Chico, CA – After winning two of three divisions at the Knoxville Outlaw Dirt Kart Nationals ParkerStore driver Kyle Larson returned to his home base of Northern California in hopes of regaining the point lead he lost to Keith Bloom in the 500cc Open Intermediate division while taking a racing vacation in the Midwest. In a hard fought drive Larson did just that by winning his eighth main event in the division this season at Cycleland, while Bloom had misfortune strike, ending his hopes on lap 2. In the Intermediate 125/250cc division Larson finished second to Knoxville 250 Champion Mason Moore who chipped away some at the ParkerStore pilots point lead.

In the Intermediates 125/250 Larson qualified fastest of the 27 karts assembled at 10.916.He started sixth in the inverted dash and drove his ParkerStore/Predator Motors/QRC Factory kart to third at the checkered. The finish lined Larson seventh on the feature grid and the tacky track made passing difficult as Larson was still seventh until lap nine. While Jake Cartwright led from the start Larson began to move forward in the last half of the race. On lap ten he moved to fourth, passing Colby Copeland for the spot. Lap 16 found Larson moving in front of third runner Cole Peard. Moore had gone by Cartwright to take the lead on lap 14 and Larson did the same to take over second on the final lap, finishing 1.161 seconds behind Moore.

The 500cc Open Intermediate division saw Larson qualify his ParkerStore/Grandpa George Motors/QRC Factory Kart second behind Moore in a field of 29 karts. He lined up fifth in the trophy dash and moved to a second place finish to earn the sixth starting place in the A-main. Copeland led from the pole and looked to be heading to his first feature win at Cycleland, while Larson moved into third behind Moore on lap ten. Larson passed Moore on lap 12 and set his sights on Copeland. He then performed a perfect slide job in turn three and four of lap 17 to take the lead that he held to the lap 20 checkered.

After the races Larson touched on his evening of racing and said, “I needed to get the win with the 500 kart because Keith Bloom has been on my heels all season long. I lost the lead while we were vacationing at sprint car races at Eldora Speedway the week before Knoxville and I knew I had to have a good night tonight. I didn’t want to see Keith get the flat tire but we’ve both had good and bad nights. There are four point races left and now Mason has moved into the picture too so it should be fun to see who comes out on top. In the 250 Mason has been tough lately and he closed some ground on me tonight. I just need to keep getting top fives and hopefully the points will work out ok.”

Race: August 20, 2005
Photos Courtesy of Jack Waterman
www.kylelarsonracing.com