From Gary Thomas, image courtesy of Darren Shaddock
Queensland, Aus- January 7, 2009…After picking up victory on New Years Day at Brisbane International Speedway Campbell, CA’s Bud Kaeding hoped to parlay the momentum into another strong run and the 30-year-old racer proceeded to not disappoint as he drove to a dominating win to beat a stellar field at the $10,000 Capalaba Wreckers Cup on Wednesday night.
The event featured some of the top Australian sprint car talent found anywhere, as well six American drivers in the field and Kaeding was able to pull off the victory in the main event by nearly six seconds in an extremely impressive drive. “This is a real big win for us and to be able to beat a field like this feels pretty good,” he said. “This thing has been dialed in ever since I got into it and it’s given me a lot of confidence behind the wheel.”
Opening the evening up by qualifying ninth fastest overall in the stacked 39-car field, Kaeding then put on a strong run in the third heat race to charge from eighth to third, before scoring seventh in the six heat and fourth in the dash to give the Ace Fireworks, Kaeding Performance, Myla Graphics No. 29 a second row starting spot in the feature. The 35-lap contest saw the three-time & defending USAC Silver Crown champ settle into third as he bided his time during the first handful of circuits.
Kaeding didn’t waste much time though to step up his challenges as he made quick work of second place Max Dumesny and then blew by leader James McFadden on lap seven to take command of the race. Once in front the Campbell, California driver began to immediately put distance between himself and the rest of the field as he made it look easy on this night. Kaeding never faltered the rest of the way and even widened the gap as the race went on to cross under the checkered with a nearly half-lap margin of victory for his second win in a row at BIS
For the night Kaeding also turned double-duty as he competed in the midget division behind the wheel of the Jeff Barton owned Spike/Brayton No. 91 mount and brought home a third place finish after coming from the back of the pack. Kaeding was able to get up to as high as second at one point in the 20-lapper as he looked to become the first driver to ever win a sprint and midget feature during the same night at Brisbane International. “It was fun to run the midget tonight and was nice to get back in one prior to the Chili Bowl next week,” Kaeding said. “It would have been nice to double-up on the night, but we’ll take a third and are pretty happy with how the night went overall.”
Kaeding will return to the Brisbane International Speedway on Friday and Saturday for the Performance Wholesale World Series Sprint Cars sanctioned Titan Garages Australian Sprint Car Open. The gigantic two-night show will be capped with a $20,000-to-win 50-lap main event on Saturday night.
For more information on Campbell, CA’s Bud Kaeding please visit http://www.budkaedingracing.com