(Bill W) August 9, 2011 – Kyle Larson doesn’t consider himself a “non-wing” driver, but the Elk Grove, California 19 year old won’t convince the fans who have seen him in action lately. His latest win came at the Casey’s General Stores Ultimate Challenge presented by Searsboro Telephone Company at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa Tuesday night.
Larson hooked up with the Hoffman Racing #69 team and it immediately paid dividends as the winner of last week’s Belleville Midget Nationals swept his heat, his qualifier and the 30-lap main event handing the team their first win since May of 2010. The wait was worth it as the win paid $15,000.
Starting outside of row one, Larson took the early lead in the feature beating fellow front row starter, Robert Ballou, to the low side of turn one. With two laps in the books, Justin Grant took a nasty set of flips down the backstretch bringing out the red flag. He was uninjured. At the time, Larson led Ballou, Brady Bacon, Dave Darland and Levi Jones back to green flag racing.
Bacon moved by Ballou into second on lap three, and slowly reeled in the leader. On lap fourteen, as Larson was riding the high side of turns three and four, Bacon found the rubber on the low side to shoot by.
Dustin Morgan brought out the second red flag period of the race with sixteen laps in the books when he flipped hard into the turn three wall. Morgan was taken in for observation. Ten teams took the open red flag opportunity to change rear tires and go the rear of the field. Those driver included third place running Ballou, fifth place Jerry Coons Jr., sixth place Jones, and eighth place driver, Chris Windom.
Bryan Clauson who was slated to start in row two, elected to take a challenge to start at the back paying $5,000 to win, $1,000 for a top three, and $100 per car passed. He elected to change tires as well.
Once the lineup was set, Bacon was out front leading Larson, Darland, Hunter Schuerenberg and Shane Cottle back to green flag racing. Larson shot around Bacon and shut the door heading low into turn one on the restart. When he slid high, Bacon briefly took it back, but Larson carried his momentum into turn three to reclaim the point for good.
Larson seemed to be cruising to victory before seeing a caution fly after he saw the white flag. Clauson had suffered a flat tire and went pitside. Larson held off Bacon on the green, white, checker finish to claim his first Ultimate Challenge win.
Bacon was second, followed by Darland, Cottle and Coons, up from changing a tire. Schuerenberg, Coleman Gulick, Tracy Hines, Hud Cone and Damion Gardner rounded out the top ten.
Hoosier Right Rear Tires were awarded to heat and qualifier winners. The lucky drivers included Larson (2), Clauson, Ballou, Bacon, Jones, Windom and Darland. A foot race was contested by the winners, with Bacon coming out on top and winning a new Winters rear-end valued at $2,000. Cottle picked up a set of Schoenfeld Headers for winning the B, and a KSE Steering Pump for Keith Hutton Hard-Charger honors in the main event. Numbers were drawn during the driver’s meeting for two left rear Hoosier Tires (Gary Taylor and Larson) and 1000 Autograph cards from DriverWebsites.com (Tony Everhart). Don Droud Jr. picked up $100 from John Lemon for being the first non-qualifier in the B.
10th Annual Ultimate Challenge Results
A main (started), 30 laps: 1. 69, Kyle Larson, Elk Grove, CA (2) 2. 99, Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow, OK (3) 3. 21x, Dave Darland, Lincoln, IN (6) 4. 11, Shane Cottle, Kokomo, IN (16) 5. 2B, Jerry Coons Jr., Tucson, AZ (7) 6. 35, Hunter Schuerenberg, Sikeston, MO (8) 7. 14, Coleman Gulick, Binghamton, NY (11) 8. 4, Tracy Hines, New Castle, IN (18) 9. 21, Hud Cone, Oakland City, IN (19) 10. 71, Damion Gardner, Concord, CA (21) 11. 81, Robert Ballou, Rocklin, CA (1) 12. 5x, Chris Windom, Canton, IL (13) 13. 20, Levi Jones, Olney, IL (4) 14. 53, Jon Stanbrough, Avon, IN (14) 15. 37, Casey Riggs, Shelbyville, IN (12) 16. 10T, Bill Rose, Plainfield, IN (22) 17. 7K, Gary Taylor, Houma, LA (23) 18. 71P, Mike Spencer, Temecula, CA (20) 19. 27, Keith Bloom Jr., Anderson, CA (10) 20. 29, Bud Kaeding, Campbell, CA (5) 21. 10, Blake Fitzpatrick, West Terre Haute, IN (15) 22. 7, Bryan Clauson, Noblesville, IN (24) 23. 2x, Dustin Morgan, Owasso, OK (9) 24. 40, Justin Grant, Bloomington, IN (17). Lap Leaders: Larson 1-13, Bacon 14-16, Larson 17-30. Keith Hutton Hard-Charger Award: Cottle.
Heat one (started), 8 laps: 1. Bryan Clauson (6) 2. Mike Spencer (4) 3. Hud Cone (3) 4. Coleman Gulick (8) 5. Tracy Hines (5) 6. Justin Grant (1) 7. 1x, Don Droud Jr., Lincoln, NE (7) 8. 1, Mitch Wissmiller, Saybrook, IL (2)
Heat two (started), 8 laps: 1. Robert Ballou (4) 2. Casey Riggs (1) 3. Hunter Schuerenberg (3) 4. Jerry Coons Jr. (7) 5. Shane Cottle (5) 6. Gary Taylor (2) 7. 3*, Joey Moughan, Springfield, IL (8) 8. Bill Rose (6)
Heat three (started), 8 laps: 1. Brady Bacon (2) 2. Jon Stanbrough (1) 3. Levi Jones (3) 4. Dustin Morgan (5) 5. Damion Gardner (7) 6. 23s, Stu Snyder, Waverly, NE (4) 7. 2, Daron Clayton, Sikeston, MO (6) 8. 83, Wes McIntyre, McCordsville, IN (8)
Heat four (started), 8 laps: 1. Kyle Larson (2) 2. Keith Bloom Jr. (3) 3. Bud Kaeding (7) 4. Dave Darland (5) 5. Blake Fitzpatrick (1) 6. Chris Windom (4) 7. 55, Tony Everhart, El Cajon, CA (6)
Qualifier one (started, *qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Kyle Larson (5*) 2. Hunter Schuerenberg (3*) 3. Jerry Coons Jr. (4*) 4. Bryan Clauson (6*) 5. Damion Gardner (2) 6. Joey Moughan (1) 7. Don Droud Jr. (7) 8. Wes McIntyre (8)
Qualifier two (started, *qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Levi Jones (3*) 2. Robert Ballou (6*) 3. Tracy Hines (2) 4. Justin Grant (7) 5. Casey Riggs (4*) 6. Bill Rose (8) 7. Stu Snyder (1) 8. Mike Spencer (5)
Qualifier three (started, *qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Chris Windom (1*) 2. Dustin Morgan (3*) 3. Shane Cottle (2) 4. Bud Kaeding (6*) 5. Jon Stanbrough (4*) 6. Coleman Gulick (5*) 7. Daron Clayton (7) 8. Mitch Wissmiller (8)
Qualifier four (started, *qualified for feature), 8 laps: 1. Dave Darland (3*) 2. Blake Fitzpatrick (2*) 3. Brady Bacon (6*) 4. Keith Bloom Jr. (5*) 5. Gary Taylor (1) 6. Hud Cone (4) 7. Tony Everhart (7)
B main (started), 12 laps: 1. Shane Cottle (2) 2. Justin Grant (3) 3. Tracy Hines (1) 4. Hud Cone (6) 5. Mike Spencer (5) 6. Damion Gardner (4) 7. Bill Rose (8) 8. Gary Taylor (7) / 9. Don Droud Jr. (10) 10. Joey Moughan (9) 11. Stu Snyder (12) 12. Wes McIntyre (13) 13. Tony Everhart (11) 14. Mitch Wissmiller (14) DNS – Daron Clayton