July 20th ~LARSON COMPETES IN RED BULL DRIVER SEARCH
Boston, MA – ParkerStore driver Kyle Larson competed July 20th in the East Coast
Run-Offs of the Red Bull Driver Search in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The track named
F1 Outdoors, about one half-hour south of Boston, was the site of the Run-Offs, held under
very hot, humid conditions.
Ninety-eight drivers from the eastern half of the United States, and western based Larson,
made a total of 99 racers. Larson was accepted into the East Coast Run-Offs as he could
not appear at the West Coast portion of the driver search August 10-12th at Infineon
Raceway in Sonoma, California as he would be racing in the Outlaw Sprint Kart Nationals in
Knoxville, Iowa at that time.
The competition in the East Coast Run-Offs proved tough as several
factors worked against the drivers with no experience in road course type racing. Probably
four-fifths of the drivers assembled came from that form of racing and many had competed
at the F1 Outdoors track many times, including several drivers who were in the Red Bull
Driver Search at the track for their second or third time. The only drivers allowed any
practice time on the sign in day, July 19th, were drivers who had qualified for the search
at Indoor Centers but who had never actually competed in racing events, of which there
were less than 10 of those drivers there.
At the driver’s meeting it was stated the first day activities would include two ten
lap practice sessions and two ten lap timed qualifying rounds and times would be the sole
criteria for moving on to the racing events on Thursday. In literature sent to each driver
it was declared that up to 50% of the field would be eliminated at the end of the first
day. But at the driver’s meeting the number became two-thirds that would be
eliminated, while the actual number ended up being thirty that would move on.
The first practice session started nearly
an hour late and took almost two hours for the ten groups to complete. At the end of the
first practice session it was announced that the second session would be eliminated and
the qualifying sessions would be cut to seven and five laps, which in the process made the
chances nearly impossible of a non road course racer to advance with so little track time.
Although Larson’s best time placed him approximately 40th in the final rundown it was
not enough to move on in the event. However, he did outrun some of the best road course
racers in the Eastern United States and he also outdid two well known and accomplished
sprint car drivers, Kevin Swindell and Cameron Dodson. Larson’s best time was only
nine tenths of a second behind the fastest time posted and he was one of only a few
drivers who posted their best lap in the second session, when the track conditions slowed
due to the extreme afternoon heat.
At the conclusion of the activities Larson said, “It’s a little disappointing
the way the whole event turned out. It seemed to have a lot of delays and that really hurt
some of the drivers like me that needed as much track time as we could get. Twenty-two
total laps wasn’t a lot to get up to speed against these road course guys.
But I am pleased with how well I did. I think being less that a second behind the fastest
guy is something to be proud of. I do think what Red Bull is doing is great for young
racers in America and I hope to compete in it again next year, only next time I hope I can
do it at Infineon Raceway. Also, the best part about this was meeting people from
different parts of the country. Kevin Swindell was great. My parents couldn’t be in
the pits with me so Kevin took me under his wing and he was a lot of fun to be with. He
even went with us to a big midget and modified race at Seekonk Speedway Wednesday night
and he was so cool – it seemed like we’ve been friends for a long time.”
Race: July 20, 2005
Photos Courtesy of Jack Waterman
Red Bull Driver Search - Boston, MA
