posted lap speeds of 225.674, 225.549, 225.433, 225.659 for a four-lap average of 225.579 mph.

J.R. Hildebrand on the track at Indy.
J.R. Hildebrand on the track at Indy.

Hildebrand was the top qualified rookie in a tight battle with Newman/Haas driver James Hinchcliffe, whose four-lap average of 225.572 mph was nearly identical to Hildebrand’s average of 225.579 mph. Hinchcliffe is also second in the IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year chase to Hildebrand by just three championship points.

“We expected that both our cars would do really well today and our guys did a great job,” team owner John Barnes said. “Buddy’s been a great teammate to JR and there has been amazing support between the two of them – they’re doing a helluva job. I’m just so happy with how our team prepared for this week. We haven’t started this far up the grid with both cars in a long time, and I know both the National Guard car and the No. 44 car will have great setups on race day. These two drivers have worked better together as a team than any teammates we’ve had. Buddy’s been very engaged with JR and has helped tutor him to be better, and what’s great about JR is you tell him something once and he’s so bright and just gets it. I’m also very happy to see how well Vitor Meira and Dan Wheldon did today, they’ve been a big part of our success in the past at Indianapolis and huge contributors to the National Guard during their time in the No. 4 car. I wish those two the best as well.”

Panther has finished runner-up in the Indianapolis 500 for three consecutive years starting from 18th (Wheldon, 2009-2010) and 8th (Vitor Meira, 2008). The team has also finished inside the Top Ten in six consecutive Indy 500s.

A total of 24 cars qualified today, with another day of qualifications starting tomorrow at 12 noon at the Speedway. After 33 cars are qualified tomorrow, traditional bumping will ensue with the slowest qualified car being bumped until the gun sounds to conclude the day at 6 pm.

The 95th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race will be broadcast live on ABC on Sunday, May 29th at 12:00 p.m. with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network, www.indycar.com, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 211.

www.JRHildebrandRacing.comwww.pantherracing.comwww.NationalGuard.com

To follow all of J.R. Hildebrand’s stats and race results please visit his driver page at www.racing-reference.info.

Dennis Gage and My Classic Car visit Oroville’s Gold Rush Car Show

Dennis Gage from "My Classic Car" and his frequent guest Jay Leno.
Dennis Gage from "My Classic Car" and his frequent guest Jay Leno.

Most of you probably know who Dennis Gage is, but for those who don’t, he is the host of the TV show on the Speed Channel called “My Classic Car”. He travels the country visiting car shows and filming cool cars and hot rods. He is probably best known for his enthusiasm over rare and unique cars as well as his trademark handlebar mustache. Here is an excerpt and a link to the entire article about his experiences in Oroville.

There’s gold in them thar hills!
By Dennis Gage

Last weekend we shot the first event for the 2012 TV season in Oroville, CA. It was appropriately named the Gold Rush Car Show since Oroville was a center of gold prospecting activities in northern California during the rush in the mid 1800’s. The town only has a population of about 14,000 but the show drew an impressive 900+ cars.

This 1962 Chevy Impala SS 409 belongs to Tim Kerrigan, President of Red Line Oil in Benecia.
This 1962 Chevy Impala SS 409 belongs to Tim Kerrigan, President of Red Line Oil in Benecia.

One of the stars of the show was Tim Kerrigan’s ’62 Impala SS 409; beautifully resto-modded and sporting a two-tone red & faint yellow paint scheme. Tim is the President of Red Line Oil and the particular red he used is a DuPont color called Redline Red. Go figure. The paint theme was carried thru in the interior with the gauge faces being the same faint yellow used on the exterior. Read More