( 6/16/08 | Gary Thomas | Alger WA ) Travis Rutz will head into the 37th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup this week with possibly his best shot yet at winning the crown jewel of the Skagit Speedway season. When the youngster joined Rudeen Racing in the off-season everything pointed to this weekend as he guns for the $25,000 top prize.

Rutz has put together a solid season so far and has shown a strong amount of consistency over the last month, a sign of the maturity he has gained this season while driving the Rudeen Racing, Fire Down Graphics No. 26. This past Saturday night saw him set fast time in the annual Dirt Cup Tune-up race at Skagit Speedway and lead 22 laps in the feature, before bringing home a second place finish.

The week prior to that Rutz picked up his second 410 victory of the season at the Skagit Speedway clay when he passed Aaron Fell on the 18th circuit in the main event. A third place finish on May 31 at Skagit and another third place run on May 25 at Elma in the inaugural ASCS Northwest Series weekend, show that Rutz has come into his own during the ’08 season.

The young Canadian put on a show in last year’s Dirt Cup 40 lap finale when he charged from the rear of the field up to the top five, before a fuel issue took him out of the running. Rutz’s career best finish at the prestigious event came in ’05 when he started from the pole on Saturday night and finished in the fourth spot, impressing all in attendance and giving everyone a glimpse of his talent behind the wheel of a 410 winged sprint car.

The 37th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup presented by Camping World RV will go green this Thursday night with the opening round of preliminary action to gain points towards Saturday’s finale. Another prelim will be held on Friday night with everything coming to a conclusion on Saturday, which will be capped with the 40 lap, $25,000 to win A-main.

More information on the Dirt Cup can be found at www.skagitspeedway.com or by calling (360) 724-3567