Image courtesy of Steve Lafond
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – April 23, 2011…Milestone victories only come around every so often and on Saturday night San Jose, California’s Tim Kaeding accomplished a special one at the Ocean Speedway with the Golden State King of the West Sprints.
The man simply known as “TK” made an early pass of father Brent Kaeding and then held off a fast-moving and hard-charging Justin Sanders to score his 50th career Golden State 410 Series win. The 32-year-old wheel-man becomes just the second driver to reach that mark in series history.
“It’s an awesome feeling to get that 50th win and I can’t say enough about Dennis & Teresa Roth and my whole team, because Bonzai and the guys gave me an awesome car,” said Kaeding. “That was some great racing right there and Justin Sanders did a heck of a job to finish second so I want to congratulate him as well.”
Despite a drizzly evening as the night wore on everything went off without a hitch and fans were treated to some tremendous racing throughout the program. Campbell’s Brent Kaeding scored victory in the KSE Racing Products/ Grant’s Fine Art Dash to earn the pole for the A-main and when the green lights came on he would blast into the lead on the hooked-up quarter mile clay oval.
The action was extremely intense over the opening laps of the feature with Tim Kaeding hounding “BK” for the lead and Jonathan Allard right there within striking distance. Lap-eight would see the first caution for fifth running Willie Croft, who slowed to a stop. “Double Down” restarted and made a valiant charge through the field to get back up to fifth at one point, before issues ended his night late in the race.
Following Croft’s first stop it created a double-file restart and during it Brent Kaeding jumped back into the lead, but “TK” and “JA” raced inches away from the black No. 69 machine. Rounding turn four to complete lap 12, T. Kaeding finally got the momentum he needed and rocketed around his dad to claim the lead. A caution just prior to the midway point then slowed things down, but on the restart young Justin Sanders made his presence known.
The 18-year-old had already made some nifty moves to get up to fourth and on the double file restart he would beat Allard into the first corner to claim third. Sanders wasn’t done just yet however, as he closed in on Brent Kaeding for second and on lap 18 sliced to the bottom and took over the runner-up spot. With the crowd coming to their feet he then closed in on T. Kaeding and made it a battle for the lead.
The final stoppage of the night came on lap 24 when Ken Fredenburg got upside down in the third and fourth corners to bring out a red flag. Also involved in the accident were Billy Strange Jr. and Nick Ringo Jr. The final restart of the night then saw T. Kaeding get a nice jump and pull away to a fairly healthy advantage, but with just a couple laps left he was slowed by traffic and it allowed Sander’s to close back in.
Entering the final corners T. Kaeding got a bit high and Sanders charged to the inside, but didn’t quite have enough and “TK” was able to hang on by a slim margin to score his second straight Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series win in the Roth Motorsports, HR Cattle No. 83.
The runner up finish for Sanders came during just his second night with a 410 power plant under the hood of his North County Plastering, Taco Bravo sponsored No. 17 mount. Sander’s last season finished fifth in the Taco Bravo 360 standings and showed just much local track knowledge means by putting together an impressive night of racing at his home track.
“I have to give a big thanks to Dennis Wuolett of Taco Bravo for letting me run his 410 tonight and this is just awesome to finish on the podium with the King of the West Series,” said Sanders. “I want to thank everyone that helps us out and it was pretty cool being able to get pass guys like Jonathan Allard and Brent Kaeding. I just got into a groove and it was a lot of fun.”
Allard made the move around Brent Kaeding for third with five-laps left in the race to record his second podium finish of the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series season aboard the Williams Motorsports, Red Line Oil No. 0. “It was a pretty good run for us tonight and I want give Justin Sanders congrats for getting second and Tim for another win,” Allard said. “We’ll just move on to Marysville and try to make up some points.”
Brent Kaeding finished the race in fourth at the helm of the Al’s Roofing Supply No. 69 with Placerville’s Andy Gregg rounding out the top-five aboard the 7-Industries No. 53 machine. Fremont’s Brent Bjork put together a very solid night and came home sixth, Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan scored seventh, Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs was eighth, Corralitos’ Jerry Bonnema was ninth and Rio Vista’s Danielle Simpson completed the top-10 to tie her best ever Golden State KWS finish.
Bonnema brought home the PitStopUSA.com hard charger award by carving his way from 21st to ninth in the main event and Willie Croft will receive the Dirt Solution hard luck award after problems took him out of the top-five on a pair of occasions in the main event.
The Last Chance Qualifier was picked off by Statler, with Brent Kaeding winning the dash as previously noted. The four 10-lap heat races were won by Andy Gregg, Tim Kaeding, Willie Croft and Brent Kaeding. Statler opened the night by setting fast time to earn $250 courtesy of Carwash Mike & a custom plaque courtesy of Tim Grant from Grant’s Fine Art.
The Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series will be back in action next Saturday night April 30 at the Marysville Raceway Park in Marysville, California. To keep up with the latest happenings with the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series visit http://www.kwssprints.com or catch us on Facebook and Twitter.
Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series Results – Ocean Speedway Saturday April 23
28 cars
Fast time: Jason Statler 11.582
Heat 1: Andy Gregg, Kurt Nelson, Brad Furr, Billy Strange Jr., James Bondurant, Eli Deshaies, Jason Statler
Heat 2: Tim Kaeding, Justin Sanders, Bobby McMahan, Rico Abreu, Nick Rescino Jr., Pat Harvey, Kenny Allen
Heat 3: Willie Croft, Peter Murphy, Jonathan Allard, Evan Suggs, Jerry Bonnema, Dan Simpson, Nick Ringo Jr.
Heat 4: Brent Kaeding, Ken Fredenburg, Brent Bjork, Mark Barroso, Doug Gandy, Danielle Simpson
Dash: Brent Kaeding, Tim Kaeding, Andy Gregg, Jonathan Allard, Brad Furr, Willie Croft, Brent Bjork, Justin Sanders
Last Chance Qualifier: Jason Statler, Danielle Simpson, Jerry Bonnema, Nick Ringo Jr., Kenny Allen, Nick Rescino Jr., Dan Simpson, Doug Gandy, James Bondurant, Pat Harvey
A-main: Tim Kaeding, Justin Sanders, Jonathan Allard, Brent Kaeding, Andy Gregg, Brent Bjork, Bobby McMahan, Evan Suggs, Jerry Bonnema, Danielle Simpson, Billy Strange Jr., Kenny Allen, Nick Ringo Jr., Mark Barroso, Rico Abreu, Willie Croft, Jason Statler, Ken Fredenburg, Brad Furr, Nick Rescino Jr., Kurt Nelson, Peter Murphy