Braxton Foster of Redding, Calif., age 11, stormed to an impressive feat on Thursday night when he swept both the 250 Intermediate and Open 500 championships to conclude the 2nd Annual High Desert Hustle in Reno, NV. Foster’s lucrative victories in the world’s richest Outlaw Kart race netted him $13,000 in winnings including the $10,000 Open 500 grand prize.
“It was pretty gnarly. It was fun though,” Foster said. “It is cool being a winner. This is a hard race track to win at. My starts weren’t that good and the car was bogging down (in 500). My family was so hyped and it was so cool.”
245 Outlaw Kart entries competed in Thursday’s finale across five divisions. Open 500 led the way with 88 participants from across the United States in action. Non-Wing competed on Monday as well with Evan Gularte claiming that championship.
Foster earned the pole position for the Open 500 nightcap on the temporary dirt oval. He earned the dominating win in the dash race for the top ten locked in drivers after three nights of preliminary action. Foster slotted alongside Roseville, Calif.’s Colby Copeland for the 40-lap feature.
Copeland slipped back to fourth by lap nine, behind Connor Mewhirter of Redding, Calif. and Rio Oso’s Landon Brooks. Mewhirter hounded Foster on each successive restart, showing his nose on the inside on several occasions on the front stretch to no avail.
Foster stretched his lead out to a couple of car lengths over the final five laps, topping Mewhirter, Brooks, Copeland, and Casey McClain at the finish.
The 250 Intermediate division arguably stole the show on the championship night. Foster and Paradise, Calif.’s Brody Reinolds went back-and-forth in a thrilling dash race, with Foster getting the edge to earn the pole for the 30-lap feature.
Reinolds snookered Foster at the drop of the feature green flag, swooping around the outside to lead lap one. A red flag on lap 12 gave Foster an opportunity to answer back. Foster looked high on the outside of the front stretch but the hole closed. On the following lap, Foster crossed over in turn four to the inside to lead lap 15.
Braxton Foster led the final 15 laps for the 250 Intermediate victory followed by Reinolds, Rio Linda’s Logan Reeves, Diggy Tellez of Valley Springs, Calif., and Mikie Mora of Atwater, Calif.
The Cage Clone feature was controlled by Carson Souza of Red Bluff, but the race saw a flip in turn four halt the action with just two laps to go. Souza held court over the final restart, topping preliminary winner Drew Landgren of Vacaville, Calif., Athens, Texas’ Case Harris, Keagan Medeiros of Bangor, Calif., and Carson Hammes of Marysville, Calif.
An emotional Deegan Pochop of Gerber, Calif. claimed the 30-lap Box Stock feature. Pochop led wire-to-wire for the victory. Zane Ritcheson held down the second position for most of the race. Preliminary feature winner Braxton Moniz of Marysville finished third followed by Maison Mockridge of Grants Pass, Oregon and Sawyer Vanpool of Cottonwood, Calif.
The youngest drivers in the High Desert Hustle participated in the Beginner Box Stock division in a 25-lap feature with Visalia’s Jaxson Evett claiming the coveted victory. Ryder Matthews swept the preliminary competition on Monday and comfortably won Thursday’s dash for the pole position for the feature. Tuesday preliminary winner Parker Pedrotti of Redding, Calif. crashed on lap 11. On the restart, Evett pounced to take the top spot away from Matthews. Evett led Matthews, Nixon Soiland of Suisun City, Calif., Blake Rollag of Caldwell, Idaho, and Kruize Whitener of Seymour, Texas at the finish line.
All six champions celebrated after the races with their winner’s checks and slot machine trophies.
Complete race results can be found on www.MyRacePass.com
2nd Annual High Desert Hustle Results – January 2, 2025 Championship Night
OPEN 500
A Main (40 Laps): 1. 51-Braxton Foster[1]; 2. 14M-Connor Mewhirter[3]; 3. 60L-Landon Brooks[4]; 4. 1M-Colby Copeland[2]; 5. 02-Casey McClain[5]; 6. 55X-Angelo Cornet[7]; 7. 69K-Keagan Medeiros[10]; 8. 88M-Kelan Ramsey[13]; 9. 321-Parker Mockridge[16]; 10. 14-Ren Eberhart[14]; 11. 52-James Edens[8]; 12. 14R-Rowdy Gramps[15]; 13. 13E-Ethan Lashley[9]; 14. 18T-Tanner Holmes[11]; 15. 9C-Connor Bell[6]; 16. 33H-Christian Hickman[12]
250 INTERMEDIATE
A Main (30 Laps): 1. 51-Braxton Foster[1]; 2. 24JR-Brody Reinolds[2]; 3. 69-Logan Reeves[7]; 4. 17-Diggy Tellez[10]; 5. 55-Mikie Mora[13]; 6. 229-Logan Pike[15]; 7. 88K-Kinser Bell[6]; 8. 53-Carrie Osborne[3]; 9. 8J-Jarrett Dickson[9]; 10. 18K-Kayden Williams[16]; 11. 08-Deakon Kamisky[4]; 12. 3F-Ghage Scott[5]; 13. 4B-Bentley Nelson[14]; 14. 29-Cole Croft[8]; 15. 43K-Landon King[11]; 16. 95-Brayden Jenner[12]
CAGE CLONE
A Main (30 Laps): 1. 01-Carson Sousa[2]; 2. 18X-Drew Landgren[8]; 3. 77-Case Harris[11]; 4. 69-Keagan Medeiros[1]; 5. 56C-Carson Hammes[10]; 6. 8V-Colby Copeland[4]; 7. 55D-Darin Spencer[12]; 8. 83SA-Tanner Pettit[6]; 9. 20-Nick Sagmiller[9]; 10. 64-Elijah Jones[3]; 11. 00-John Tevis[16]; 12. 71-Brian Lawson[5]; 13. 7D-Kodie Dean[13]; 14. 8C-Anissa Curtice[14]; 15. 2-Sarah Kavert[7]; 16. 5V-Andy Vanornum[15]
BOX STOCK
A Main (30 Laps): 1. 06D-Deegan Pochop[2]; 2. 96-Zane Ritcheson[3]; 3. 22W-Braxton Moniz[1]; 4. 421-Maison Mockridge[7]; 5. 21-Sawyer Vanpool[9]; 6. 3A-Hunter Wood[8]; 7. 57M-Miles Boertje[5]; 8. 56-Ryder Matthews[4]; 9. 69K-Knox Reeves[13]; 10. 21K-Kamber Worley[6]; 11. 5-Luke White[16]; 12. 4-Ryder Davis[12]; 13. 14E-Brody Stivers[14]; 14. 33H-Bryson Humphries[10]; 15. 11B-Brayden Kidd[15]; 16. 35-Jaxson Evett[11]
BEGINNER BOX STOCK
A Main (25 Laps): 1. 35-Jaxson Evett[4]; 2. 67-Ryder Matthews[1]; 3. 5N-Nixon Soiland[8]; 4. 27-Blake Rollag[7]; 5. 35W-Kruize Whitener[16]; 6. 4B-Brody Robfogel[5]; 7. 5C-Cason Gutierrez[10]; 8. 01-Ryker Fields[13]; 9. 5P-Parker Pedrotti[3]; 10. 20-Brexton Matthews[14]; 11. 5X-Rambo Johnson[9]; 12. 23-Josh Spatola[11]; 13. 5T-Tucker Ford[2]; 14. LIL45-Cole Smith[12]; 15. 41-Hudson O’Harrow[6]; 16. 08-Ridley Kamisky[15]
High Desert Hustle PR
