Watsonville, California – October 8, 2010. With the Ocean Speedway Taco Bravo Series
for 360 sprint cars down to its last two events, 2010 King of California Kyle Larson knew
wins would be a
necessity to make up 30 points to defending champion Tommy Tarlton entering last Friday
night. Although Larson gave it all he had from his 12th starting position to nip front row
starter Tarlton for second in the 30 lap event, Larson’s car owner, Brent Kaeding,
stole the thunder from both by posting his first win of the 2010 season. For Kaeding, the
popular win for the 13 time King of California ended a drought that stretched back to
April 2009.
The night started off with Larson qualifying 13th quick of the 34 cars on hand and he finished third in his heat race. With a zero inversion
pill drawn for the A-main lineup fast time qualifier Ronnie Day rocketed from the pole to
the lead over Tarlton and Kaeding, while Larson found openings to jump four places to
eighth at the end of the first go-round. While Day set a blistering pace on the tacky
surface, Kaeding muscled by Tarlton to take over second on lap two, with Evan Suggs,
Justin Sanders, and Cory Eliason rounding out the top six.
On lap six Larson got past Cowboy Craig Smith out of turn four to get into seventh. Two
laps later Sanders went above the cushion in turn one, allowing Eliason and Larson to each
advance forward.
On lap nine Eliason and Larson surged forward together once again as Suggs fell victim to
the pair of teenagers. Once they settled into the top five with Day, Kaeding and Tarlton
still at the head of the pack the track began to slowly dry and widen with the top groove
coming more into play.
The order up front remained unchanged over the next several laps as Larson hounded Eliason
endlessly, as did Kaeding with Day. Finally on lap 21 Kaeding found his way past Day to
take over the lead. Only a lap later disaster struck for Day as Ivan Worden and Suggs got
together in turn four, collecting Day in the process, and bringing out the race’s
final yellow flag.
As the disappointed Day restarted at the back the action dramatically heated up at the
front as Larson’s Stadelhofer Construction/Peppermill Casino/Kaeding Performance
mount came alive. In two laps Larson climbed to third and set out for Tarlton as Kaeding
began to encounter heavy lapped traffic
With two to go Larson slid under Tarlton in turn one to trail only Kaeding. Tarlton fought
back to pass Larson in turn three, only to have the driver of the 99x machine perform a
beautiful crossover move out of turn four to take back second, which would not be
relinquished over the final lap. Kaeding crossed the finish line just over a second ahead
of Larson, while Tarlton’s third place finish saw his point lead only shrink by two
points on the night.
“I just want to congratulate Brent on finally getting a win tonight, because he
deserves it and I couldn’t be happier for him,” said Larson. “I don’t
know how many cars I passed in those last few laps, but it was pretty exciting and I have
to thank my crew for giving me an awesome car. It looks like the points are probably
decided but we’ll come back and try to close out the season with a win next
week.”
On
Saturday night Larson ventured to the Super 600 Nationals at Visalia’s Plaza Park
Raceway to race for noted 600cc engine builder Gordon Seros. The high paying event
featured both winged and non-winged divisions and the Larson/Seros combo competed in both
utilizing one car.
In only Larson’s second appearance at the venue, and in his
first ever non-winged 600 run, the Elk Grove, California driver led all 25 laps in the
cautioned plagued event, and drove away to a comfortable win. In the companion event for
winged machines Larson started 10th and held on for a ninth place finish, all the while
experiencing an extreme tight condition on the rubber down race track.
“I’m real proud to get a win here for Gordon”, Larson said at the end of
the night. “He’s a great guy to race with and has an awesome car.
These things are sure fun to drive, especially the non-wing car, and the competition is
very tough. I just wish we could have had some more time between races to get the right
front tire changed because I think we could have had something for them with the wing on
too.”
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.
