Braden Chiaramonte Trophy Cup Hopes Dashed In Saturday Feature

“I think running the Sprint Car Challenge Tour race last week was a huge help for me,” Braden Chiaramonte said. “We had good speed all weekend long, and it a bummer we got collected in an accident in the Saturday night feature.”

Kicking the weekend off on Thursday night, the El Cajon, CA driver timed the THE/Hepfner Racing Products/EMI backed No. 94TH in seventh fastest in his qualifying flight.

Lining up in the third row of his heat race, point were the name of the game as the winner and the highest point earner in each heat earned the automatic transfer into the opening night feature event.

Going from fifth to fourth, Chiaramonte didn’t earn the transfer, however his efforts did put him in the second row of the first ‘B’ as he looked for one of the four transfer berths into the ‘A’.

When the race came to life, Chiaramonte slipped back to fourth briefly, until moving back into third on third lap, and then taking over the runner up position on the 10th lap.

Chasing after Austin McCarl for the top spot, McCarl had built up a sizeable advantage and Chiaramonte ducked in and took the runner up position and moved into the opening night feature event as traffic came into play in the closing laps.

After points were tallied and the invert was factored in, Chiaramonte found himself on the front row of the feature event alongside Indiana driver, Justin Peck.

When the race came to life, Chiaramonte stalked Peck as much of the field worked the high line of the speedway and pounded the cushion. As the laps clicked off, and traffic came into play Chiaramonte was able to search around the Thunderbowl and try some different lines as he pressured Peck for the race lead and took a couple of shots in turns one and two.

With Peck able to counterpunch each of Chiaramonte’s moves, a charging Colby Thornhill entered the equation in the closing laps. Making a couple of big moves himself, Chiaramonte settled for a third place finish in the feature event as he got his Trophy Cup off to a great start.

Having heat race issues on Friday night, Chiaramonte and company took their Thursday night point total into Saturday’s finale as he was 7th in the overall standings heading into Saturday heat races.

Going from seventh to sixth in his heat race, Chiaramonte was locked into the 50-lap feature event where he was back in 13th in the point standings which put him 12th on the starting grid with the Top-20 in points fully inverted.

From his 12th starting position, the opening stanzas of the race didn’t see a ton of movement from the high point earners as Chiaramonte was able to get into ninth just before the halfway point of the race.

Into eighth, Chiaramonte sat there when the red flag flew on the 34th lap allowing teams to refuel, and also allowing the track crew to do some touch up work on the surface.

With just 16 laps left in the feature, Chiaramonte sat second in event points, and was very much in contention to challenge for the overall Trophy Cup Championship.

When the action resumed, Chiaramonte continued to run hard in the eighth spot, but slipped back in the points as cars behind him were able to come forward.

Continuing to run in the Top-10, Chiaramonte’s weekend came to an end just five laps shy of the checkered flag with another car got upside down in front of him and collected him in turns one and two.

“Saturday night we were good for the first 34 laps, then when the touched the track up under the red it took me a few laps to get back up to speed,” Chiaramonte said. “Unfortunately it was short lived as we got collected in a wreck and it ended our night. It was a great weekend with the THE team, and I am super thankful for everything that Steven, Kyle, and all of their guys do.”

The Tiner Hirst Enterprise Racing team would like to thank Tiner Hirst Enterprise, Hepfner Racing Products, EMI, Fisher Racing Engines, System 1, Larry Davis Farms, and Slade Shocks for their continued support.

ON TAP: Tiner Hirst Enterprise and Chiaramonte return to action on November 2nd in Stockton, CA.

STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Braden Chiaramonte by following him on Instagram at @Braden_Chiaramonte73.

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