Kyle Larson Grabs Win Sunday Evening At Path Valley

Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / FRED RAHMER PROMOTIONS – SPRING RUN, PA – The Elk Grove, C.A. native, Kyle Larson, crossed a victory off of his bucket list Sunday evening at Path Valley Speedway for Fred Rahmer Promotions Pennsylvania Speedweek event in front of a standing room only crowd.

The fourth annual Fred Rahmer Promotions event at the ¼-mile dirt track marked night three for Pennsylvania Speedweek.

Tyler Walker and Brock Zearfoss led the 24-car field to the initial green flag for the 40-lap main event.

Right from the drop of the green Zearfoss quickly grabbed the lead as they dove into turn one and two over Walker as Walker scattered and fell back to fifth-place.

Zearfoss caught lap traffic on lap five as fourth-place starter, Larson, began to put pressure on his rear bumper.

Larson was able to take advantage of the lapped traffic and drive his car through multiple racing lanes to slide by Zearfoss for the lead on lap seven.

“Zearfoss was good all day,” Larson said. “Traffic was really intense. He got caught up in traffic and it got really tight in one and two. I got underneath him and just tried making sure I hit my marks.”

Sixth-place starter, Rico Abreu, began to real in on Zearfoss for second right before the second caution of the night waved on lap ten.

Kyle Moody, who started eighth, snuck under Wolfe on the backstretch and advanced to fourth-place on lap 18.

Pole starter, Walker, and Dan Shetler made contact and spun going into turn three on lap 19, bringing out the third caution of the night.

Larson led the field at the halfway mark over Zearfoos, Wolfe, Moody and Abreu.

At the checkers it was all Larson as he drove his No.57 sprint car to victory lane to pick up the $5,000 payday.

“It feels good,” smiled Larson in victory lane. “It’s been tough for me a few times when I’ve come out to Central PA. I know this isn’t your typical PA racetrack but I’m counting it as a win. Hats off to my crew. I honestly didn’t feel that good at the start of the feature but we got rolling pretty good. We got decent there late.”

Sunday evening was Larson’s first ever Central PA victory.

“It’s always tough when you come to PA,” he said. “To get a win here has been on my bucket list. I struggled here in 2012 and 2013 when I came out here so it’s cool to get a win on our first night of Speedweek. Hopefully we get some more. We have three more nights to get some wins.”

Runner up, Zearfoss, was bummed with his cars performance but was overall satisfied to finish second to Larson.

“We started out pretty good,” said Zearfoss. “I just need to get a little better in traffic. This is what Larson races on all the time so finishing second to him was pretty cool. I wish we could have beat him. I got under him a couple times there. Second place still isn’t bad though, so we’ll take it.

Wolfe in the No.24 sprint car capped off the evening with a third-place finish.

“It was an exciting feature,” said Wolfe. “With all of the holes in different spots it was hard to predict what was going to happen especially with fuel early. Everybody made it through the first couple of laps. There were certain spots in traffic where it was pretty tight. It got pretty racy the last 20-laps which gave me a few different options to move around. Fortunately we were able to salvage a different night here and come in third.”

The 600cc Micro Sprints were removed from the schedule after an incident on the track during their first heat race. The driver was treated by emergency personnel immediately according to safety protocol and was transported. The Rahmer family is hoping for the best for the injured driver.

The Micro Sprints will be rescheduled. The date has yet to be determined. Fred Rahmer noted that the purse will be bigger for the micros and hopes for an even bigger turnout.

Abreu collected an extra $700 courtesy of Emory Transmissions for the quick time award in time trials.

19th-place starter, Brian Montieth, picked up the hard charger award after passing twelve cars during the feature and finishing seventh. Montieth collected an extra $500 courtesy of Wayne S. Corini – CPA.

410 Sprint Car Quick Results

A-main – (40 laps) – 1. 57-Kyle Larson, 2. 3z-Brock Zearfoss, 3. 24-Lucas Wolfe, 4. 99-Kyle Moody, 5. 27-Greg Hodnett, 6. 48-Danny Dietrich, 7. 21-Brian Montieth, 8. 51-Freddie Rahmer, 9. 4-Kasey Kahne, 10. 25-Aaron Ott, 11. 92a-Sam Walsh, 12. 3c-James McFadden, 13. 11-TJ Stutts, 14. 33-Jared Esh, 15. 97w-Mitchell Wormell, 16. 39-Anthony Macri, 17. 24r-Rico Abreu, 18. 35-Tyler Walker, 19. 7k-Dan Shetler, 20. 2-AJ Flick, 21. 1-Dale Blaney, 22. 87-Alan Krimes, 23. 69k-Lance Dewease, 24. 55-Mike Wagner

B-Main 2 (10 laps) – 1. 97w-Mitchell Wormell, 2. 7k-Dan Shetler, 3. 07-Ryan Smith, 4. 8L-Kyle Lick, 5. 5-Justin Barger, 6. 44h-Joey Hershey, 7. 2c-Cory Thornton, 8. 17-George Streaker, 9. 16-Gerard Mcintyre, 10. 27g-Jay Galloway, 1. 86-George Streaker Sr,

B-Main 1 (10 laps) – 1. 55-Mike Wagner, 2. 92a-Sam Walsh, 3. 5t-Tyler Reeser, 4. 5-Tyler Ross, 5. 19d-Waytt Hinkle, 6. 44b-Dave Brown, 7. 23-Darren Pifer, 8. 44-Tray Starks, 9. 8-Billy Dietrich, 10. 12w-Troy Fraker, 11. 27z-Sean Zemunik, 12. 1-Ryan Fredericks

Heat 4 (10 laps) – 1. 99-Kyle Moody, 2. 69k-Lance Dewease, 3. 48-Danny Dietrich, 4. 33-Jared Esh, 5. 24-Lucas Wolfe, 6. 07-Ryan Smith, 7. 5-Justin Barger, 8. 44h-Joey Hershey, 9. 27g-Jay Galloway, 10. 2c-Cory Thornton, 11. 86-George Streaker Sr.

Heat 3 (10 laps) – 1. 39-Anthony Macri, 2. 87-Alan Krimes, 3. 57-Kyle Larson, 4. 11-TJ Stutts, 5. 2-AJ Flick, 6. 7k-Dan Shetler, 7. 97w-Mitchell Wormell, 8. 16-Gerard Mcintyre, 9. 8L-Kyle Lick, 10. 17-George Streaker, 11. 119-Chandler Leiby

Heat 2 (10 laps) – 1. 35-Tyler Walker, 2. 3c-James McFadden, 3. 51-Freddie Rahmer, 4. 27-Greg Hodnett, 5. 21-Brian Monteith, 6. 92q-Sam Walsh, 7. 5s-Mike Wagner, 8. 8-Billy Dietrich, 9. 27z-Sean Zemunik, 10. 19D-Waytt Hinkle, 11. 12w-Troy Fraker

Heat 1 (10 laps) – 1. 3x-Brock Zearfoss, 2. 25-Aaron Ott, 3. 4-Kasey Kahne, 4. 24r-Riceo Abreu, 5. 1-Dale Blaney, 6. 44-Tray Starks, 7. 5-Tyler Ross, 8. 5t-Tyler Reeser, 9. 44b-Dave Brown, 10. 23-Darren Pifer, 11. 1-Ryan Fredericks

Qualifying – 1. Rico Abreu, 9693; 2. Greg Hodnett, 9.727; 3. Kyle Larson, 9.730; 4. Lucas Wolfe, 9.789; 5. Brock Zearfoss; 9.813; 6. Freddie Rahmer, 9.852; 7. Anthony Macri, 9.901; 8. Jared Esh, 9.902; 9. Aaron Ott, 9.950; 10. Tyler Walker, 9.965; 11. Alan Krimes, 9.999; 12. Kyle Moody, 10.016; 13. Kasey Kahne, 10.017; 14. James McFadden, 10.032; 15. TJ Stuffs, 10.043; 16. Lance Dewease, 10.052; 17. Tray Starks, 10.073; 18. Mike Wagner, 10.103; 19. Mitchell Wormell, 10.105; 20. Jay Galloway, 10.125; 21. Dale Blaney, 10.141; 22. Sam Walsh, 10.148; 23. AJ Flick, 10.154; 24. Danny Dietrich, 10.156; 25. Tyler Reeser, 10.177; 26. Brian Monteith, 10.200; 27. Dan Shetler, 10.211; 28. Ryan Smith, 10.340; 29. Tyler Ross, 10.368; 30. Sean Zemunik, 10.368; 31. Gerard Mcntyre, 10.372; 32. Justin Barger, 10.409; 33. Darren Pifer, 10.493; 34. Billy Dietrich, 10.502; 35. Kyle Lick, 10.580; 36. Joey Hershey, 10.593; 37. Dave Brown, 10.643; 38. Waytt Hinkle, 10.758; 39. Chandler Leiby, 10.777; 40. Cory Thornton, 10.812; 41. Ryan Fredericks, 10.930; 42. Troy Fraker 11.219; 43. George Streaker, 11.721; 44. 86-George Streaker Sr., 12.201