Kyle Larson’s hope of following up last week’s Chili Bowl win with a triumph in Australia’s prestigious Grand Annual Sprint Car Classic fell far short Sunday.
Larson’s bid to race his way into the 24-car finals of the three-day race at Premier Speedway in Warrnambool, Australia, ended when he flipped (uninjured) on the opening lap of a last-chance qualifying heat race earlier in the evening.
#DVDownUnder REPLAY: @KyleLarsonRacin's luck
— DIRTVision (@dirtvision) January 26, 2020
at @SungoldStadium continues to not be on his side as he ends up upside-down in Turn 1 during tonight's Heat Race 8. #48GASC pic.twitter.com/0s2hXTkeD7
Instead of being one of the featured drivers in the Classic’s 40-lap finale – the largest and most popular sprint car race of the year in the land down under – Larson was left to watch the event from the pits and cheer on Dyson Motorsport teammate and fellow American Carson Macedo.
Even that didn’t go very well, as Macedo flipped his own sprint car on the first lap of the Classic, resulting in a last-place finish. The highest finishing American was Cory Eliason, who ended up fourth.
Meanwhile, it was an all-Australian podium, with James McFadden winning the Classic for the second time in his career, followed by James Veal and Kerry Madsen.
In eight days, Larson went from capturing what he called the biggest win ever of his racing career on all levels – the Chili Bowl in his 13th try last Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma – to nothing but bad luck and utter frustration throughout his Australian journey.
Larson’s first race on Wednesday in the King’s Challenge at Borderline Speedway was rained out.
Then, in the first night of the Classic on Friday, Larson wrecked heavily in his first heat race, including flipping (he was uninjured). After his team repaired his car, Larson went back on the track, only to suffer a blown engine that knocked him out of contention to race in that evening’s feature event.
After not being on the schedule to race in Night 2 of the Classic on Saturday, Larson had one last chance to make Sunday’s featured championship event.
A total of 80 drivers battled it out in the B, C and D Mains for the eight remaining spots in the A Main, but Larson would end up not being one of those -- as can be seen in the second line of the following tweet by his team:
Feature lineups for #48GASC at @SungoldStadium — @carson_macedo will lineup seventh in B-Main 2.
— Shop Kyle Larson (@ShopKyleLarson) January 26, 2020
20-laps | Top four transfer to the A@KyleLarsonRacin is done for the night. pic.twitter.com/xtgX1facUR
Larson now returns to the United States to prepare for the Daytona 500 on February 16.
