2024 High Limit Racing International at Perth Motorplex

Kyle Larson Reflects On Winning Australia's Richest 410 Race At Perth

Kyle Larson Reflects On Winning Australia's Richest 410 Race At Perth

Kyle Larson won the $100,000 High Limit International at Perth Motorplex on Monday, the richest race in Australia Sprint Car history.

Dec 31, 2024 by Kyle McFadden
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Perth Motorplex and the Western Australian Sprint Car community won the heart of Kyle Larson this past weekend as High Limit International debuted at the state-of-the-art 3/8-mile oval.

After banking the richest Sprint Car payday ever in The Land Down Under, the $100,000 AUD victory in which he out-dueled Aussie fan favorite James McFadden, the 32-year-old Larson made his newfound love for the Perth facility known.

“This is probably one of the top-three best facilities, best racetracks. It might even be the best," Larson told High Limit pit reporter Tony LaPorta. "Again, thanks to (Perth Motorplex general manager) Gavin (Migro)and Perth Motorplex. I had a blast racing here this week. Hopefully next year I can come back and do it a little bit longer. That would be nice.”

"Gavin and their whole staff here does an amazing job, just with how organized and how everything is ran here is better than anything in the world that I’ve been to. They definitely have a great thing here and we want to be part of it as long as they want us.”

It was announced during Monday's broadcast of High Limit International that the series will indeed return to Perth Motorplex in 2025 with upped payouts of $110,000-to-win AUD in the finale and $15,000-to-win AUD prelims. Larson said "I would love to make this a tradition" when interviewed by the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series after Monday's race.

“I would like to, yeah. It’s hard to ever say with my schedule with how busy I get," Larson added. "But usually this time of year, at least this week, right after Christmas, I don’t have anything going on. I would love to make this a tradition. I love the trip. It was pretty smooth and easy to get here, and being with a great team in Jason Pryde and everybody on their team has been fun. He has such a great, great team. A great group of guys work on this car.”

Though Larson was "a bit jet-lagged," and though he wasn't his sharpest in Saturday's and Sunday's prelims, he "was pretty confident even after the main event on the first night" when he finished fourth from the 12th-starting spot.

"Got the wall (Sunday), but felt good about things (Monday)," Larson said. "Yeah, happy to get the win and happy to repay these guys after my mistake (Sunday) and all the hard work they’ve had to do."

Larson's key to victory Monday is his move from sixth to second in a matter of two laps. On the lap-six restart, Larson, restarting on the bottom, slipped from fourth to six. On the ensuing restart a lap later, Larson, still restarting on the bottom, timed the jump perfectly to slingshot from fourth into second.

“One of the restarts didn’t work out for me, but thankfully the next one did and I got right to second," Larson said. "I felt like I needed to pace James until he caught traffic. It’s tough being the leader. It’s tough being second, or any position at that point, because the track is changing. Then he started to run lower, and I was like, ‘Alright, this is my chance to build some momentum.’

"Once I got to second, which that restart worked really well, I felt like I needed to pace him and hopefully we’d catch lapped traffic," Larson added. "Then anything can happen once the pace slows down. He was doing a really, really good job in traffic, and I didn’t think I had enough time. He started really searching for different lines. I thought that was going to break his momentum up, which it did, and helped me build some runs. I was able to battle with him for a few laps to help me get wound back up top and help me pull away.”

Larson compared Perth Motorplex's progressively-banked, symmetrical 3/8-mile oval to New Mexico's Vado Raceway Park, saying Perth is "very, very similar to Vado, New Mexico, where I ran the Late Model there" at the Wild West Shootout in 2022-23.

Larson is racing High Limit Racing's April 1 event at Vado, so “I’m curious to see how that races compared to this."

The racing surface itself and complexion of dirt, meanwhile, reminded him of another very prominent black-dirt facility.

"I love this style of dirt. It changes so much. It’s a lot like (Iowa's) Knoxville (Raceway), you’re constantly scanning the track with your eyes to see where the grip is and see where the crumbs are," Larson continued.

“Yeah, I’ve wanted to come for a couple years," Larson added. "It just hasn’t worked out for me. It was neat to have High Limit be part of this event and me be able to come here for the first time. I thought it was a great event and great atmosphere. The crowd was bigger than I’d thought it’d be too. A great turnout. The pit area is a blast here and the racing is great. It has all the ingredients to make for a good show."