Red Bluff, CA – ParkerStore outlaw sprint kart driver Kyle Larson experienced a trying night as the Red Bluff Winter Indoor series presented the penultimate race of the season inside the Pauline Davis pavilion at the Tehama County Fairgrounds Saturday night. Larson found himself running in the B-Main in both the 125cc and Open Intermediate divisions and then having gritty performances in the A-Mains that ultimately had varying results.

The 125cc qualifying ended with point leader Larson as the fourth fastest of 25 karts while points runner-up Brian Southers set fast time. The first heat found both rivals in row two as Larson was inside of Southers when the green flag appeared. Derek Copeland grabbed the early lead but Southers powered his way to the front by lap two as Larson was mired in fourth. The ParkerStore pilot was uncharacteristically losing ground to the leaders and was just keeping pace with Daniel Thorson who was third in the last transfer spot. The race went nonstop with Southers opening a big lead over the 10 lap distance while Larson was in for his first 125cc B-Main event in nearly a year. The poor performance was explained when Larson returned to his pit as the engine temperature was over 240 degrees due to the failure of the water pump. Larson was forced to bring out his backup QRC Factory sprint kart to complete the night’s events.

Larson’s first attempt at racing the backup at Red Bluff this season came in the B-Main as he started on the pole with Riley Gomes outside of him. Gomes took the lead at the start and Larson followed behind the full distance of the race to safely transfer into the A-Main. The ParkerStore leadfoot relayed to the crew that he just needed a little more gear and the Banke powerplant would come alive.

After the gear change Larson lined up third in the trophy dash. Pole starter Gomes bobbled coming out of turn four as the green appeared while Kyle Johnson assumed the lead. As Larson was running fourth on lap four second place Southers and third place Dillon Silverman made contact in turn three resulting in Southers taking a hard flip. After the restart Silverman slid high in turn four of lap five and Larson took second at the white flag. He pulled even with leader Johnson down the back straight and battled side by side through turn four where Larson gassed ahead to get the exciting win in a near dead heat.

The 125 A-Main event started Larson 11th of the 13 karts in the field and by lap two he was shuffled back to last place. After that point Larson began a methodical march forward as he passed five karts in five laps to move to eighth place. On lap 13 he moved by Brad Patchen into seventh. On lap 15 Larson passed both Andrew Cumpton and D.Copeland to move into fifth and a lap later got by Johnson for fourth. Lap 20 saw Larson surge by Jonny Lentz into third where he settled in behind race long leader Silverman and second place Southers. Larson’s attempts to move further up the standings were stymied as the lead duo proved too tough to catch as Larson kept his ParkerStore mount in third behind winner Silverman.

The Open Intermediate division saw Larson qualify fifth of 27 karts on hand and landed in the inside of row two of the second heat. The nonstop 10 lapper saw Larson in fourth place the entire distance and resulted in a transfer to the B-Main event. He started outside fast time qualifier Mason Moore on row one in the B-Main and parlayed that into a win that saw Larson lead all 20 laps unchallenged.

The trophy dash was a repeat performance as Larson again started outside the front row. He powered his Grandpa George motored sprint kart to a quick lead and built a sizable advantage as he arrived at the lap six checkered flag.

The Open Intermediate main began with Larson starting 10th of the 13 karts and, like the 125 feature, he was last by lap two. This time the progress forward came in smaller increments as the yellow ParkerStore kart did not move into the top ten until lap 13. By lap 15 Larson got to ninth and at lap 17 he had jumped up to sixth. On lap 20 Larson scooted past as Keith Bloom bobbled in turn two. He then quickly chased down fourth place Colby Copeland and the pair diced over the next four laps until a yellow appeared for a stalled Bloom. As the green and white flag few together Larson made a quick move to the outside of Copeland to take the spot and appeared headed to a satisfying finish. However, Copeland tried to take the position back from Larson in turn three but slid into Larson’s path resulting in both karts coming to a stop in turn four. Point leader Chadd Noland went on to the win while Larson was credited with an 11th place finish.

After the races Larson said “Really, we were very lucky that the 125 had the water pump problem in the heat race because we were able to bring out the backup kart and end up with a good finish in the A-main. I didn’t think the backup was going to be as good as my other kart but when we made the gear change after the B-main that thing was really fast. I told my dad that we need to run it next week no matter what because it felt that good. My open intermediate kart was really fast today also but whenever you have to come through B-mains here the chances of winning aren’t very good. But I had a lot of fun because I got to race a lot today and gave it everything I had.”

Date: January 12, 2005
Photos Courtesy of Jack Waterman