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Photo's by http://www.lnjphoto.com
16 year-old Kyle Larson wins first Golden State Challenge Series main event at Ocean Speedway Friday night
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – May 31, 2009…One of the bright spots with the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series so far in 2009 has been the addition of Elk Grove, CA's Kyle Larson to the traveling roster. The talented 16 year-old has been right in the thick of things all year long and on Friday night at the Ocean Speedway it all came together as he dominated the first part of the feature and held off a hard-charging Jason Statler to pick up his first career GSC main event win.
Larson started from the pole in the feature after winning his first career dash with the Golden State Challenge Series aboard his Vertullo Racing, Starr Property Management No. 83v and had his way for much of the contest, but had to deal with intense pressure following a late race surge from Statler. "It feels great to get my first GSC win tonight and I just have to thank my car owners Dave & Debbie Vertullo and all our sponsors for giving us a chance to come out here," Larson said.
When the green flag waved on the 30 lap feature it was Larson and Statler drag racing down the front stretch and resulted in the youngster getting the advantage off turn two. Early on a number of yellows and a red flag slowed the pace of the main event, but through it all Larson remained composed behind the wheel of his Parker Store's of Phoenix, G&N Construction No. 83v. When some green flag laps were finally able to be ticked off consecutively the youngster pulled out to a huge advantage on the rest of the field.
Laps seven through 18 were run without any stoppages and saw some fantastic racing on the well prepared Ocean Speedway surface. Up to this point it didn't look like anyone had anything for the fast moving Elk Grove racer as he sat out front with nobody in the same zip code. The old saying, "It's never over till it's over" came into play however, as following an open red flag period on lap 23, things changed with the battle for the lead heating up. Larson had been very fast on the bottom of the speedway, but Statler found the high-side to his liking on the restart and made things very exciting over the closing circuits.
When the green lights flashed on Statler rocketed to the cushion in his DF Rios Construction, YAK Graphics, Statler Racing No. 00 and gave Larson everything he could handle over the final seven laps. With Larson glued to the bottom of the raceway the Grass Valley driver got his "elbows up" on the quarter-mile clay oval and the pair put on one of the best final lap shootouts seen in GSC competition at the Ocean Speedway in recent years.
With the white flag in the air Statler got a great run off turn four and looked to have the momentum to get by Larson in turns one and two, but he appeared to catch the cushion at the wrong angle and it sent him upside down and out of the race. Despite the disappointing end Statler has to be commended for not just settling for second and giving it everything he had as he searched his first GSC win of the year. The former King of California has always been known as one of the hardest charging drivers in Northern California and Friday night certainly reminded everyone of that.
With Statler out of the picture, Larson had no worries up front and dominated the green-white-checkered restart to pick up his very first Golden State Challenge Series victory and first win at the Ocean Speedway in just his third career start at the track. Campbell's Bud Kaeding crossed under the checkered flag in second to score his best finish of the GSC season aboard he BK Motorsports, Alviso Rock No. 29. "I gotta congratulate Kyle on his first GSC win and it's nice to get a second place finish at our home track tonight," Kaeding said.
Chico's Jonathan Allard put on a nice charge from the fifth row to pick up a third place finish in the Williams Motorsports, K&N Filters No. 0. The current Golden State Challenge Series point leader made a number of strong passes on the outside during restarts to score his seventh straight podium with GSC on Friday. "I want to thank all you fans for coming out tonight and have to give kudos to Kyle for getting his first GSC win," Allard said.
The previous Sunday's winner Kyle Hirst of Loomis started fourth in the feature and brought home a fourth place finish aboard the GP Development, A.R.T. Enterprise No. 6. Rounding out the top five was the Al's Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza No. 69 of Campbell's Brent Kaeding, who made movement from his row five starting spot. Los Angeles, CA's Tyler Walker put on a charge from the 15th starting spot to score a sixth place finish at the checkered, followed by Scotts Valley's Evan Suggs, Clovis' Peter Murphy, last row starter Brad Furr of Pleasanton and Fremont's Shane Golobic.
Ripon's Brandon Carey used a last lap pass to pick up victory in the 12 lap b-main event. The dash was captured by Kyle Larson with heat winners being Jonathan Allard, Tommy Tarlton and Jason Statler. Peter Murphy set fast time with his clocking of 11.760 just two-tenth's off the GSC track record at Ocean Speedway.
Full results from the night can be found at http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com
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Elk Grove's Kyle Larson pictured with father Mike and super-fan Marcel following his first career Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series victory on Friday night at the Ocean Speedway.
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