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Larson Bags Back To Back Feature Wins At Watsonville And Antioch
Narrows Point Gaps In Taco Bravo and Golden State Challenge Series
Watsonville and Antioch, CA ~ July 16 and 17, 2010. In the most successful weekend yet of his sprint car career 17 year old Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, California captured main event wins on consecutive nights this past weekend. Beginning with the co-sanctioned Taco Bravo/California Civil War Series event for 360 sprint cars at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway on Friday night, where he set a new track record in qualifying, and continuing the next night in Golden State Challenge Series 410 competition at Antioch Speedway, Larson was the class of the field as he closed point gaps to single digits in both series.
With a dose of déjà vu hanging in the foggy air at Ocean Speedway Larson nearly duplicated his effort in this same race of last year, when he also set the track record, won the B-main and then started behind the inversion-albeit one row deeper this time-before steadily picking his way to the front to win the feature. While Larson tallied his third victory in a row in the Taco Bravo Series at Ocean Speedway, he also closed the point margin of leader Tommy Tarlton to five points.
Larson powered the Stadelhofer Construction/Peppermill Casino-Reno/Maxim/Shaver to a new track record of 11.611 over a 38 car field in qualifying. However, on a still very tacky and narrow track Larson was only able to salvage a seventh place finish in the first heat, sending him to the semi-feature.
Larson avoided any trouble to take the 12 lap B-main and transfer to the night’s headline event. With an eight inversion drawn Larson gridded ninth as Sean Becker and Tarlton started from the front row.
As the green flag unfurled Tarlton assumed control at the front over Becker, Ronnie Day, and Evan Suggs as cars battled two and three wide on the racy surface. Although in the midst of the action Larson was still mired in ninth when Tarlton and fourth running Bud Kaeding could not avoid contact with a group of cars who came together and stopped in turn two of lap nine.
With Tarlton and Kaeding restarting at the tail of the field Larson sat seventh as Becker led when the green flag reappeared. On three consecutive laps Larson began to show his muscle as he got by Matt Sargent on lap 11, Suggs a lap later, and then Brent Kaeding to move into fourth on lap 13.
Larson then stalked Furr for three laps before taking third on lap 16. He repeated the drill again as he closed on Day over the next three laps, before moving into the runnerup slot on lap 19.
As Larson set out for Becker disaster nearly struck the young driver just a lap after assuming second when his car jumped the tall cushion in turn two. Although he deftly got the car settled back on all fours he just barely kept the engine lit as Day and “BK” shot back by.
As Larson fought to get back in contention the running order changed dramatically on lap 24 when the lapped car of Jeremy Burt lost his left front wheel just in front of Day and “BK” exiting turn two. While Day had to get hard on the binders, “BK” had nowhere to go and spun after contact with Day’s rear bumper. With Larson sitting third under yellow behind Becker and Day with 23 laps completed, the complexion of the race changed once again as the leader’s right rear tire began to go flat. As Becker exited to replace rubber, it set up a showdown for the win as the veteran Day faced off against Larson.
With the race underway again Larson shot back to the treacherous cushion in turn two to rocket past Day on the backstretch. A final caution period occurred a lap later, but Larson restarted at the front and drove away from the field to record his fifth career win at Ocean.
With an engine change to a 410 powerplant the 99 team headed to Antioch Speedway the next night to contest the final appearance of the Golden State Challenge Series sprint cars there in 2010. Extremely windy conditions led to a slick racing surface as Larson qualified fifth fast of the 19 cars on hand. A run from fourth to first in his heat race deposited him into the eight car six lap dash that sets the first four rows of the feature event.
Drawing the number seven starting slot seemed to be a huge obstacle to overcome for Larson on the slippery surface as the dash cars lined up. However, he got a great start out of turn four and went to the top in turn one in fourth place. Exiting turn four Larson got by Alissa Geving for third and then surged past Brent Kaeding down the backstretch on lap two to take over second. Over the last four laps Larson reeled in polestarter Bobby McMahan but settled for a close second at the finish.
The duo started the A-main at the front of the pack but Larson took control from the outset with Kaeding jumping into second from fourth starting. The pair, who are battling it out for the GSC point crown, proceeded to put on a dazzling display of racing thru lapped traffic over the first 12 laps.
Unfortunately, after that action the dry slick surface led to several slowdowns and a couple of stoppages as competitors searched for traction. Throughout all the delays Larson was able to maintain the lead, although Kaeding made it interesting several times in the latter stages of the race as the track began to take rubber. Larson captured his fourth GSC win of the season and proceeded to slice the point deficit to Kaeding to four with only three races remaining on the schedule.
Larson’s racing efforts are sponsored by Stadelhofer Construction, The Peppermill ~ Resort ~ Spa ~ Casino ~ Reno, Kaeding Performance, Safety Solutions, Simpson Race Products, JW Web Design and All Star Performance.
For more information and news on Kyle Larson please visit www.kylelarsonracing.com
Race: July 16 & 17, 2010
Photos Courtesy of Shane Muir
www.muirphotos.com
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