Bud Kaeding comes out on top of thrilling Golden State Challenge Series feature at Ocean Speedway Saturday night

Golden State Challenge

By Gary Thomas

Watsonville, CA – April 24, 2010…Putting to use his extensive experience across the country and many laps on slick and hard-packed surfaces, Campbell’s Bud Kaeding became the third different leader in the main event on Saturday night at Ocean Speedway and scored his first Golden State Challenge Series victory of the 2010 season.

The win for Kaeding was his seventh career GSC triumph and moved him into a tie with Jimmy Sills, Greg Decaires and Randy Hannagan for 12th on the all-time series win list. “This whole crew has worked their tails off for me and I can’t believe I’m standing up here again in victory lane for the second week in a row at this place,” said Kaeding, who also won a Taco Bravo Ocean 360 Sprints event the previous Friday at the track. “We’ve had our winged program working real good over the last year or so and to make it two in a row at our home track is great for this whole Kaeding Performance/BK Motorsports team.”

Extremely dry and difficult conditions were prevalent early in the night and forced track preparation crews to re-work the whole surface following the dash and it paid off, as a very racy surface was put together, which lent to some of the best racing seen this year. When the green flag came out in the feature drivers began to dice it up immediately, with pole sitter Brent Kaeding getting the jump and youngsters Kyle Larson and Zach Zimmerly duking it out for second. As the field rounded three and four for the initial time Zimmerly charged around Larson for second and gave a peak at taking the lead, but Kaeding was able to power off the bottom and maintain the top-spot.

Larson would then shoot back by Zimmerly just after that to re-claim second with Jonathan Allard following along in third. As the GSC point leader going into the night Allard made quick work from his third row starting spot and moved his way under Larson for second on lap two, before the top-three drivers ran nose-to-tail and side-by-side putting on a great show for the strong crowd on hand. With the trio running inches apart lap-after-lap Larson was finally able to get bite and slice back by Allard for second, but at the same time the yellow lights flashed on for Grass Valley’s Jason Statler on lap eight, who slowed to a stop with reported ignition issues. The caution saved Allard and allowed him to maintain second with Larson, Bud Kaeding and Zimmerly rounding out the top-five.

On the restart Allard continued to be all over Kaeding for the lead as he looked to find a way by the Al’s Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza No. 69, while at the same time also having to fend off Larson who remained stuck to his rear bumper. With the track starting to get black in spots and staying slick in some areas it created multiple lines for drivers to use and the action remained hot and heavy all throughout the field. Things would slow to a stop on lap 10 though, as the red flag appeared for young 15-year-old Zimmerly, who had gotten upside down for the second straight week while running in the top-five.

When the green lights came back on Larson stepped up his challenges and was able to finesse his way under Allard in turn four on lap 11 to steal second aboard the Stadelhofer Construction, Peppermill Casino-Reno No. 99. Bud Kaeding then moved in on Allard and got under him on lap 13, but the two-time King of California was able to get back by and hang onto the position, however, contact would ensue in turn four and resulted in the Williams Motorsports No. 0 spinning to a stop with front end damage. Allard went to the work area, but drove down a portion of the pits that is disallowed at Ocean Speedway and courtesy laps weren’t given, which gave the Chico driver his first dnf of the season.

The final 17-laps were then clicked off caution free and the action continued to be extremely intense, as the track began to change more and more with the race going on. The top-side in turns one and two became the fast way around the quarter-mile bullring and Larson used it to his advantage to close in on the lead. With Kaeding going to the bottom on lap 18 the Elk Grove driver charged to the high-side, getting alongside “BK” heading down the back stretch and proceeded to take command of the race in turn three. As the crowd got on their feet and cheered with approval Bud Kaeding followed along right behind the 17-year-old to claim second and bided his time for traffic to come into play.

With heavy duty lapped traffic approaching Larson tried to pick his way through, but the three-time & defending USAC Silver Crown champ utilized his veteran experience to remain patient and wait for an opening. When the slightest hole opened up Kaeding pounced on it and made the move by to put the Alviso Rock, High Five Pizza No. 29 into the lead of the race with just six-laps remaining. Larson stayed glued to Kaeding’s tail and was able to get back alongside him a few different times, but couldn’t get the bite as the Campbell driver had the top-side wired in turns one and two. With the white flag waving Larson gave it one last effort in the final set of corners and looked to the outside, but again couldn’t quite get the traction needed and Kaeding crossed the checkered flag just ahead of the youngster.

The victory also marked Kaeding’s second consecutive Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series win at the Ocean Speedway dating back to last August. “I definitely didn’t mean to get into Jonathan there earlier in the race and hope he isn’t mad at me because we were all just racing hard for position on the track,” said the 30-year-old driver. “We appreciate all the fans for coming out here tonight and we’re glad we got a great race track in the main event to put on an awesome show for everyone and we’ll see you guys back here at this place in a couple weeks.”

The runner-up result for Larson was his third consecutive podium in GSC competition and was also the second straight week he finished second to Kaeding at Ocean Speedway. “That was some of the funnest racing I’ve ever been apart of to be able to get by Brent for the lead and then race Bud in traffic was pretty cool,” commented Larson. “I have to thank all my sponsors and crew for giving me a great car and it’s nice to get up here on the front stretch again. These are the kind of nights we need to help out in the points and even though we definitely wanted to win, we’ll take a second tonight and move on to next week.”

Coming on strong as the race went on was defending Ocean 360 Sprint Car Series champion Tommy Tarlton of Easton, who charged through the field from his sixth row starting spot to get by Brent Kaeding on lap 21 and cross the checkered flag in third. “We didn’t get qualified as good as we wanted, but we definitely made up for it in the main event and had a great run,” said the driver of the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Corporate America Lending No. 21 machine. “I want to thank my dad, my whole family and crew and all our great sponsors for helping out with this team. We’re looking forward to Santa Maria next week and hope all the fans can come down because they’ll enjoy it.”

Brent Kaeding crossed the stripe in fourth with Clovis racer Peter Murphy having a strong run to round out the top-five and pick-up his first top-five finish of the GSC season aboard the Ridgeline Framing, Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino No. 13. Making just his fourth career 410 sprint car start young 18-year-old Cory Eliason of Visalia had an impressive run in the feature to tally a sixth place finish after starting from the seventh row in his Advance Auto & Smog No. 00x sprinter. Completing the top-10 in the 30-lap Golden State Challenge Series main event were Pleasanton’s Brad Furr, Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan, Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs and Morgan Hill’s Ricky Wright Jr.

Brent Kaeding won the evening’s six-lap dash with Penngrove’s Alissa Geving scoring the b-main victory and Allard, Tarlton and McMahan claiming the three ten-lap heat races. Suggs began the evening by setting his first fast-time of the season. Full results from the night are available at http://www.oceanspeedway.com

A-main finish- Bud Kaeding, Larson, Tarlton, Brent Kaeding, Murphy, Eliason, Furr, McMahan, Suggs, Wright Jr., Colby Copeland, Mark Barroso, Ken Fredenburg, Matthew Davis, Pat Harvey Jr., Kurt Nelson, Geving, Mark Workentine, Allard, Zimmerly, Statler

The Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series will head next for the second annual Doug Fort Memorial at the Santa Maria Speedway next Saturday night May 1. For more news on the series visit http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com