Kevin Hirthler wins the Freedom 38
BECHTELSVILLE » NASCAR T.P.Trailers 358 Modified regular Kevin Hirthler, who started from fourth-place by luck of the draw for the 26-car starting field aboard his self-owned No. 117 Crate powered Sportsman entry, took the lead on Lap 7 from Ken Eckert Jr. and raced off with a dominating performance to capture the checkered flag in the fifth annual Freedom 38’er Friday night at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville.
The Boyertown based driver lapped up to the eleventh-place finisher and won the non-stop 38-lapper by a full straightaway in a time of 10:11.28, taking home $1,500 for his efforts.
Hirthler became the fifth different winner in the 5-years, now, that the event has been raced.
For Hirthler, it was his second career Sportsman feature win at the track this season, his first since April 14, 2018, at the popular high-banked third-mile dirt track promoted by the Rogers family.
“With the rainout last Saturday night,” explained the 38-year-old secondgeneration car owner and driver, “the 358 Modified car is pretty much ready to go, so, that gave us some extra time to do a little extra work this past week on the Sportsman car and we got things done, scaled loaded up and just got things done in time to get he by maybe 4 o’clock.
“We just got the Crate engine in it back today. It is legit. It’s a GM Crate engine in it. It is my brothers back up engine and we had nothing but troubles with it the past two-years. After nothing but struggling with the engine it’s hitting on all eight cylinders tonight. We finally got things straightened out. It’s legit. Not a cheater. The engine has all the seals on it and when the track slicks up like it did tonight, it’s easy to drive and it has all kinds of power. Anybody is welcome to check the engine out after the races tonight if they have questions about it,” announced Hirthler.
The top 12 qualifiers out of the heat races redrew for starting positions, with Brian Mady from Milford, PA starting on the pole.
With 18 in the record books, Craig Whitmoyer climbed into the runner-up role, however, Hirthler was pulling away as the laps quickly clicked off.
With 28-laps recorded, Hirthler was now a full straightaway out in front of Whitmoyer, who was running second in front of Eckert Jr. and Mady.
Hirthler went basically unchallenged after he got out in front, easily winning the event over Whitmoyer of Hamburg, Eckert Jr. of Orwigsburg, Mady and Dylan Swinehart of Fleetwood.