Larson Victorious In Ocean 360’s, Third In Tulare 410’s
Watsonville and Tulare, CA ~ May 14 and 15, 2010. Seventeen year old sprint car driver Kyle Larson enjoyed another stellar weekend, this time highlighted by his first win in the Taco Bravo 360 series at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway on Friday night. He then capped the doubleheader with a third place finish in the Golden State Challenge series event Saturday night at the Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.
After qualifying at what first appeared a disappointing 10th quick of the 31 cars pitted, Larson then settled in and used the format to his advantage as he won his heat from fourth starting. When the six pill for the main event inversion was pulled at the conclusion of the heats Larson found himself on the pole position due to four cars who qualified faster missing transfers and being relegated to one of the two B-mains.
Larson did not let his good fortune go to waste as he powered the Stadelhofer Construction/Peppermill Spa Resort Casino-Reno/BK Motorsports machine into the lead from the outset. While Larson maintained a comfortable advantage through several cautions and a couple of red flags, Bud Kaeding was using the top of the racetrack to steadily move forward from 12th into second.
Following the final red flag for a Justin Sanders flip on lap 18, Larson had Kaeding to deal with to close out the win. Although Kaeding made it interesting, especially when he got outside of Larson following the final restart on lap 24, the Elk Grove, California driver was up to the challenge as he went to the top in turn one and two to open up a near straightaway advantage at the lap 30 checkered.
With the heat race and main event wins Larson was able to jump from sixth to third in the Taco Bravo point standings, cutting his previous deficit from 19 to seven to leader Tommy Tarlton, who finished fifth. “It feels really good to get my first win with my sponsor Rich Stadelhofer in attendance,” said Larson. “I have gotten several seconds and thirds but tonight is the first win with him here.” The series travels this coming weekend to contest their first ever race at the high speed Thunderbowl facility.
The same racetrack saw the Golden State Challenge series regulars drop in this past Saturday night, with the 410 powerplant bolted between the frame rails of the number 99 sprinter. Larson qualified fifth quick of the 21 cars assembled on a beautiful California evening.
The second heat saw Larson in a Kaeding sandwich as he finished behind Tim Kaeding and ahead of Brent Kaeding to transfer to the eight car six lap dash, which would set the first four rows of the A-main. Larson drew the number six slot for the dash and at the conclusion that is where he remained, putting him on the outside of the third row for the feature event.
With the headliner underway on the very slick racetrack, Larson struggled to find traction in the early going as Brent Kaeding and Zach Zimmerly both got by to drop him to eighth on the first lap. On lap two Larson got back underneath Zimmerly in turn two to take back seventh.
As dash winner Bud Kaeding lead over brother Tim, Tarlton, 2009 ASCS National Champion Shane Stewart, and Peter Murphy, Brent Kaeding and Larson began to dice it up for sixth. Following a lap five yellow Brent Kaeding and Larson both got by Murphy. Two laps later Larson drove underneath 13 time Golden State Challenge champ Brent Kaeding out of turn four to appear in the top five for the first time.
While the track began to slowly to take rubber Larson’s setup started to come in and within just a few laps he was challenging Stewart for fourth. After several stabs at Stewart Larson finally completed the pass off turn two of the 15th lap. After brief attempts by both Stewart and sixth place Jonathan Allard to close on Larson, the youngster set sail for Bud Kaeding, who now trailed brother Tim and Tarlton.
On 21 Larson performed a well placed crossover move in turns three and four to get by Bud to take over third onto the front straightaway. Over the last third of the race action got very intense up front as Tarlton had tracked down Tim to take over the lead while Larson pulled away in third with no challengers.
In very heavy traffic on the last lap Tarlton lost the lead when he did a 360 spin. With Tim going on to take the surprising win a dejected Tarlton still recovered in time to finish ahead of Larson, Bud, and Allard. With the third place effort Larson was able to move into second in the season long GSC point standings, closing to within one point of Allard, who leads previous leader Brent Kaeding by two points.
“Things have really started clicking for us lately” Larson said at the conclusion of the weekend. “My crew, Clark Riolo, Matt Britt, and Nick Wilke are giving me a car as good as or better than anyone every night. The win at Watsonville is really important because we really want to be competitive there and contend for the championship. It is such a tough field there every time we unload. In the GSC points it has been a long road to get in contention and it just feels good to have a shot at it.”
Larson’s racing efforts are sponsored by Stadelhofer Construction, The Peppermill ~ Resort Spa Casino-Reno, Kaeding Performance, Safety Solutions, Simpson Race Products, JW Web Design and All Star Performance.
Check out www.kylelarsonracing.com for videos, current news and information.
Race: May 14 & 15, 2010
Photos Courtesy of MAJ1K Motorsports
- Kyle Larson Racing on May 18, 2010
- Article Date: 5/18/2010