Inside Line Promotions – ALGER, Wash. (June 15) – Night 1 was a success.

Tommy Tarlton’s drive for the 40th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup championship, which pays a whopping $40,000 to Saturday’s feature winner, got off to a great start on Thursday at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash.

The Easton, Calif., native finished second in the feature despite an engine lacking power.

“Overall, it was a good night,” he said. “Other than the engine not running well, it was an overall good points night. This is a tough, tough race with a lot of a good cars.”

He is fifth in overall points after the first preliminary event.

Tarlton said his engine lacked power on the top end and since the drivers were on the gas pedal most of the way around the 3/10th-mile dirt oval, it hurt his performance.

“In the main event it really started to run bad,” he said. “It only runs on the bottom end. Once it gets to 7,000 RPMs, it just lays down. And at Skagit, you’re running wide open.”

That was evident from the start of the night, when Tarlton qualified 21st. He missed the invert, but drove from fifth to second to advance to the feature. Since the main event is started on a complete invert, Tarlton began on the outside of the front row.

He maintained a top three position throughout the entire race, but was unable to pass Shane Stewart for the win as the duo battled in lapped traffic in the final laps.

Action resumes on Friday with a complete program. The points from Thursday and Friday will be added together to determine the feature lineups for Saturday’s finale.

QUICK RESULTS –

June 15 – Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. – Qualifying: 21; Heat race: 2 (5); Feature: 2 (2).

SEASON STATS –

15 races, 15 features, 3 wins, 12 top fives, 12 top 10s, 12 top 15s, 14 top 20s