Also Wins Red Bull Driver Search Preliminary Event
Medford, OR and Chico, CA - ParkerStore driver Kyle Larson had one of the best weekends of his young career as he won three of the four outlaw sprint kart features he contested and also won the regional qualifier for the Red Bull Driver Search that is hoping to send an American driver to Formula One.
Friday, Larson ventured six hours north from his Elk Grove, California base of operations to compete in the opening event at the Jackson County Sports Park in Medford, Oregon. He raced in the 125cc and Open Intermediate divisions and set third fast time in both. He drove his QRC Factory Banke powered kart from third starting to an easy win in the 125cc heat race and then settled for fifth in the open intermediate heat.
In the 125 main Larson started third and quickly moved into second behind leader Riley Gomes. He shadowed Gomes for 10 laps until two karts spun in turn four. As Medford is a track that races to the yellow, Gomes went high to avoid the stopped duo, while Larson went low in an attempt to beat Gomes to the yellow flag. However, Larson clipped the inside berm and began a series of end over end flips. Luckily, the little driver was not injured and the kart amazingly had very little damage, including the wing intact and untouched. He did exit the race though as his right front tire absorbed most of the impact and deflated.
Larson then jumped into the 500cc open intermediate and started on the pole of the A-main. Outside front row starter Jonny Lentz got the jump at the start but bobbled coming out of turn two of lap two and Larson was there to seize the lead. Larson went on to lead the rest of the race and won by a straightaway.
Saturday, Larson headed back to California to open the point season at Cycleland Speedway just south of Chico. Larson raced his 250cc four stroke Predator motored kart in the 125/250 intermediate division and qualified fastest (11.545) of the 32 karts present. Larson started sixth in the dash and was running fourth with two laps to go. Coming to the white flag Larson moved into third. In turn three of the last lap Larson passed Dillon Silverman for second and carried the momentum around Chase Hill out of turn four to get the exciting win.
The main event saw Larson start fifth. He was up to second by lap four and began reeling in leader Tyler Reddick. The duo opened a nearly half lap lead on the rest of the field as they began a high speed chase through lapped traffic. On lap 12 Reddick went low in turn two and allowed his kart to spin as Larson motored by. After a lap 22 restart Larson opened a sizable lead and won over Mason Moore.
In the 500cc open intermediate kart Larson used his Grandpa George powerplant to lead 27 qualifiers with an 11.202. He followed that with a fourth place finish in the trophy dash. He started the A-main in seventh and moved into third on the first lap. On lap seven Larson went under Sean Sheppard to take over second and took the lead from impressive newcomer Nick Soto on lap nine. Larson went on to open a sizable lead and won his third feature event of the weekend.
On Sunday Larson competed in the Red Bull Driver Search finals at RPM - Indoor Kart Racing www.raceplacemotorsports.com and won over some very talented road course kart drivers. He competed against 15 other hopefuls with only the top three able to advance to the next round. He broke the all time track record (they combined the 2 tracks into 1 big track) by 1/2 second. He now holds 2 of the 3 track records there.
Larson had this to say about the memorable weekend, “Well, it’s kind of funny because of all the races I ran this weekend the one that I thought I would have the best chance to win is the one I flipped in. But it felt good to get two wins with the 500cc kart because we’ve let a few get away lately in that division. But for this weekend the highlight is definitely winning the Red Bull Driver Search at RPM Sunday night. That’s a pretty big event and I beat people who specialize in that kind of road course racing so that feels really special. The next round, the western finals, is at Infineon Raceway in August. But unfortunately, it’s the same week as the outlaw kart and sprint car nationals in Knoxville that we will be at for sure. Brent Webb, from RPM, is going to contact Red Bull to see if I can go to the eastern finals in Boston in July but I don’t know if we will be able to afford all that. But if we can work it out I’d sure love to try. It’s fun to race against people who don’t really know where you came from.”
Races: April 29, 2005 Medford, OR
April 30, 2005 Chico, CA
Photos Courtesy of Jack Waterman
