RENO, Nev. — Eleven-year-old Braxton Foster scored an outstanding performance on Wednesday night at the second 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 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 Connor Mewhirter in pursuit throughout the event. Landon Brooks finished third. Inaugural High Desert Hustle third-place finisher Casey McClain and 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 narrowly missed out on locking into Thursday’s dash and will have to drive into the show from the B-Main.
Cole Croft 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 finished second followed by Brody Reinolds, Kinser Bell and Kayden Williams.
Elijah Jones utilized a backup car in the Cage Clone action but picked up the coveted preliminary victory. Carson Schnell started on the pole but was challenged on the inside by Kodie Dean 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 in turn one to lead lap 17. The pass proved to be a decisive one. Darin Spencer finished second followed by Brian Lawson, 16th-starting Carson Hammes and Carson Souza.
