TULARE, Calif – At one point during Thursday’s Trophy Cup preliminary race, things looked grim for Tyler Courtney.
There was a time when it looked like the newly crowned All Star Circuit of Champions king wouldn’t make the feature in his Trophy Cup debut.
By the time the final checkered flag of the evening waved, Courtney managed to bring the Roth Motorsports No. 83 home in the top-10 in both the feature and the Trophy Cup points.
“I made my night probably harder than it should’ve been,” Courtney admitted.
After laying down a strong qualifying effort of fifth in his group, Courtney struggled in his heat race, positioning himself in one of two B-mains.
Disaster struck on the opening lap of the B-main.
“We qualified good then I buried us in the heat race,” Courtney said. “That put us on the front row of the B (main), and then I went ahead and spun out in the B.”
Courtney’s spin dropped him from second, comfortably in a transfer spot, to the tail of the 22-car field that would only send four to the feature.
A determined Courtney got to work.
The Kings Royal winner ripped the top, picking off multiple cars per lap and had made his way up to sixth with just a few circuits remaining. With time running out, a timely caution flag waved.
Following the restart, Courtney came out on top of a mad scramble for the fourth and final transfer spot, eventually edging out three-time Trophy Cup champion, Tim Kaeding, with a final corner pass that brought the Thunderbowl Raceway fans to their feet.
Then, in the feature, Courtney kept his nose clean in what became a war of attrition with a bevy of yellow flags, eventually finishing a solid seventh. The result earned him ninth in points of 85 night one entries.
Courtney’s up-and-down and ever-changing night reflected his initial impression of the Thunderbowl Raceway.
“This place is tough,” Courtney noted. “It’s technical. The track changed three or four different times there during the feature.”
Even though Courtney had to overcome trouble, he’s encouraged moving forward by the fact that he and the team were able to rebound in such a big way and he believes they may have a shot at an even better points showing Friday.
“I’m excited for the rest of the weekend to see if we can keep improving and I can keep improving,” Courtney said. “We’ll try to have a little better points night tomorrow than we did tonight and have it be our better night.”
While the slate will be wiped clean for night two, Courtney’s resilient efforts ensured that no matter how Friday evening goes he’ll still be in contention on Saturday.
Courtney will see if he can put together a smoother series of races Friday as he attempts to improve his points total for the finale. While this may be his first time in a winged sprint car in California, that isn’t stopping the versatile wheelman from maintaining high expectations.
“We want to go into Saturday with a fighting chance at being Trophy Cup champions,” Courtney said.