The stars aligned for Brian Hirthler when he won the Firecracker 40 at Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania. It came on July 10, when he assumed the lead with 10 laps to go, in his 10th attempt to win the annual sportsman 40-lapper held at the track. However, Hirthler doesn’t take much stock in fate, despite several signs pointing to a special day.
Grandview Speedway originally scheduled the Firecracker 40 for July 3, but rain forced its postponement to July 10 — the birthday weekend for his father, Craig.
Hirthler started the morning of the race by viewing one of his memories on Facebook. It commemorated the death of friend Chad Miller, a crew member on the modified raced by Hirthler’s brother, Kevin. Miller died in a car crash on July 10, 2007. He was 17.
“When that Facebook memory popped up, I packed a T-shirt we had made for Chad into my bag to take to the track,” Hirthler, of Green Lane, Pennsylvania, said. “He was on my mind the rest of the day.”
This year’s Firecracker 40 marked Hirthler’s 10th attempt trying to win Grandview Speedway’s annual 40-lapper. He nearly won his first 40-lapper while driving one of his brother’s older modifieds with a borrowed engine.
“That year I led from lap nine to 37,” said Hirthler, the 2020 track sportsman champion. “When the final caution came out, I didn’t know the race was over. I still thought I had a chance to win until I saw victory lane being set up. My heart sunk.”
Hirthler never gave up on his hopes of winning the special sportsman event.
“I never led [a 40-lap] race [again] until this year,” Hirthler said. “Seven out of the past nine years, I finished in the top five. This year I started 13th — and I’m not superstitious or think 13 is lucky. I went into the lead with 10 laps to go — there’s that 10 again.”
Hirthler maintained the lead en route to the victory. The race paid $2,000 to win, but with additional bonuses, his payday neared $3,000. As Brian Hirthler celebrated in victory lane, he took a moment to reflect.
“I looked at Chad Miller’s name on the back of my car, my dad, and at [my nephew] Jesse spraying the champagne,” Hirthler said. “I realized [Jesse] was five years old nine years ago, and he cried his eyes out when I didn’t win the 40-lapper. He wasn’t crying this year.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
