Larson Posts Seventh And Fifth In Santa Maria Twin Bill
Santa Maria, California. April 30 and May 1, 2010. Santa Maria Speedway had the
distinction of hosting a pair of the top sprint car groups on the West Coast this past
Friday and Saturday nights as the Taco Bravo 360 and Golden State Challenge 410 series
were in town to contest the Doug Fort Memorial, which honored the founder and former
operator of the beautiful tree lined hillside facility.
For Kyle Larson, and several others, the stop at the Central Coast speedplant allowed them to compete at one track for two different point
championships on the same weekend. In the end Larson salvaged respectable finishes in each
to maintain his hopes of a double championship sweep in both divisions by placing seventh
and fifth in the individual series.
Besides the differences in engine displacements used for each event, the track conditions
could not have been more dissimilar than they were for this doubleheader of racing. At
Friday’s opener for the Taco Bravo cars, which was the first time the series held an
event at a venue other than Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway, a very dry slick surface
saw plentiful passing in the main, while the GSC gentry found conditions in a state that
never did fully dry through the entire night, allowing little dicing among the leaders.
With 26 cars pitted, and as the fifth car out to qualify on the already drying Friday track, the prospect of a good time looked
to be in the cards for Larson. However, the track soon changed and the oddball occurrence
of a rubberdown surface in qualifying began to play out, as the track got progressively
faster as the session continued on. As a result Larson placed 19th in the final qualifying
rundown, joining several other top cars that would be starting behind the heat race
inversions.
At the conclusion of qualifying track officials wisely reworked the surface, opening it up
and applying water in hopes of bringing back racier conditions. Although the moisture
didn’t last long the tire chewing rubberdown environment never fully returned. In his
heat Larson was able to race from seventh to take the final transfer spot of fifth to
advance directly to the feature event.
With three cars scratching early the
semi main was scrapped, which turned into a blessing for Larson as those cars did not get
their times back behind the A-main inversion. As a result the Elk Grove, California driver
started the Stadelhofer Contruction/Peppermill Casino Spa Resort-Reno/ Maxim/Shaver 12th
on the grid for the headliner.
Once underway the 17 year old fourth year sprint car driver ran a steady race on the
extremely slippery surface that saw him involved very little in many on-track skirmishes
for position. Although racing was intense at the front with Tommy Tarlton and Bud Kaeding
battling for the lead in the late stages, Larson found opportunities to move forward when
presented.
After gaining the lead with two laps to go Kaeding flipped while trying to pass a lapped
car on his way to the checkered, which allowed Tarlton to speed to the line first, while
Kaeding was scored second with his car upside down on the finish line. Larson settled for
seventh in the final rundown as the race came to its startling conclusion.
Saturday night saw 22 cars on hand
for the second night of competition in front of a packed house. Larson’s qualifying
fortunes changed dramatically as he timed in third quick. He started fifth in his heat and
drove to fourth at the finish to earn a place in the eight car six lap dash.
Unfortunately, on the slimy track that was seeing little passing, drawing the number eight
starting position was not beneficial for garnering an up front starting place in the
feature event and Larson held on for seventh at the finish. As the field formed up for the
30 lap headliner fifth starter Alissa Geving encountered a mechanical malfunction, which
moved Larson and the rest of the inside row forward.
As fast time qualifier and dash winner Tarlton led from the outset with early pressure from Zach Zimmerly,
Larson and Bud Kaeding battled for fourth and fifth for much of the middle stages of the
race. The Larson/Kaeding duo drew a great deal of the large crowd’s attention as they
swapped positions a few times on the way to the finish.
Tarlton was able to maintain his lead to the checkered flag and sweep the weekend in
impressive fashion. Zimmerly held on for second in his best ever GSC finish, while Peter
Murphy, Kaeding and Larson followed.
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, Abreu Vineyards and All Star Performance.
