Larson Ventures to Chico and Petaluma
Scores 11th and Seventh Along With First Heat Win
Chico, CA and Petaluma, CA~ May 18th and 19th ~ Continuing a season of firsts 14 year old
sprint car driver Kyle Larson got his first opportunity to compete with a 410 cubic inch
engine bolted to his car with another appearance at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway
Friday night point series. Larson, who finished ninth driving his 360 powered sprinter
against the 410’s at the Golden State Challenge Series Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial
event the week previous, drove to an 11th place finish this time. With a 360 back under
him on Saturday, Larson made the trek to Petaluma Speedway for his first attempt at the
tacky Bay Area race track, where he came home with a seventh place finish.
At Chico Larson qualified 12th of the 23 cars on hand and finished third from the same starting
spot in the heat race. Larson started his Dave and Debbie Vertullo ParkerStore/CRV Racing
Products/Kistler powered mount ninth in the feature race. At one point Larson had advanced
up to seventh, but with a mid-race miscue that allowed his car to slide over the fourth
turn crest, Larson found himself in 13th after recovering. Over the last several laps
Larson was involved in a couple of spirited battles and fought back to finish 11th.
At Petaluma Speedway Saturday Larson qualified 12th of 24 cars assembled. Larson, scheduled to start outside row two in his heat, moved up a row
when another driver failed to show. He turned the outside front row spot into his first
win of any kind in a sprint car as he raced to a straightaway advantage at the finish. He
started 10th in the A-main and, after falling to 13th on the first lap and avoiding a
couple of serious crashes on the high speed track, sped to seventh at the conclusion
of the 25 lap event.
Asked to assess the weekend’s activities Larson said, “This was a fun couple of
races. Both tracks were real racy. If not for putting myself in a little bit of a hole
each night, top fives were a good possibility at both places. But the experience with the
410 engine and getting out and seeing as many different tracks as I can will only help
speed my learning curve with the sprint cars. I was kind of surprised how the 410 felt,
because everyone was telling me it would probably be hard to control the front end from
wanting to come up. Dave Vertullo had the car working really well and it didn’t seem
much different than the 360 did last week. At Petaluma we kind of missed the setup a
little in the A-main. The track got really tacky and I was pretty tight at the beginning.
Finally, I moved the wing forward and started running the bottom and things began to pick
up for me. This coming week is something I’m really looking forward to. I’ll get
to race three nights in a row and also finally get to try out Marysville Raceway Park on
Friday in another Civil War Series race. We’ll go to Chico for a special fair race
Saturday and then another Civil War race there on Sunday night. I can’t wait.”
Larson’s racing efforts are sponsored by ParkerStore, CRV Racing Products, Starr Real
Estate and Property Management, Safety Solutions – LFT Technologies, D & J
Towing, Heritage Drywall, A.R.T. Speed Equipment, RPM Indoor Kart Racing and Conference
Center, Platinum Powdercoating, JW Web Design, MotoWear, Wion’s Body Shop and Sierra
Tire and Wheel.
Race: May 18 & 19, 2007
Photos Courtesy of Jack Waterman
www.kylelarsonracing.com
