Watsonville and Hanford, CA ~ June 25 and 26, 2010. Elk Grove, California sprint car driver Kyle Larson experienced the inevitable ups and downs of racing in a major way this past weekend as the 17 year old enjoyed the high of winning his fourth feature event of the 2010 season, this time with the Taco Bravo 360 series at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville on Friday. Then, in California Golden State Challenge 410 competition the next night at Hanford’s Giant Chevrolet-Kings Speedway, he suffered possibly the low point of his four year career when the powerplant in his Stadelhofer Construction/Peppermill Casino/Kaeding Performance machine expired while stalking Tim Kaeding at the white flag.
Larson captured the fourth main event win in his last nine appearance at Watsonville’s fog shrouded coastal facility and in the process tallied his 11th career win. The victory also locked Larson into one of the first three rows in the 50th running of the Johnny Key Classic August 28th.
In victory lane Larson said, “It’s nice to come back here and get a win because we had a tough night earlier in the month and lost some ground in the points so this will definitely help us.” With the win Larson has now closed back to within 12 digits of point leader Tommy Tarlton. “We’ve been really successful here and this track just suits my driving style for whatever reason and it’s also good to get another win tonight with Rich Stadelhofer here again in attendance watching us.”
Fifth fast qualifier of the 28 entries, Larson start fifth in his heat and finished fourth to take a transfer spot in the A-main event. Larson started third in the 30 lap feature with Cowboy Craig Smith and Tommy Tarlton on the front row. With the 22 car field underway Larson immediately dove to the bottom of turn two to drop Tarlton to third. Into turn one of the next lap Larson assumed command from Smith and never looked back as he lead the remainder of the race, with Shane Golobic coming from 15th to score second over fast time qualifier Brad Furr.
With weather conditions dramatically warmer the next night at Hanford Larson and crew were ready for the second 2010 appearance of the GSC at the newly renamed Giant Chevrolet-Kings Speedway. The attraction of the top west coast 410 sprint car stars saw the racetrack continue it’s renaissance with the largest crowd seen there in years Saturday night.
After posting third quick time in the 26 car lineup Larson blazed to a runaway win in his heat race from the fifth starting slot. A seventh place draw and seventh place finish in the eight car six lap dash put Larson on the inside of the fourth row for the headline event.
At the drop of the green flag Larson surged into fifth coming out of turn two on the extremely slick but wide and racy surface. On lap five Larson passed Tarlton in turn four to slide into fourth and four laps later disposed of Zach Zimmerly exiting turn two.
Dash winner and pole starter Jonathan Allard then began to absorb pressure from Larson and the duo together started to reel in leader Tim Kaeding, all the while battling dense lapped traffic. On lap 12 Allard momentarily took the lead from Kaeding but was repulsed before reaching the starting line.
On lap 13 Larson took command of second from Allard in turn three and set out after Kaeding. On lap 14 Larson pulled even with Kaeding in turns three and four, but the exciting battle was slowed when the yellow appeared and reverted the race back to lap 13.
On the restart Larson performed a perfect slide job into turns one and two and quickly gained a several car length advantage over Kaeding as they once again started the 14th lap. However, the yellow appeared another time and Kaeding reassumed the lead with 13 laps down.
Now Kaeding was on guard and did not allow the youngster the same advantage on the restart. But the fans witnessed an entertaining fight for supremacy that saw the pair never more than a few car lengths apart over the next 16 laps that were run non-stop. As the white flag waved with Kaeding holding only a narrow lead on Larson, the next lap would completely change the complexion of the race.
Unfortunately for Larson, just as he crossed the starting line his engine let out a puff of smoke and the 99 car sputtered to a stop in turn two just as the red flag appeared for flip victim Steven Kent. With the race restarted Larson sat dejectedly at his trailer as Kaeding held off Tarlton and Zimmerly for a sweep of the pair of GSC races at Giant Chevrolet-Kings Speedway scheduled for 2010.
“I was having so much fun racing with Tim,” said Larson at the end of the event. “He is the guy you have to beat out west and I was giving him everything I had. I’m pretty bummed right now because I wanted to see what I could do with him there at the end. I think we had the faster car. My crew of Clark Riolo, Matt Britt and Nick Wilke give me a car that is competitive every night out and I can’t thank them enough. We’ll just regroup and head to Chico this coming weekend and maybe we can get a couple of wins to make up for this one.”
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.
For more information and news on 17-year-old racer Kyle Larson please visit http://www.kylelarsonracing.com
Race: June 25-26, 2010
Photos Courtesy of MAJ1K Motorsports
- Kyle Larson Racing on Jul 01, 2010
- Article Date: 7/1/2010