Impressive Gold Cup Race of Champions performance nets sixth place finish for 18-year-old Kyle Larson with World of Outlaws at Silver Dollar Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – September 12, 2010…Going into the annual Gold Cup Race of Champions newly crowned King of California Kyle Larson looked to open more eyes at the biggest sprint car event on the West Coast and the 18-year-old from Elk Grove was able to do just that by scoring a strong sixth place finish in the 40-lap finale on Saturday night.
Larson, who ran as high as third on Saturday in the feature, also finished among the top-10 during all three-nights at the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series sanctioned event while driving the Stadelhofer Construction/Peppermill Resort-Spa-Casino-Reno/ Kaeding Performance No. 99 Maxim.
“To finish sixth at the Gold Cup is pretty awesome and being able to show that we can run like this with the World of Outlaws is a great feeling,” said Larson. “We were really quick all weekend long so I definitely owe a lot to Clark Riolo and my whole crew for giving me such a great car and I can’t thank them enough.”
The prestigious 57th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions began on Thursday night at the Silver Dollar Speedway and saw a very hooked-up racing surface following heavy rain the night before in the Chico area.
With 52-cars on hand for opening night Larson timed-in 25th fastest, which just missed the heat race inversion, but a strong move early in the heat race allowed him to score the fourth and final transfer spot into the feature. Starting from the very last row in the 30-lapper he proceeded to battle his way forward throughout the main event and made a great charge over the final five-circuits to tally a 10th place finish at the conclusion.
Coming back on Friday Larson drew an early number for qualifying and utilized it to turn the seventh fastest lap of the session, putting him in the second row for his heat, where he brought home a third place finish to once again directly transfer into the main event. Lining up on the outside of row six the Elk Grove driver quickly moved into the top-10, but contact with another car on the back stretch forced him to the work area and then to the rear of the field with two-laps complete.
Restarting at the tail-end Larson put his Shaver Engines powered No. 99 sprinter on the tip-top of the quarter-mile bullring and began to carve his way through the extremely talented pack of cars. Passing a number of World of Outlaw stars he moved into the 12th spot with just 10-circuits left, getting by 2001 WOO champ Danny Lasoski and three-time series titlist Sammy Swindell on consecutive laps.
The charge didn’t stop there however, as he then dispatched of Shane Golobic for the 11th position on lap 21, before moving into the top-10 by rocketing around 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser with only five-laps left. On the next go around Larson continued to be aggressive and shot by three-time USAC Silver Crown champ Bud Kaeding for the ninth spot, where he would eventually finish at the waving of the checkered flag.
“Even though we had to go the back at the start of the race I didn’t panic, because I knew we were fast and the track was racy enough to get back up there,” commented Larson. “Any time you can pass guys like Sammy Swindell and Steve Kinser you know you’re having a good night, so we couldn’t have been happier after Friday and that was definitely one of the best tracks we’ve seen in Chico this year.”
Following the first two preliminary nights Larson had accumulated the 10th most points for the event and it put him in the fifth row for Saturday’s 40-lap finale. With very wet conditions early on track preparation crews went to work prior to the main event and their efforts paid off, as the surface came in nicely and made for some great action in the $50,000-to-win contest. At the drop of the green flag Larson would fall a couple spots, until getting into a groove after a couple of yellows to make his way by Swindell and Golobic to slice into eighth with 11-down.
Reminiscent of the night before Larson showed no intimidation while running with many of the best winged sprint car drivers in the country and on lap 14 charged by three-time Gold Cup champ Jac Haudenschild to take seventh. The 18-year-old then motored around Jason Sides for sixth on lap 22 and moved into the top-five the following lap when Jonathan Allard and Donny Schatz banged wheels, which resulted in Allard coming to a stop just off the track in turn three.
Sitting in fifth during a red flag period just around the midway point of the main event, things became dramatic when Larson was forced to jump out of the car when a small fire occurred under the hood. After getting the fire extinguished there was some talk whether he would go to the work area or push back off and retain his spot. After a couple of intense moments it was decided that he would get back onto the speedway and assume his position in the running order to the delight of the huge crowd on hand.
When racing got back underway it was apparent that third running Joey Saldana had a tire going down and when he eventually pitted it bumped Larson up to fourth for a lap 27 restart, which saw him charge to the inside of four-time & defending World of Outlaw champ Donny Schatz to grab third in impressive fashion. A yellow flag with just 11-circuits left in the race set up another restart, but this time around Larson would lose a spot to a fast moving Steve Kinser, who transferred out of the b-main.
Larson then ran comfortably in fourth, until one final caution set up a green-white-checkered restart, where he tried hard to move forward, but had to get out of the throttle just enough while battling for position, which cost him a couple spots in turns three and four. The youngster would ultimately cross the stripe in sixth to come home just behind a stout top-five that was comprised of winner Jason Meyers, Steve Kinser, Paul McMahan, Haudenschild and Schatz. It also marked Larson's career best finish with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series.
“It would have obviously been nice to get on the podium, but just being up there with drivers like that is a real honor and I think we represented California well,” Larson said. “I’m really grateful for the opportunity Rich Stadelhofer and Brent Kaeding have given me this year so I have to give a big thanks to them, as well as all the sponsors that are supporting us. There are some more big races out here coming up and hopefully we can keep doing well and maybe get some more wins before the season is done.”
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 18-year-old Kyle Larson log onto http://www.kylelarsonracing.com
Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson put together a very strong weekend of racing at the 57th Gold Cup Race of Champions, bringing home a sixth place finish in Saturday’s 40-lapper. The 2010 King of California ran as high as third at one point in the $50,000-to-win feature. Photo's by Steve Lamothe of http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
- Gary Thomas on Sep 13, 2010
- Article Date: 9/13/2010