Hotter Than The Weather, Kyle Larson Shows The Way At Grandview

Column By: NICK FILLMAN / RPW – BECHTELSVILLE, PA – For the third straight night Kyle Larson and the Paul Silva “Finley Farms Special” team entered the pit area for competition during the annual Pennsylvania Sprint car Speedweek and left as winners.

Larson has been on quite the streak lately. He’s won his last six starts behind the wheel of a 410 sprint car, collecting one World of Outlaws win, two wins during Ohio Sprint week which fall under All Star Circuit of Champions Sanctioning, and now three wins during PA Speed Week. This is an accomplishment that many drivers wish they could have under their belts.

Larson started out fast Tuesday night at Grandview, quickly moving from his fourth place starting spot to get to the lead. He traded sliders with Greg Hodnett before the two would come together leaving Hodnett with a collapsed front end.

From that caution forward, Larson would be relatively uncontested at the front of the field until after the red flag / open red period following a flip from fellow California driver Tyler Walker.

Once racing resumed, the fastest car on the track had appeared to be Ryan Smith, who was slicing his way through the field quickly closing in on Larson. The leader was mired in lapped traffic.

Smith was able to get to the tail tank of Larson’s car and pass him going down the backstretch before heartbreak set in, Smith tagged the wall entering turn three, sending the Wako Paints 94 car into a series of flips and ending his chance at victory.

From then on, it was smooth sailing as Larson would go on to collect the victory over a hard-charging Freddie Rahmer. Rahmer has been having quite a season, and PA Speedweek, collecting three victories at the Williams Grove Speedway where he is leading the points. He also has a win at Lincoln where he is sixth in points, not to mention he’s the current Speedweek point leader.

Rahmer worked his way up to the front of the field from his 18th starting position and appeared to have something for Larson if he could have had more laps. However, it was not in the cards on Tuesday night.

Danny Dietrich is always a threat to win wherever he goes behind the wheel of the Gary Kauffman owned 48 machine. Coming off of a successful stint with USAC in the Tom Buch 13, as well as a brief trip to Ohio, Dietrich has been consistent all week so far and will be one of the drivers contending for the speedweek crown.

Fourth place when to a driver that would call his home track the Grandview Speedway, as his shop is located nearby. Ryan Taylor, a former weekly modified campaigner at the speedway, has been a track regular at the Port Royal Speedway for the past few years.

This season, Taylor has been running a more sporadic schedule, picking and choosing which races he go to. He was tremendous all night Tuesday, running in the top five, battling with some of the best when it comes to winged 410 sprint car racing.

Rounding out the top five was Alan Krimes, who always ends up finding a way to get to the front of the field at Grandview. The former Lincoln Speedway track Champion had struggled in the early parts of the feature event, but as the laps went on, Krimes slowly and methodically worked his way into a well-earned fifth place.

The “Low Rider,” Dale Blaney, had a fantastic rebound in the feature event, working his way back up into a top ten finish (8th) following a spin in the early stages of the event. Blaney, who is in his first full-time season with the legendary Zemco Racing team, has started to find his groove coming off of a third place run at Lincoln and an eighth at Grandview.

For the second straight year, TJ Stutts set quick time in time trials at Grandview in Speedweek competition, but the finish didn’t represent what the team deserved.

Stutts made an amazing move on an earlier restart to go from fifth to second in one corner and was in pursuit of Larson before another caution flew. This time, Stutts went to the outside again, going three wide with Ryan Taylor in the middle and Rico Abreu on the bottom. Abreu came up the track and was not clear of Stutts. The two made contact, collapsing the front end on the Stutts’ #11 machine, ending what was sure to be a great run.

Australia has been well represented during PA Speedweek by five drivers…four of which were at Grandview on Tuesday night. The best finishing Aussie driver was James McFadden, who was able to collect a sixth place finish after putting on a show battling with Danny Dietrich, Freddie Rahmer and Ryan Smith.

McFadden is one of the top drivers in Australia and regularly follows the World Series of Sprint cars tour which travels all over the country. Mitch Wormall, Jordyn Brazier, and Sean Zemunik finished 14th, 15th, and 16th respectively.

Sammy Walsh, another of the top drivers from Australia who is a usual front runner at the Valvoline Raceway in Sydney, was not in attendance as the team was changing cars after running Ohio Sprintweek and the first few shows of PA Speedweek with the same car. The Aero Flow 92a machine planned to be back in action Wednesday night at Hagerstown.