CHICO, CA (9-7-12) - The Hoosier Racing Tires Civil War Sprint Car Series opened up the Gold Cup Race of Champions week in grand fashion Wednesday with the annual Pacific Sprint Cup event. This invitational event is open annually to the top 32 drivers in the series point standings and additional candidates thereafter if the roster is not filled prior to race day.

On this given year, race fans got the opportunity to see one of California's young racing stars return to the series where he claimed his first win in a sprint car several years ago. Elk Grove's Kyle Larson swept the field Wednesday night to take home the win aboard the locally owned Finley Farms #77 sprint car

Wednesday race saw series point leader Andy Forsberg take the intial lead with Elk Grove native Kyle Hirst in his wake and Larson setting his sights on his prey from the third place starting position. With just nine laps complete in the 30-lapper, Larson muscled his way around Hirst for the second position one lap before a caution period presented a single file restart and the moment Forsberg dreaded with Larson on his tail to take the green flag.

Powering his way out of the fourth turn, Larson gained momentum to overtake Forsberg for the lead he would never relinquish and quickly worked his way into lapped traffic. Forsberg managed to maintain the second position to the finish line over Hirst who completed the podium finish.

"I have to thank the Ford family and Finley family for giving me the chance to race tonight," said Larson, who has recently been making headlines as he works his way up the ranks competing in NASCAR.. "The bottom of the track was good tonight and dI just kept trying to hit my marks."

With his second place finish, Forsberg maintains the Civil War Series point lead heading into the second to last event of the year next Saturday in Petaluma. Although he settled as a bridesmaid for the event, the six time series champion was honored to race again with the young driver that got his start racing sprint cars with Forsberg at Placerville and the Civil War Series.

"The big problem I had tonight is Kyle Larson is too good and I'm not," commented Forsberg. "We better enjoy watching him race here this weekend because pretty soon we're going to be watching him on tv every Sunday afternoon."

Following Wednesday's event, Forsberg now has a 32-point lead over Colfax driver Colby Wiesz in the Civil War point standings. Former Champion Greg DeCaires is 44 points back in third place ahead of Princeton's Mason Moore and Herman Klein of Sacramento. Stephen Allard of Cameron Park is one spot out of the top five over Bradley Terrell, Hirst and Chase Johnson.

The Civil War Sprint Car Series will now head to Petaluma Speedway next Saturday, September 15th for the penultimate event of the season. For further information and complete statistics of Wednesday's race visit www.civilwarsprints.com.