11-year-old Braxton Foster of Redding, Calif. scored an outstanding performance on Wednesday night at the 2nd Annual High Desert Hustle, winning the final preliminary feature for both the 250 Intermediate and Open 500 divisions at the temporary dirt oval at the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center.
The world’s richest Outlaw Kart event will decide its champions on Thursday night, with Foster locked in to battle for $10,000 in the Open class and $3,000 in the 250 division.
Foster and Hanford, Calif’s Connor Bell led the two groups of Open qualifying, with 83 entries on hand. Foster’s runner-up in his heat race and win in the first qualifier earned himself the pole for the 30-lap preliminary feature.
Foster led the feature wire-to-wire with fellow Redding driver Connor Mewhirter in pursuit throughout the event. Rio Oso’s Landon Brooks finished third. Inaugural High Desert Hustle third place finisher Casey McClain and Nevada’s Evan Gularte had a furious battle for fifth which ended with Gularte up against the front stretch wall and out of the race on lap 16.
Bell finished fourth followed by McClain. Inaugural High Desert Hustle $10,000 winner Tanner Holmes of Jacksonville, Oregon narrowly missed out on locking into Thursday’s dash and will have to drive into the show from the B-Main.
Cole Croft of Colfax was the high point car after qualifying and heat races for the 250 Intermediate division, but Foster managed to pass him at the start of the feature for the lead. Croft was then tangled up in two separate incidents and was unable to finish the race.
Logan Pike of Gridley, Calif. finished second followed by Brody Reinolds of Paradise, Calif., Kinser Bell of Hanford, Calif., and Kayden Williams of Minden, Nev. at the finish.
Elijah Jones of Paradise, Calif. utilized a backup car in the Cage Clone action but picked up the coveted preliminary victory. Royal Oaks, Calif.’s Carson Schnell started on the pole but was challenged on the inside by Kodie Dean of Chowchilla and others. Dean took over the lead, then Schnell pounded the front stretch wall to flip out of the event on lap nine.
Dean looked poised for victory but slowed to a stop under a lap 13 caution and was unable to finish. Tenth-starting Jones was up to second at that point. Jones dove underneath Keagan Medeiros of Bangor, Calif. in turn one to lead lap 17. The pass proved to be a decisive one. Darin Spencer of Corning, Calif. finished second followed by Brian Lawson of Grass Valley, Calif., 16th-starting Carson Hammes of Marysville, Calif., and Carson Souza of Red Bluff, Calif.
Open 500, 250 Intermediate, Cage Clone, Box Stock, and Beginner Box Stock will raise for the lucrative purse and coveted slot machine trophies in Thursday’s High Desert Hustle championship finale. Lower Mains action begins at approx. 2pm. Opening Ceremonies are set for 4:30pm, followed by dashes, C- and B-Mains, and the championship features.
Daily tickets are $20 at the gate with children ages eight and under admitted free. All four nights are streamed live on Fast Four Media as well.
2nd Annual High Desert Hustle Results – January 2, 2025 Third Preliminary Night
OPEN 500
1. 51-Braxton Foster[1]; 2. 14M-Connor Mewhirter[3]; 3. 60L-Landon Brooks[4]; 4. 9C-Connor Bell[2]; 5. 02-Casey McClain[7]; 6. 18T-Tanner Holmes[12]; 7. 76-Jennifer Osborne[14]; 8. 69-Carson Sousa[9]; 9. 31-Kinden Peacock[10]; 10. 55D-Dawson Hammes[11]; 11. 2PF-Max Mittry[8]; 12. 77J-Jayce Hudson[6]; 13. 14-Ren Eberhart[15]; 14. 17M-Evan Gularte[5]; 15. 88K-Kinser Bell[13]; 16. 88M-Kelan Ramsey[16]
250 INTERMEDIATE
A Main (20 Laps): 1. 51-Braxton Foster[2]; 2. 229-Logan Pike[6]; 3. 24JR-Brody Reinolds[3]; 4. 88K-Kinser Bell[7]; 5. 18K-Kayden Williams[11]; 6. 08-Deakon Kamisky[5]; 7. 69-Logan Reeves[14]; 8. 53-Carrie Osborne[9]; 9. 17-Diggy Tellez[16]; 10. 8J-Jarrett Dickson[13]; 11. 55-Mikie Mora[15]; 12. 43K-Landon King[8]; 13. 3F-Ghage Scott[4]; 14. 36-Blaine Walls[10]; 15. 29-Cole Croft[1]; 16. 44-Brandon Smith[12]
CAGE CLONE
A Main (20 Laps): 1. 64-Elijah Jones[10]; 2. 55D-Darin Spencer[14]; 3. 71-Brian Lawson[9]; 4. 56C-Carson Hammes[16]; 5. 01-Carson Sousa[7]; 6. 18X-Drew Landgren[4]; 7. 69-Keagan Medeiros[6]; 8. 55-Dawson Spencer[15]; 9. 20-Nick Sagmiller[3]; 10. 17J-Jensen Ternora[11]; 11. 7G-Guy Young[5]; 12. 83SA-Tanner Pettit[8]; 13. 7TSI-Taylor Simas[12]; 14. 7D-Kodie Dean[2]; 15. 5V-Andy Vanornum[13]; 16. 57-Carson Schnell[1]
High Desert Hustle PR
