Chico, CA. May 16 & 17, 2008. Despite record breaking heat in Northern California,
Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway attracted large car counts for two nights of 410
sprint car racing highlighted by the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial race on Saturday. Kyle
Larson and the Dave and Debbie Vertullo Racing Team made their second appearance of the
season during the opener Friday night at the weekly point series on the quarter mile oval
and the 15 year old charger found the track to his liking as he nabbed fourth in the
feature event, while the next night saw the first DNF of the season due to throttle
linkage problems.
On Friday Larson qualified the CRV Racing Products/Eagle/Kistler fourth quick of the 35
cars pitted. He turned a sixth place start in his heat race into a third place
finish, which placed him on the pole position of the main event.
Mike Henry lined up outside of Larson and took the initial lead. After Larson fought off
the advances of
Jonathan Allard, he closed the gap on Henry until a red flag appeared on lap seven as
Allard hit the turn four wall in a huge impact. Larson held second until lap ten, when
Tyler Walker and Kyle Hirst raced by. A lap later Tim Kaeding dropped Larson to fifth and
then Sean Becker followed suit the next lap. Lap 21 saw contact between Kaeding and Henry,
resulting in Kaeding’s elimination and Henry dropping to fifth behind Larson. On the
restart leader Walker slid off the turn one crest, giving the lead to Becker and moving
Larson into third. With two laps to go Henry sped past Larson into third, while the high
school sophomore held off Andy Forsberg for fourth, his best ever Chico finish.
Saturday saw 43 cars assembled for the Bradway event, which was race number 12 of the Golden State
Challenge Series. Larson qualified 20th fast on the rapidly drying track and started
second in his heat, where he finished third to transfer to the 40 lap nightcap. He lined
up 18th of the 22 starters and had moved to 15th by lap 10. During the course of the event
Larson began to experience problems with his throttle sticking, which helped lead to a
spin off turn three on lap 21. Lap 29 saw the 83v sprinter pull into the infield as the
issue became more persistent and Larson was scored 17th as Tim Kaeding won the high paying
feature event.
Larson will return to the Silver Dollar fairgrounds facility as the annual Chico fair is
held over Memorial Day weekend. Saturday’s show will present a non point event for
360 sprint cars, while Sunday’s event will showcase round four of the Hoosier Tire
California 360 Sprint Car Civil War Series, where Larson sits sixth in the season point
standings.
Larson’s racing efforts are sponsored by CRV Racing Products, Starr Real Estate and
Property Management, Global ParkerStore, Safety Solutions – LFT Technologies, D &
J Towing, RPM Indoor Kart Racing and Conference Center, A.R.T. Ent. Speed Equipment,
Wion’s Body Shop and Powdercoating, JW Web Design, Mophead Graphix, SWEPCO
Lubricants, and Sierra Tire and Wheel.
