COLBY COPELAND TAKES OPEN 500 PRELIM ACTION AT HIGH DESERT HUSTLE

RENO, NEVADA (December 31, 2024) – Colby Copeland of Roseville, Calif. returned to victory lane inside the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center, taking the Open 500 preliminary feature on Tuesday night to ring in the New Year at the 2nd Annual High Desert Hustle. The top-five finishers of the 30-lap feature locked in for Thursday’s $10,000 championship finale. Photo by Maxwell Patrick Imagery

The victory is Copeland’s fourth career preliminary win across three different divisions in just two editions of the event.

“I don’t think that there’s really any secret (to prelim success),” Copeland said. “The McClish guys – Brian and Mike – they bring a great piece. When you have a fast car, you qualify good, then you heat race good and you start in the front of the main. It all just kind of spirals, in a good way. It’s a lot of fun to race with them and hopefully we can have a good Thursday.”

Copeland and Keagan Medeiros of Bangor, Calif. led the two qualifying groups over a field of 85 Open 500 karts competing on the temporary dirt oval track. After ten heat races and four qualifiers, the duo found themselves as the top-two in points to be the front row starters for the 30-lap feature.

After two laps of side-by-side battling, Copeland swooped around the outside to take the lead. Medeiros then grabbed the lead back when the leaders split a spinning car in turn one, with Medeiros sneaking underneath for the top spot.

Medeiros bobbled on the exit of turn four on lap 18, allowing Copeland to answer back with a dive to the inside to take the re-take the lead.

Copeland paced Medeiros, James Edens of Petaluma, Calif., Angelo Cornet of Willows, Calif., and Ethan Lashley of Chico, Calif. across the finish line with the five drivers locking into the feature for Thursday’s finale.

Deegan Pochop of Gerber, Calif. claimed the 20-lap Box Stock feature. Pochop made a maneuver on the outside of Monday night’s Beginner Box Stock winner Ryder Matthews and never relinquished the top spot. Miles Boertje of Visalia, Calif., Matthews, opening night winner Braxton Moniz of Marysville, Calif., and Knox Reeves of Rio Linda, Calif. rounded out the top-five.

Parker Pedrotti of Redding, Calif. won the Beginner Box Stock feature, taking the lead after early leader Jaxson Evett of Visalia, Calif. was a part of a skirmish on lap eight.

Brody Robfogel finished second while Evett surged back to third place at the finish. Cason Gutierrez of Gridley, Calif. and Hudson O’Harrow of Portland, Oregon were the balance of the top-five finishers.

Open 500 preliminary action continues on New Year’s Day with a full field of competitors racing to earn points for Thursday’s finale. 250 and Cage Clones return for their second preliminaries as well. Cars are expected on the track by 2pm.

Daily tickets are $20 at the gate with children ages eight and under admitted free. All four nights are streamed live on www.fastfour.tv as well.

2nd Annual High Desert Hustle Results – December 31, 2024 Second Preliminary Night

OPEN 500

A Main (30 Laps): 1. 1M-Colby Copeland[1]; 2. 69K-Keagan Medeiros[2]; 3. 52-James Edens[3]; 4. 55X-Angelo Cornet[6]; 5. 13E-Ethan Lashley[8]; 6. 14-Ren Eberhart[7]; 7. 55D-Dawson Hammes[14]; 8. 9C-Connor Bell[16]; 9. 33H-Christian Hickman[15]; 10. 88M-Kelan Ramsey[13]; 11. 22C-Carly Holmes[9]; 12. 69-Carson Sousa[4]; 13. 77J-Jayce Hudson[10]; 14. 2X-Brody Petrie[5]; 15. 18K-Kayden Williams[11]; 16. 78-Ryan Hirschbock[12]

BOX STOCK

A Main (20 Laps): 1. 06D-Deegan Pochop[2]; 2. 57M-Miles Boertje[3]; 3. 56-Ryder Matthews[1]; 4. 22W-Braxton Moniz[6]; 5. 69K-Knox Reeves[8]; 6. 96-Zane Ritcheson[14]; 7. 11B-Brayden Kidd[12]; 8. 21K-Kamber Worley[16]; 9. 3A-Hunter Wood[11]; 10. 421-Maison Mockridge[15]; 11. 21-Sawyer Vanpool[5]; 12. 5F-Beau Faulkner[7]; 13. 27-Ayden James Siaz[4]; 14. 33H-Bryson Humphries[9]; 15. 5-Luke White[10]; 16. 57-Mason Evans[13]

BEGINNER BOX STOCK

A Main (20 Laps): 1. 5P-Parker Pedrotti[3]; 2. 4B-Brody Robfogel[2]; 3. 35-Jaxson Evett[1]; 4. 5C-Cason Gutierrez[9]; 5. 41-Hudson O’Harrow[10]; 6. 5T-Tucker Ford[4]; 7. 27-Blake Rollag[14]; 8. 08-Ridley Kamisky[8]; 9. 67-Ryder Matthews[7]; 10. 5X-Rambo Johnson[13]; 11. 78P-Paizleigh Lopez[15]; 12. 35W-Kruize Whitener[16]; 13. 60M-Weston Murphy[12]; 14. 5N-Nixon Soiland[5]; 15. 17-Beau Helberg[11]; 16. 10-Wyatt Luker[6]