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Larson Third in Chico 360 Fall Nationals
Chico, CA - October 1 & 2, 2010. Elk Grove, California’s Kyle Larson raced to a third place finish in the 19th annual edition of the Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals for 360 sprint cars Saturday at Silver Dollar Speedway. The season ending event at the Chico speedplant saw both ends of the two night affair going to Tim Kaeding, with Larson garnering fourth in the opener.
Friday’s preliminary night had 54 cars take time trials and Larson stopped the clocks with 14th fast time. From his starting spot outside the first row of heat number four Larson drove away to a convincing win over Mike Henry and 2010 Civil War champion Andy Forsberg.
The invert four take four heat race format rewarded the top two finishers in each heat with placement into each nights dash. The two fastest qualifiers who finished in third or fourth in their heat were added to the top pair from each of the five heats to make up a twelve car dash that determined the first six rows of the feature.
An eight inversion was drawn the first night with Larson just missing a pole starting assignment. On a very tacky and narrow track Larson started ninth and finished there as Kaeding sped to the win in the eight lapper from outside the front row.
Kaeding powered ahead of Jimmy Trulli as the 30 lap headliner got underway while Larson held onto ninth on the still hard to pass surface. The first move forward for the Stadelhofer Construction/Peppermill Casino/Kaeding Performance machine finally happened on lap five as Larson got by both Henry and Willie Croft.
On lap seven Larson made his way past Herman Klein to take over sixth and two laps later got the best of Andy Gregg to advance to fifth. Larson held steady in fifth until fourth running Trulli dropped from the race on lap 18.
At that point Larson trailed Kaeding, Steven Tiner and Jonathan Allard with heavy lapped traffic looming ahead. As Kaeding found it nearly impossible to overtake the lappers the top four gradually gathered together for an exciting finish.
With two laps to go Allard made his way past Tiner and closed the gap on Kaeding as Larson looked for a way onto the podium. In a very close finish Kaeding held on to win by just over a tenth of a second as Allard, Tiner and Larson crossed the stripe just behind.
On Saturday the same format was utilized and this time Larson stopped the clocks at 10th quick in qualifying. Heat five saw Larson trail Tiner all the way to the checkered flag while also fending off repeated challenges from Kaeding in an exciting late race battle.
When the 10 inversion pill was drawn for the dash Larson’s prospects looked much brighter than the night before as he lined up fourth. In a dominating display Larson quickly drove to the front and pulled away to a comfortable advantage at the finish.
At the outset of the 40 lap feature Larson gained the top spot from fellow front row starter Robbie Whitchurch, with fifth starter Kaeding jumping up to third by the end of the first lap. By lap two Kaeding entered the fray for the lead as he got by Whitchurch, while defending Fall Nationals champ Sean Becker did the same a lap later to move into third.
Over the course of several early yellow flag periods Larson was able to hold the advantage over Kaeding although turns one and two were becoming very treacherous with large holes developing on the low side of the track. With the topside not conducive for passing everyone found themselves tip-toeing through the bottom hoping to not upset their cars.
Finally, on lap 14 Larson’s mount bounded through one of the holes in the south turn and before he could recover Kaeding slipped by to take over the lead. Just a lap earlier Jonathan Allard made his prescence known as a contender when he got by Becker.
As the last half of the race went non stop the trio at the front encountered heavy lapped traffic, which Kaeding used to his advantage to open a gap over Larson and Allard. On lap 31 Allard powered past the black number 99 of Larson and began to reel in Kaeding as traffic began to work in Allard’s favor.
But time ran out for Allard and Kaeding was able to score a narrow half second win and take his third Fall Nationals trophy. Larson held on for his second consecutive third place finish in the event, and his third top five in the last three years.
Summing up the race Larson said, “ I’m kind of disappointed right now. Starting on the pole I had high hopes of beating Tim because it seems like he’s just been killing all of us winning everything. My car began to get tight as the race went on and it became a handful trying to hold Tim off. But congratulations to him and his crew. I also want to congratulate Jonathan because I feel kind of bad for him. I probably held him up for a while when he could have been chasing down Tim for the win.”
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, Abreu Vineyards and All Star Performance.
For more information and news on 18-year-old Kyle Larson log onto www.kylelarsonracing.com .
Photos Courtesy of Shane Muir
Friday's main event, Larson starts 9th, finished 4th
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