ALGER, Washington --Travis Rilat of Forney, Texas didn’t let a new track scare him tonight, winning the opening preliminary of the 35th Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Washington’s Skagit Speedway. The hotshoe from the Lone Star State has made the tow from Texas worth it so far, winning in his first appearance in Washington, let alone Skagit Speedway.
Rilat, as a result of a complete invert of the A-Main field, started inside the front row for the 30-lap event, and led until lap 24, when front end problems, caused by a front left wheel packed with some mud, slowed him enough to allow returning Washington star Jason Solwold to take the lead in turn four. On a lap 29 restart, however, Solwold ran out of fuel, allowing Rilat to motor around on the high side in turn two.
Rilat would drive away with the victory, while Solwold would lose second to 17-year-old California star Robert Ballou, who finished the race with a new motor that went sick. Local racer Steve Kilcup finished fourth, followed by two-time Dirt Cup champion Steve Kent of Fresno, who charged from the 13th starting spot, and John Tharp.
Tim Kaeding, one of four nationally touring drivers who flew to Washington state after a race in Davenport, Iowa Wednesday night, finished seventh after transferring out of the B-Main. Defending track champion Barry Martinez, Chad Hillier, and former Dirt Cup champion Shane Stewart rounded out the top ten.
Jason Bloodgood won the crash-marred 15-lap D-Main race, which sent himself, Andy Jacobson and Taylor Malsam to the C-Main. Winning that was Chris Schmelze, going to the B-Main with Sean Becker and Jimmy Dietz. Sean Becker continued his alphabet soup run when he finished fourth in the 20-lap B-Main race to transfer to the A-Main. Going with him were Rick Fauver, Tim Kaeding, Brent Kaeding, Kyle Hirst, and race winner Chad Hillier.
Winning ten lap heat races were Travis Jacobson, Steve Kilcup, Jayme Barnes, and Ronnie Day, who prevented a Washington heat race sweep by taking the checkers in the final heat.
Funk set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 11.351 seconds around the 3/10-mile, high-banked, clay oval. Funk achieved the time on his first lap, but went for a wild series of flips as he exited turn four on his second lap.
Sixty-five winged sprint cars were on hand for the first night of Skagit Speedway’s crown jewel event. Friday’s event will be another complete preliminary program with qualifying, heat races, and main events. Points from Thursday’s and Friday’s events will be combined to determine line-ups for Saturday’s main events.
35th Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup – Thursday Preliminary Skagit Speedway – Alger, WA June 15, 2006
Unofficial results
65 cars
Fast qualifier: 8e Evan Funk, 11.351 seconds
Heat 1, 10 laps, top four transfer: 1. 7j Travis Jacobson, 2. 7N Steve Kent, 3. 14 Jason Meyers, 4. 33v Henry Van Dam, 5. 69 Brent Kaeding, 6. 99 Kyle Hirst, 7. 40 Brock Lemley, 8. 28 Rick Smith, 9. 41b Brad Pritchard, 10. 57c Chris Schmelze, 11. 7s Rick Ziehl, 12. 8e Evan Funk.
Heat 2, 10 laps, top four transfer: 1. 18 Steve Kilcup, 2. 73 Jason Solwold, 3. 26s Shane Stewart, 4. 0 Jonathan Allard, 5. 10 Stephen Allard, 6. 2 Brad Furr, 7. 77 Kirk Fellers, 8. 12 Jared Ridge, 9. 00 Jason Statler, 10. 23 Steve Parker, 11. 76e Josh Edson, 12. 35a Sean Becker.
Heat 3, 10 laps, top four transfer: 1. 9 Jayme Barnes, 2. 66 Barry Martinez, 3. 75 Roy Blumenhagen, 4. 69t John Tharp, 5. 26 Rick Fauver, 6. 83 Tim Kaeding, 7. 4x Toni Lutar, 8. 29h Brandon Harkness, 9. 71 Johnny Gray, 10. 1 Jimmy Dietz, 11. 8B Blake Brigge, 12. 17 Kelly Barnett.
Heat 4, 10 laps, top four transfer: 1. 1D Ronnie Day, 2. 12B Robert Ballou, 3. 29r Travis Rilat, 4. 8r Travis Rutz, 5. 5sp Jason York, 6. 0K Dennie Moore Jr., 7. 23B Seth Bergman, 8. V8 Jeff Hodgson, 9. 5 Chad Hillier, 10. 88 Jesse Whitney, 11. 17v Danny Faria Jr., 12. 31 Danny Bullock.
D-Main, 15 laps, top two transfe to C-Main: 1. 38 Jason Bloodgood, 2. 59 Andy Jacobson, 3. 25m Taylor Malsam, 4. 44j Abe Sherwood, 5. 99e Alex Hantell, 6. 7o Roger Oudman, 7. 14j Brandon Johnson, 8. 25a Adriana Klein, 9. 9b Paul Burdick, 10. 15w Lyle Woods, 11. 25k Karl Blumenhagen, 12. 3 Dan Pierson, 13. 57 Bud Ashe, 14. 14b Brandon Johnson, 15. 15D Dan Dunlap, 16. 7ak Steve Martin, DNS – 79k Kelsey Carpenter. 25m Taylor Malsam also advances to C-Main after scratch by 17v Danny Faria Jr.
C-Main, 15 laps, top two transfer to B-Main: 1. 57c Chris Schmelze, 2. 35a Sean Becker, 3. 1 Jimmy Dietz, 4. 40 Brock Lemley, 5. 23b Seth Bergman, 6. 41B Brad Pritchard, 7. 28 Rick Smith, 8. 8B Blake Brigge, 9. 12 Jared Ridge, 10. 38 Jason Bloodgood, 11. 71 Johnny Gray, 12. V8 Jeff Hodgson, 13. 76e Josh Edson, 14. 25m Taylor Malsam, 15. 59 Andy Jacobson, 16. 17 Kelly Barnett, 17. 5sp Jason York, 18. 00 Jason Statler, DNS – 17v Danny Faria Jr. 1 Jimmy Dietz also advances to B-Main after scratch by 31 Danny Bullock.
B-Main, 20 laps, top six transfer to A-Main: 1. 5 Chad Hillier, 2. 26 Rick Fauver, 3. 83 Tim Kaeding, 4. 35a Sean Becker, 5. 69 Brent Kaeding, 6. 99 Kyle Hirst, 7. 0K Dennis Moore Jr., 8. 2 Brad Furr, 9. 77 Kirk Fellers, 10. 7s Rick Zeih, 11. 1 Jimmy Dietz, 12. 57c Chris Schmelze, 13. 29 Brandon Harkness, 14. 4x Toni Lutar, 15. 23 Steve Parker, 16. 10 Stephen Allard, 17. 8e Evan Funk, 18. 88 Jesse Whitney, DNS – 31 Danny Bullock.
A-Main, 30 laps: 1. 29 Travis Rilat, 2. 12 Robert Ballou, 3. 73 Jason Solwold, 4. 18 Steve Kilcup, 5. 7N Steve Kent, 6. 69t John Tharp, 7. 83 Tim Kaeding, 8. 66 Barry Martinez, 9. 5 Chad Hillier, 10. 26s Shane Stewart, 11.
26 Rick Fauver, 12. 35a Sean Becker, 13. 14 Jason Meyers, 14. 0 Jonathan Allard, 15. 7J Travis Jacobson, 16. 69 Brent Kaeding, 17. 8r Travis Rutz, 18. 75 Roy Blumenhagen, 19. 9 Jayme Barnes, 20. 1D Ronnie Day, 21. 33v Henry Van Dam, 22. 99 Kyle Hirst.
