Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup - Preliminary 1
Skagit Speedway - Alger, WA
June 17, 2004

66 cars

Fast qualifier: 5sp Rick Fauver, 11.524 seconds

Non-Qualifiers Race 1 (8 laps): 1. 66c Bary Martinez, 2. 75k Kevin Smith, 3. 77 Kirk Fellers, 4. 21D Dan Dunlap, 5. 36 Travis Hawthorne, 6. 1a Tim Gibbons, DNS - 0K Steve Kilcup, 19s Greg Sandquist, 98 Bob Stevens.

Non-Qualifiers Race 2 (8 laps): 1. 17 Jay Barnes, 2. 44h Michael Harris, 3. 27 Kyle Johnson, 4. 99e Alex Hantel, 5. 79k Kelsey Carpenter, 6. 5x Bud Ashe, 7. 3s Jay Smith, 8. 33v Henry VanDam, DNS - 42 Alan Munn.

Heat 1 (10 laps) - Top 4 transfer to A-Main: 1. 21 Tommy Tarlton, 2. 5 Jason Solwold, 3. 15 Aaron Fell, 4. 5sp Rick Fauver, 5. 60 Rod Perkins, 6. 4x Toni Lutar, 7. 69t John Tharp, 8. 10L Brock Lemley, 9. 17v Gary Vaughn, 10. 66 Barry Martinez, 11. 13b Mark Baddock, 12. 8a Brian Ash.

Heat 2 (10 laps) - Top 4 transfer to A-Main: 1. 00 Jason Statler, 2. 8r Travis Rutz, 3. 5spx Brian Brown, 4. 22 Travis Jacobson, 5. 18 Peter Murphy, 6. 88 Jesse Whitney, 7. 26 Shane Stewart, 8. B41 Brad Pritchard, 9. 56 John Youngquist, 10. 5d Josh Dewitt, 11. 75 Roy Blumenhagen, 12. 3p Dan Pierson.

Heat 3 (10 laps) - Top 4 transfer to A-Main: 1. 0x Trevor Green, 2. 3h Chad Hillier, 3. 7t Jac Haudenschild, 4. V8 Jeff Hodgson, 5. 10 Blake Robertson, 6. 73 Jim Skinner, 7. 11D Mike Dunham, 8. 6 Brandon Harkness, 9. 17h John Huggins, 10. 77f Jayme Barnes, 11. 73d Brady Dart, 12. 44 Shane Smith.

Heat 4 (10 laps) - Top 4 transfer to A-Main: 1. 7n Steve Kent, 2. 14p Kevin Pylant, 3. 83jr Tim Kaeding, 4. 69 Brent Kaeding, 5. 92 Andy Forsberg, 6. 68 Wayne Williams, 7. 11 Roger Crockett, 8. 0 Stephan Allard, 9. 7s Jimmy Sills, 10. 59 Andy Jacobson, 11. 76e Josh Edson, 12. 69e Nick Engberg.

D-Main (12 laps) - Top 2 transfer to C-Main: 1. 66c Drew Church, 2. 36 Travis Hawthorne, 3. 17 Jay Barnes, 4. 77 Kirk Fellers, 5. 99e Alex Hantel, 6. 44h Michael Harris, 7. 21D Dan Dunlap, 8. 33v Henry VanDam, 9. 79k Kelsey Carpenter, 10. 27 Kyle Johnson, 11. 75k Kevin Smith, 12. 1a Tim Gibbons, 13. 5x Bud Ashe, DNS - 0K Steve Kilcup, 3s Jay Smith, 19s Greg Sandquist, 42 Alan Munn, 98 Bob Stevens.

C-Main (15 laps) - Top 2 transfer to B-Main: 1. 10 Blake Robertson, 2. 56 John Youngquist, 3. 0 Stephan Allard, 4. 69t John Tharp, 5. 8a Brian Ash, 6. 75 Roy Blumenhagen, 7. 69p Rod Perkins, 8. 36 Travis Hawthorne, 9. 76e Josh Edson, 10. 10L John Huggins, 11. 17h John Huggins, 12. 3p Dan Pierson, 13. 17 Jay Barnes, 14. 69e Nick Engberg, 15. 59 Andy Jacobson, 16. 5d Josh Dewitt, 17. 66c Drew Church, SCRATCHED - 44 Shane Smith, 73d Brady Dart.

B-Main (20 laps) - Top 4 transfer to A-Main: 1. 26 Shane Stewart, 2. 6 Brandon Harkness, 3. 7s Jimmy Sills, 4. 17v Gary Vaughn, 5. 73 Jim Skinner, 6. 10 Blake Robertson, 7. 18 Peter Murphy, 8. 11 Roger Crockett, 9. B41 Brad Pritchard, 10. 88 Jesse Whitney, 11. 56 John Youngquist, 12. 4x Toni Lutar, 13. 66 Barry Martinez, 14. 11d Mike Dunham, 15. 68 Wayne Williams, 16. 0 Stephan Allard, 17. 77f Jayme Barnes, 18. 92 Andy Forsberg, SCRATCHED - 13b Mark Baddock.

A-Main (30 laps): 1. 7n Steve Kent, 2. 14p Kevin Pylant, 3. 22 Travis Jacobson, 4. 00 Jason Statler, 5. 21 Tommy Tarlton, 6. 83jr Tim Kaeding, 7. 69 Brent Kaeding, 8. 3h Chad Hillier, 9. 15 Aaron Fell, 10. V8 Jeff Hodgson, 11. 5 Jason Solwold, 12. 26 Shane Stewart, 13. 7t Jac Haudenschild, 14. 7s Jimmy Sills, 15. 5sp Rick Fauver, 16. 0x Trevor Green, 17. 17v Gary Vaughn, 18. 8r Travis Rutz, 19. 6 Brandon Harkness, 20. 5spx Brian Brown.

Kent wins Dirt Cup opener
Andrew Kunas
Alger, Wash. - When the dust settled, California's Steve Kent, with a bad top wing, was standing in the winner's circle at the end of first preliminary feature of the 33rd Annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup.

The two-time Dirt Cup champion out of Fresno took the lead from 1995 champion Kevin Pylant of Santa Cruz, Calif. on lap 14 despite suffering damage to the front of his top wing. Kent said he had no idea what caused the damage, and had to move it all the way to the back in order for him to see. Despite the aerodynamic damage, Kent managed to fend off Pylant for the remaining 15 laps for the victory.

Kent, driving a car owned by Roger Henderson, started inside the third row while Pylant and Australian visitor Trevor Green started on the front row. In four laps time, Kent was running in third place. Racing stopped on lap 11 when Green spun his car around in turn one, which moved Kent up to the second position. On the restart, Tommy Tarlton, another California driver, passed Missouri's Brian Brown for third place.

On lap 14, Kent made his move, passing Pylant on the outside coming out of turn four.

The red flag was displayed on lap 18 when Brown flipped his machine in turn one, and then catching fire. Brown escaped from the car unharmed as safety workers put out the flames.

Kent was still out front on the restart with Pylant, Tarlton, local Travis Jacobson of Lake Stevens, and San Jose's Jason Statler. On lap 20, Tim Kaeding, fresh off a Golden State Challenge victory at Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford on Tuesday night, passed Chad Hillier for the sixth position. Jacobson also passed Tarlton for third place on the same lap.

Late in the race, Statler passed Tarlton for fourth place. Kent held on for the win in traffic, with Pylant, Jacobson, Statler, and Tarlton following. Kaeding, his father Brent Kaeding, Hillier, and Canadian drivers Aaron Fell and Jeff Hodgson rounded out the top ten.

Mount Vernon's Jason Solwold, driving the Guy Forbrook entry, finished 11th while Wooster, Ohio's Jac Haudenschild finished 12th. Six-time Dirt Cup champion Jimmy Sills of Placerville, Calif. Finished in 14th place after transferring out of the B-Main. Everett's Rick Fauver, who set fast time in qualifying, finished 15th in the A-Main.

Bixby, Oklahoma's Shane Stewart, driving the Rudeen Racing car, was second quickest in qualifying but did not transfer out of his heat race, sending him to the 20-lap B-Main. Stewart would win it, taking Brandon Harkness, Sills, and Gary Vaughn to the A-Main with him.

The 15-lap C-Main was won by Blake Robertson, also of California. Transferring with him to the B-Main was John Youngquist. Stephan Allard also transferred to the B-Main as a result of Mark Baddock scratching after crashing his car in his heat race.

Drew Church won the 12-lap D-Main event over Travis Hawthorne and Jay Barnes.

Four ten-lap heat races were run, sending the top four finishers from each straight the A-Main, which was totally inverted. Tarlton won the first heat race over Solwold, Fell, and Fauver. Statler won heat two over Travis Rutz, Brown, and Jacobson. Green was the winner of the third heat race ahead of Hillier, Haudenschild, and Hodgson. The fourth and final heat race was won by Kent over Pylant, Tim Kaeding, and Brent Kaeding.

Church and Barnes were the winners of two non-qualifiers races.

Fauver's fast time was 11.524 seconds around the 3/10-mile, high-banked, clay oval, over four-tenths off Kasey Kahne's record time of 11.118 seconds, set at Dirt Cup last year.

66 cars were on hand for the first night of Skagit Speedway's crown jewel event. Friday's program will be exactly as Thursday's with Saturday feature main events only with the fields lined up by points, except for the first three rows of the A-Main.