ALGER, Wash. — After an 8-year hiatus, 410 sprint cars made a triumphant return to Skagit Speedway during the 50th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup.
While 360s had become the more popular engine in the region, the richest West Coast purse of the year featuring a $50,000 winner’s share garnered plenty of interest and resulted in 44 sprint cars checking in for the opening prelim last Thursday.
The California-based NARC Fujitsu General 410 Sprint Cars supported the event and helped bring a strong crop of Golden State gassers north to compete.
• The story of the week quickly became Tyler Courtney’s speed in the Works Limited No. 57.
Before the Dirt Cup officially began, “Sunshine,” made his first Skagit laps, starting the week with a victory in Monday’s tune-up race after a fierce battle with another driver making their Skagit debut, Corey Day.
On both prelim nights, Courtney tallied the most points heading into the features. The Dirt Cup’s format emphasizes big inverts, so the defending All-Star Circuit of Champions titlist started 16th in the main event on Thursday and 20th on Saturday. Courtney passed a whopping 25 cars combined over the two A-mains, finishing sixth Thursday and fifth Friday and placing him atop the points by a wide margin heading into Saturday’s finale.
Courtney punctuated the week by winning the 50-lap finale and banking $76,000. That’s $50,000 for winning and $1,000 for each of the 26 laps he led.
The Indianapolis native became only the second Hoosier to win the historic event and the first since Brandon Wimmer triumphed in 2007.
• Courtney led a trio of drivers who were especially impressive in making their first starts at Skagit.
The second-highest finishing of the group was Shane Golobic, who came home fourth on Saturday. The Matt Wood Racing driver also finished third on Friday.
Day battled some trying moments during his first trip to Skagit before finishing strong. The 16-year-old made a spirited charge on Thursday after having to transfer out of the B main, going from 23rd to fifth in the feature.
Day competed in the top-10 for most of Saturday before being penalized for repairs taking a little too long during an open red flag period. The penalty dropped him outside the top 15, but he rallied to finish sixth.
• Kerry Madsen and Dominic Sceliz shared Saturday night’s podium with Courtney.
While Madsen was making his Dirt Cup debut, his showing in the Roth Motorsports machine wasn’t too surprising considering the Australian had plenty of previous experience around Skagit. Madsen is a 15-time feature starter there with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars and owns a victory.
Scelzi entered as the defending Dirt Cup champion. The Fresno, Calif., native had a decent shot to go back-to-back as he led the opening 24 laps, but he couldn’t quite hold off Courtney and Madsen.
His third-place effort and laps led total earned him a hefty $42,000 payday Saturday.
• During the two prelim nights, a Californian and a Washington driver claimed checkered flags, meaning three different states were represented in Dirt Cup victory lane during three nights of racing.
Tim Kaeding survived a last-lap move from D.J. Netto to win Thursday by nine one-hundredths of a second.
It had been 23 years since “TK” crossed the stripe first in a Dirt Cup prelim event, his one other event win coming in 1999.
Friday saw Puyallup, Wash., racer Trey Starks earn his first Dirt Cup prelim victory following a duel with Scelzi.
With the Friday win, the Pacific Northwest native sits at seven wins in 11 starts this season.
Starks finished seventh in the Saturday finale with Kaeding right behind him in eighth.
• A pair of resilient drivers refused to give up even after some devastating issues during the prelims and wound up salvaging some solid results.
Tanner Holmes was involved in frightening accidents in the main event on both Thursday and Friday. However, he still managed to snag the last lock-in position for Saturday’s finale on points.
After a weekend full of hard work to make repairs and get prepared, Holmes drove from 18th to 11th to earn his career-best Dirt Cup finish.
For Joel Myers Jr., his Dirt Cup looked as if it may begin with a victory in the opening prelim as he chased down leader Tim Kaeding in the early going. However, getting above the cushion, into the wall and upside down ended that bid. The next night he combated engine issues.
Finally, on Saturday, things went smoothly as Myers Jr. transferred into the finale through the B main before advancing from 21st to 12th.