At the time of the first caution, Larson had climbed from 24th to 16th, but his night would come undone two laps after the restart, when he was swept up in a parking lot on the backstretch and suffered collateral left front damage that eliminated his No. 1k Stock Car Steel/SRI Performance/ProMoly QRC entry from the race.
Larson, who made up 11 spots before his early exit, shook his head in disappointment afterwards.
“I tried to be more patient this year as I was moving forward than I was last year, but (trouble) still managed to find us,” said Larson. “I thought I had it missed, but we just got enough damage to put us out. It’s unfortunate; this kart was super fast tonight.”
From there, four more caution flags waved before the game-changing moment of the race occurred on the 19th revolution, when Colwell shot out ahead of Seavey on the restart before his kart sputtered to a crawl on the backstretch with terminal issues.
The incident dropped Colwell out of contention for his first win in the Open at Millbridge.
“We were really good tonight,” lamented Colwell. “We were really strong last year, as well, and broke just after halfway. This year, we didn’t even make it to halfway. I was just trying to stay out front in case the weather came and stopped it early … and we just didn’t stay together that far.”
Seavey inherited the lead at that point, opening up more than a second over the field before the competition break at halfway and then nailing every restart in succession during the second half.
Despite rain that began falling with seven to go, Seavey held both Clash at the Creek winner Brandon LaChance and younger brother Logan at bay all the way to the twin checkers, crossing the line just under a second clear of the rest of the field.
The California sweep of the podium was followed by Tuesday night Outlaw winner Nick Hoffman, who came home fourth, and fourth-generation racer Karsyn Elledge, the granddaughter of Dale Earnhardt.
Jake Park, Blake Carrick, Carson Kvapil, Scott Chesterman and Kyle Craker rounded out the top 10.
In other feature racing, Brent Crews wired the 20-lap Intermediate class main event, firing off from the pole and leading all the way for his fourth victory of the season.
Caden Kvapil, Tyler Letarte, Dominic Gorden and Eli Adams completed the top five in a race that ended just before the skies opened up over the sixth-mile dirt oval, drenching the post-race proceedings.
The finish:
Tyler Seavey, Brandon LaChance, Logan Seavey, Nick Hoffman, Karsyn Elledge, Jake Park, Blake Carrick, Carson Kvapil, Scott Chesterman, Kyle Craker, Casey McClain, Brian Hubert, Daniel Whitley, Nick O’Dell, Colby Horn, Briley Pompe, Zach Daum, Tanner Holmes, Ryan Israel, Tom Hubert, Jesse Colwell, Colby Copeland, Kyle Larson, Holly Shelton.
