Despite Setbacks, Larson Very Impressive In USAC Non Wing Debut At Calistoga
Calistoga, California. September 5 and 6, 2009. Seventeen year old Kyle Larson, of Elk
Grove, California, shed the wing on top for the first time and tried his hand at
traditional sprint car racing at the big and wickedly fast half mile of Calistoga
Speedway. Larson’s lack of experience at this type of racing would not allow the
youngster to be intimidated as he ran with the leaders on both nights and impressed many
veteran onlookers with his standout performances. Unfortunately, late race mishaps with
the race track cushion on Saturday and an incident with the leader and another driver on
Sunday led to disappointing finishes in the final results.
The Labor Day weekend event for the Southern California based USAC-CRA Series
double-header began with Larson getting his feet wet by qualifying 15th quick of the 29
cars on hand. A fourth place finish in his heat race transferred the Dave and Debbie
Vertullo Starr Property Management/Stadelhofer Construction/Eagle/Kistler into the main
event.
Larson lined up 15th on the grid, just behind national non wing driving star Kevin
Swindell. The high school senior started the race with patience and began to get a feel
for the well prepared and tacky speedway. After disposing of 2007 CRA champion Tony Jones
and Swindell the rise in Larson’s confidence level was obvious. When the yellow flag
appeared on lap 13 Larson was trailing only leader Danny Sheridan, David Cardey, Matt
Mitchell, fast time qualifier Blake Miller, and Jesse Hockett.
On the restart Larson dove under Hockett to steal fifth and two laps later moved by Miller
for fourth as Mitchell took the lead over Cardey and Sheridan. With each pass by Larson
the jam packed grandstand crowd roared its approval, as most were looking for a Northern
Californian to head to victory lane.
Soon after Larson battled his way past Sheridan for third and brought Swindell in tow for
fifth. Larson and Swindell began to reel in Cardey and even swapped positions a couple of times in the process.
Larson finally made his first miscue in turn two and jumped the cushion, allowing Swindell
to take possession of third.
After a restart Swindell got under Cardey in turns one and two to get into second and took
the lead from Mitchell entering turn three. A lap later Larson passed Cardey in turn one
and slid under Mitchell off of turn two to rocket into second. Larson did not back off as
he then began to chase down Swindell for the lead.
Heavy on the gas with five to go Larson relinquished hard earned positions when he
misjudged the tall cushion in turn two, dropping back to fourth. Finally, with two to go
he caught the same spot on the cushion, with the car nearly coming to a stop in the spongy
clay at the top of the track. Although he was able to keep the car rolling he continued on
to the checkered flag where he was scored 12th, while Swindell won for the second time in
his career at Calistoga.
The final night saw Larson improve his qualifying standing to eighth, even though he was
the last car of 30 entrants to time in on the rapidly drying racetrack. He started fifth
in his heat race and turned in another stellar performance by methodically passing cars on
his way to a nearly straightaway length win.
With the inversion Larson started the 30 lap feature on the outside of the front row next
to Josh Ford, while Swindell and Hockett started third and fifth. At the outset Swindell
got underneath both Ford and Larson to take the lead. As Swindell led Larson settled into
second with Hockett moving into third.
The top three stayed in that order for much of the first 1/3rd of the race, with Swindell
holding a slight advantage as Hockett hounded Larson. When Larson slid off the bottom of
turn two of lap four Hockett pounced to take the runnerup position. Soon after Hockett
powered by Swindell to assume the point.
The middle stages of the race saw little changing of positions, while Hockett gradually
pulled away from Swindell and Mike Spencer and Mitchell closed on Larson. Finally, on lap
25 Spencer dove under Larson in turn one to become a contender for the win.
The complexion of the race changed greatly when Hockett misjudged his entry into turn
three and got into the wall, beginning to flip. The timing was terrible for Larson as
Mitchell was just beginning a slide job under the 83v into turn
three. As both got hard on the binders to avoid Hockett Mitchell slid into Larson’s
path, with the contact causing his mount to tumble hard into the outside wall.
Larson was unhurt, but the same could not be said for his car as significant frame damage
was incurred to both ends of the car. Spencer was able to surprise and overtake Swindell
on the restart, leading the rest of the way as Larson was scored 17th in the final
rundown.
At the end of the weekend Larson summed up his thoughts regarding his first foray into the
non-wing racing world by saying, “ I love this type of racing. The driver has so much
more to do with what the car is doing. Dave Vertullo, who was running his car in a
non-wing race for the first time, also gave me a great car to drive. Until I jumped the
cushion in Saturday’s race we had a chance to win the first non-wing race we ever
competed in. Even though the results don’t show it, it was an unbelievable feeling to
run up front both nights and I hope to do a lot more of this in the future.”
Larson’s racing efforts are sponsored by Starr Property Management, Inc., Phoenix
ParkerStores and Lubrication Equipment and Supply Co., Stadelhofer Construction,
Wion’s Body Shop and Powdercoating, A.R.T. Speed Equipment, G & N Construction,
JW Web Design, Safety Solutions-LFT Technologies, Simpson Performance Products, Wyman
Construction, GME-Nields Steerings, LRB Manufacturing, SWEPCO Lubricants, Edward’s
Lawn Service, Sierra Tire and Wheel, Mancamp Motorsports, and Mophead Graphix.
