Larson holds off Kaeding for Civil War victory at Silver Dollar Speedway
by Bill Sullivan
Sunday, May 25, 2008

Kyle Larson win his second career Civil War feature, and his first win on the high banks of Silver Dollar Speedway.
JPM Photo by Donna Peter

CHICO, CA (5-25-08) - The fire breathing sprint cars of the Hoosier Racing Tires Civil War Sprint Car Series converged at Silver Dollar Speedway, Sunday, May 25 to compete beneath the colorful back drop of the annual Silver Dollar Fair. The event marked the fourth event of the 15 race Civil War series and marked the first of three visits to the Chico speedway this season.

At the end of the night, 15-year-old Kyle Larson of Elk Grove stood before a capacity crowd in victory lane. While most teenagers Larson's age were busy on the nearby carnival rides, Larson was aboard the Vertullo Racing #83v Sprint Car holding off some of California's best talent for the $2000 victory.

At the waving of the green flag, pole sitter Colby Wiesz of Colfax took the lead off the pole position into the first set of turns. Traveling down the back stretch of the opening lap, Sacramento's Willie Croft charged from the third place starting position to the low side of the track to power ahead of Wiesz for the lead.

Once in front, Croft drove to a lead of several car lengths over Wiesz who was in a heated battle with former four time champion Andy Forsberg of Auburn and Tim Kaeding of San Jose. With 11 laps down Kaeding and Forsberg nearly collided on the backstretch, resulting in sixth place starter Kyle Larson of Elk Grove overtaking the third position, Kaeding maintained fourth in the exchange and Forsberg clung to the fifth position.

With 13 laps down, Croft nearly jumped over the high side of the track while working his way into lapped traffic and permitted Wiesz to close in on his once distant lead. One lap later Croft went to the low side of turns three and four and when he attempted to pass a lapped car, was sent into a spin on the low side of turns three and four to draw a yellow and hand the lead back to Wiesz.

On the restart Wiesz set the pace ahead of Elk Grove's Kyle Larson and Tim Kaeding. On the 17th lap Larson charged to the low side of turns one and two and slid beneath Wiesz for the lead. Kaeding followed suit, taking over the second position.

Working their way into lapped traffic, Larson and Kaeding put on a spectacular performance in the battle for the lead. Larson maintained the lead, holding off charges from Kaeding in traffic. With 20 laps down the race underwent the yellow flag when Kyle Hirst stopped in the third turn.

With the lapped traffic out of their way the green flag flew on Larson, Kaeding and Wiesz as the heated battle continued for the final ten laps of the race. Larson set the pace while Kaeding stalked his prey, Wiesz fell out of contention when he lost his muffler. With 22 laps down a red flag delayed the race after Croft flipped over in turn two and five laps later Wiesz fell out of the race when he lost his muffler.

Despite the restarts, Larson maintained his lead in the final laps over the hard charging Kaeding. With the capacity crowd cheering on their feet, Larson stood in Silver Dollar's victory lane for the first time in his career. Kaeding finished in second followed by Becker.

Kyle Larson (83v) leads Tim Kaeding (10) in a heated duel for top spot all the way to the end.
JPM Photo by Donna Peter

"Sixty some races and I finally got a fast time and then I got race against Tim Kaeding pulling slide jobs, this was awesome." Said Larson. 'Tim Kaeding is awesome, I want to thank my car owner David Vertullo for giving me a great car to race and all the fans for coming out."

In the B-feature event on Sunday, Andy Gregg of Placerville drive his way to victory. Gregg held off the challenges Greg DeCaires, Mike Benson of Calistoga, David Robinson Jr. of Foresthill and and Mark Hall of Grass Valley.

In Sunday's C-feature Richard Bailey of Napa made a late race pass around Santa Rosa's Kirk Simpson to claim the win and transfer into the B-feature along with third place finisher Camron Mendes of Rohnert Park. Adrien Betourney of Arcaa finished in fourth followed by Marc Mackay of Cameron Park.

In preliminary action on Sunday, Kyle Larson of Elk Grove was the fast qualifier of the night with a 12:343 second lap. The effort marked Larson's first Civil War fast time award of his career. Sean Becker was second quick with a 12:408, Andy Forsberg rounded out the top three qualifiers with a 12:469.

The first 10-lap heat race of the evening was claimed by Sacramento's Herman Klein who was followed across the line by Willie Croft of Sacramento, Larson, Kyle Hirst of Loomis and Mike Benson of Calistoga.

The second heat race of the evening saw former Silver Dollar Speedway track champion Tim Kaeding of San Jose claim the victory followed by fellow former track champion Sean Becker of Sacramento. Brad Bumgarner of Chico finished in third followed by Chico's Robbie Whitchurch and Elk Groves's Greg DeCaires.

The third heat race of the night was claimed by Chico's own Brett Miller who started on the pole. Penngrove's Alissa Geving charges from the fourth position into second place. Geving held off a hard charging Colby Wiesz of Colfax and Andy Forsberg of Auburn to the finish line.

The final heat race was claimed by Bradley Terrell of Sebastepol who held off Brad Furr of Pleasanton, Jim Richardson of Gray Eagle and point leader David Robinson Jr. of Foresthill.

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