By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA – March 23, 2010…Following an off-season filled with various changes throughout the Northern California sprint car landscape the Golden State Challenge King of California 410 Series is set to kick-off its 25th season of action this Saturday night at the always action-packed Placerville Speedway.
This weekend’s event marks the second season in a row that the traveling 410 winged sprint car tour begins the year at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds facility and it will be the first of three stops at the track, with the others coming on June 5 and the season-finale on August 21. The Placerville Speedway is located just 40 minutes from the capital city of Sacramento and is known for its challenging high-banks and trademark red-clay, which makes for a unique style of racing that can’t be seen anywhere else in the state.
The all-time track record at the speedway is a blistering 9.913, which was set by San Jose’s Tim Kaeding in 2004 and was actually matched at last year’s season-opener by Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs. In total there are six drivers in the 9-second club at Placerville Speedway and they include Kaeding, Suggs, Sean Becker, Dennis Moore Jr., Bud Kaeding and Andy Forsberg, who is the only one to have turned the trick on two separate occasions.
With defending Golden State Challenge Series champion Tyler Walker competing in Pennsylvania this season Chico’s Jonathan Allard will go into the weekend as the most recent King of California set to be on hand. Allard finished runner-up in the GSC point race last season and led the series in fast-times with nine, top-5’s with 17 and top-10’s with a perfect 21 out of 21. The 33-year-old also captured the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial and sat atop the Golden State Challenge Series standings from May 23 to July 11, but missed out on his third title by 26-digits to Walker, who set a series record with nine victories.
Since joining his Williams Motorsports No. 0 team in 2005 Allard has also been the mark of consistency at Placerville Speedway, having scored eight finishes of second or better in 11 Golden State Challenge Series starts at the track, including a pair of runner-ups last season. “JA” also showed that same type of consistency last year with GSC by tallying seven runner-ups with the series, with six of those coming during Walker triumphs. Allard last year also brought home a fourth place finish at the Gold Cup Race of Champions in Chico, a sixth place finish at the Short Track Nationals in Arkansas and a 15th place effort at the famed Knoxville Nationals in Iowa.
Thirteen-time King of California Brent Kaeding is always one of the drivers to beat at the red-clay bullring and will be looking to get into the winners circle on Saturday. Last season the Campbell driver opened up the year in victory lane at Placerville and by doing so became the first driver in Golden State Challenge history to reach 80 career wins with the series. It marked the first of four GSC triumphs last year for the driver of the Al’s Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza No. 69 en route to a third place finish in the standings. “BK” last year also won his 11th Pombo/Sargent Classic and scored a runner-up finish at the Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals in Chico, as well as second place result in the final Taco Bravo Ocean Speedway 360 Sprint Car points.
Defending Golden State Challenge Rookie of the Year Kyle Larson will certainly be a driver to contend with for the title this year, as he begins his sophomore season with the series and first behind the wheel of the Stadelhofer Construction, Peppermill Casino No. 99 mount owned by BK Motorsports. The 17-year-old Elk Grove resident last year finished fifth in the standings and along the way scored his first career GSC victory at the Ocean Speedway on May 29. Larson is also coming off possibly the finest moment of his young career thus far in January, when he finished fifth on his preliminary night and 10th in the 50-lap finale at the 24th annual Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Entering his fourth year of winged sprint car racing Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs will look to improve upon a career best fourth place finish in the Golden State Challenge Series standings from last season. Although not counting as an official record, his track-record-tying time during last year’s opener in Placerville was the first of four fast-time efforts the 23-year-old tallied with GSC in ’09 aboard his Suggs Racing, Lucas Oil No. 33e. Suggs is coming off a solid showing with the World of Outlaws in Tulare earlier this month where he scored a pair of 13th place finishes and looked strong both nights. Veteran tuner Richard Brown has also joined the Suggs Racing team for select GSC events this year adding years of experience to their arsenal.
Former King of California Jason Statler has been a threat at Placerville Speedway over the years and will look to get back into victory lane Saturday behind the wheel of his DF Rios Construction, Statler Racing No. 00. Despite not getting a win with GSC last year the “Big Guy” had a solid season overall tallying a trio of runner-up finishes, with one of those coming during the opener in Placerville where he battled with Kaeding right down to the finish. The Grass Valley driver also came very close to winning the feature at Ocean Speedway on May 29 that saw him have an entertaining fight with Larson for the lead, until catching the cushion and getting upside down on the final lap. Statler’s season last year was highlighted by a pair of victories with the Ocean 360 Sprints in Watsonville.
Three-time & defending USAC Silver Crown Series champion Bud Kaeding is coming off his best winged sprint car season in recent memory this past year and will to carry the momentum over into 2010. The driver of the Alviso Rock, BK Motorsports No. 29 tallied victories with the Golden State Challenge Series at Silver Dollar Speedway and Ocean Speedway and his nine top-5 finishes were the fourth most of any driver last season. The 30-year-old also picked-up five podium finishes in eight starts with the Taco Bravo Ocean 360 Sprints last season and scored a fifth place finish at the Budweiser Oval Nationals in Perris with the USAC National Sprint Cars.
Ripon’s Brandon Carey finished sixth in the standings during his rookie Golden State Challenge Series campaign last year and is expected to be back as much as possible in 2010. The driver of the Carey Racing, Vernon Transportation Company No. 55 scored fourth place efforts at the Pombo/Sargent Classic in Tulare and the Doug Fort Memorial in Santa Maria last season marking his career best GSC finishes. In addition to those Carey also finished fifth at the Petaluma Speedway after leading the first 15-laps of the GSC event on April 18 of last year. Earlier this month the youngster also had a successful night with the World of Outlaws in Tulare finishing 14th in the main event on March 5.
Auburn’s Andy Forsberg will look to accomplish a long-time goal of winning a 410 sprint car feature at the Placerville Speedway on Saturday, as he’s set to be on hand aboard the A&A Motorsports, Red Line Oil No. 92 machine. In his career “Mr. Excitement” has won four Golden State Challenge Series main events and although coming close on more than a few occasions, he has yet to score one at the track he calls home. Last weekend Forsberg set fast-time and was running second in the feature during the Civil War Series event at Placerville, until looping the car while trying to chase down leader Herman Klein on the final lap.
Placerville Speedway 360 track record holder Andy Gregg will be in search of his first career Golden State Challenge Series victory this weekend at the helm of his Guts Racing, Dale Miller Plumbing No. 16x sprinter. The Placerville driver had some of the biggest moments of his 410 career last season that included scoring career best GSC finishes of third during each of the first two series events at his home track. In total Gregg secured four top-5 finishes in just eight GSC starts last year and will look to continue that success on Saturday.
Other possibilities this Saturday night will include defending Feather Falls Casino Silver Dollar Speedway champion Bobby McMahan of Elk Grove, Zach Zimmerly of West Linn, Oregon, Roseville’s Colby Copeland, West Sacramento’s Kyle Harris, Camino’s Justin Johnson, Nevada City’s Pat Harvey and more.
The front gate will open at 5pm this Saturday night with qualifying scheduled to get underway around 6:00 and racing at 6:30. All seating will be general admission with adult tickets being $17, juniors $12 and kids $5. The Placerville Speedway is located on the El Dorado County Fairgrounds in Placerville, California. For more information on the high-banked bullring visit http://www.placervillespeedway.com
This Saturday’s event will be the first of 25 point-paying races at 13 different tracks for the Golden State Challenge Series this year, which will be worth more that $450,000 in overall winnings throughout the California portions of the series. An additional $250,000 will be up for grabs during the inaugural “Western Speedweek-Road to Dirt Cup” featuring events at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, CA; Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford, OR; Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, OR and Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, OR. The Western Speedweek is all a lead-up to the non-point $25,000-to-win 39th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington.
For a full schedule of events and all the latest happenings with the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series log onto http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com
Coming up: After this weekend’s opener the Golden State Challenge King of California 410 Sprint Car Series will head for the Antioch Speedway 3/8 mile dirt oval next Saturday evening April 3, which will be followed by a visit to the Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare on Saturday April 10.
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Chico, California’s Jonathan Allard will be the most recent Golden State Challenge Series champion on hand this Saturday at the Placerville Speedway when the tour opens its 25th season of racing. The former two-time King of California has been a mark of consistency at the high-banked quarter-mile recently, having finished among the top-two in eight of the past 11 GSC events at the track aboard the Williams Motorsports No. 0. Photo by http://www.stevesracingphotos.com