From Ecstasy To Agony in 24 Hours For Larson In Double Dip
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, Abreu Vineyards and All Star Performance.
