By Gary Thomas
Tulare, CA – April 13, 2010…Making a rare start in the potent Roth Motorsports No. 83jr sprint car Campbell, California’s Bud Kaeding put together a strong outing at the Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway Saturday night and just missed out on getting to victory lane by bringing home a runner-up finish after leading a number of laps in the feature.
The second place finish was Kaeding’s best of the young season with the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series following a seventh place result during the season-opener in Placerville on March 27. “I want to thank Dennis and Teresa Roth and this whole team for giving me a chance to drive the 83jr because it’s a pleasure to race this thing and it was really fast tonight,” said Kaeding. “I obviously would have liked to win, but it was still a pretty good night for the first time out so we’ll take it.”
After getting the call late in the week to drive for Roth Motorsports this past Saturday Kaeding began the Chris & Brian Faria Memorial by ripping off the fourth fastest lap of the night in qualifying aboard the DTR Transport, HR Cattle No. 83jr KPC.
Starting from fourth in his heat race the three-time and defending USAC Silver Crown champion settled into third the first few laps and then executed a slider in turn three to grab second from father Brent Kaeding. He then began to track down leader Jonathan Allard and made a beautiful move in turn one on the last lap to slide in front to take the lead. Allard attempted to cross over and was able to get back alongside, but Kaeding kept his foot in the throttle up high in turns three and four to charge off the final corner to score the exciting win.
The good things kept coming for Kaeding when he drew the pole position for the dash and made good use of it by dominating the six lap contest to put the Roth Motorsports, Lazy J Cattle mount on the front row of the 30-lap feature. The track surface had gotten considerably drier as the night went on and by the end of the evening had become extremely slick, with the preferred groove being right up against the wall that hugs the 1/3 mile clay oval. The 30-year-old driver used his vast experience across the country on such track surfaces to charge into the lead at the waving of the green flag in the main event.
Kaeding sat out front unchallenged until Allard got underneath him to take the lead on a lap five restart, but the Campbell driver was able to get back side-by-side with him and the two fought it out for the top-spot until making contact in the second corner, which saw Allard spin to a stop. Luckily for Kaeding though he was able to straighten the car back out and keep the motor lit to maintain the lead. As the race played on he would stretch out a fairly sizable advantage, but young Kyle Larson would slowly close in with the laps winding down and make the pass for the lead just a handful of circuits prior to the finish. Kaeding tried to fight back, but couldn’t make anything happen with the 17-year-old and crossed under the Willie Williams checkered in second.
This Friday will find Kaeding making a visit to his home track of Ocean Speedway to climb aboard the Sala/Matherly Racing, M&M Powder Coaters No. 19 Maxim for the opener of the Ocean Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo. Last season Kaeding made eight Ocean Sprints starts at the track picking up seven top-five finishes, but wasn’t able to get a win and he’ll look to change that in 2010 right off the bat. “We were always fast last year and came close, but just couldn’t seem to find our way to victory lane,” he said. “It should be a strong field on Friday, but I’ll be giving it my best shot to try and get it done for Brian Matherly, Mike Sala and the whole team.”
On Saturday Kaeding is expected to be in action with the Golden State Challenge Series at the Petaluma Speedway in what will be the fourth round of racing for the traveling 410 tour. The 30-year-old veteran raced to a win at the hooked-up 3/8 mile clay oval in April of 2008 with GSC and will look to do it once again this weekend.
For more info on Campbell, California’s Bud Kaeding please visit http://www.budkaedingracing.com