Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series returns home to Hanford

Golden State Challenge

From Gary Thomas

Hanford, CA – June 23, 2010…Following the inaugural running of Western Speedweek the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series will return home this Saturday as the traveling circuit makes a trip south to the Giant Chevrolet Speedway in Hanford, California for the 18th round of action in the 2010 season.

It will mark the second of two appearances for the series at the 3/8 mile clay oval, after competing at the track last month for the first time since 2007 and just the second time since ’05. Also on tap at the track later this season will be the running of the annual Cotton Classic, which will return as a winged 410 sprint car event in 2010 and is scheduled to occur on Saturday evening October 16.

With the weather beginning to heat up and the summer kicking into gear the GSC season will start to wind down with only seven events remaining on the schedule for the tour that travels to a number of different regions in the state of California and into Oregon. The battle for the King of California title will also resume on Saturday after last weekend’s non-point Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup was preceded by a rainout of the series event at the Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Oregon.

The two drivers that fought it out for the win on May 21 at the Giant Chevrolet Speedway will lead the Golden State Challenge Series into the track on Saturday, with those being San Jose’s Tim Kaeding and Chico’s Jonathan Allard. Lapped traffic during that show created some hectic racing in the main event and in the end it was “TK” taking advantage of heavy traffic on the final corner of the last lap to squeeze by “JA” and grab the victory.

Kaeding is also the most recent victor in Golden State Challenge competition, having claimed a win at the Cottage Grove Speedway in Oregon on Monday June 14, holding off a closing laps charge from Easton’s Tommy Tarlton. With the victory the driver of the Central CA based Roth Motorsports, DTR Transport Inc. No. 83 has now captured four wins with the series since coming back home and the former King of California will look to add to that total on Saturday.

Allard comes into the Giant Chevrolet Speedway sitting on top of the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series standings and will be looking for redemption after the dissapointing ending for him to the most recent event at the Hanford based facility. The two-time King of California will also be looking to rebound after an incident in traffic took him out of the lead at last Saturday’s $25,000-to-win Dirt Cup, after he had led the first 23-laps of the feature. Allard is also the current leader in wins with GSC this year scoring five triumphs aboard his Williams Motorsports, Sharp Insurance No. 0.

Going into Saturday the battle for second in the Golden State Challenge points remains a close one with Campbell’s Brent Kaeding maintaining a 14-digit advantage over Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson.

“BK” comes into Saturday remarkably still looking for that first GSC win of the year as consistency has helped place him second in the standings, having finished among the top-10 in all 16 events so far this season with the circuit. During the series event in Hanford on May 21 Kaeding drove his Al’s Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza Company No. 69 to a dash win and a fourth place finish in the feature. The 13-time King of California goes into the weekend 24-markers behind Allard for the top-spot in the points and will be searching to close that gap Saturday.

With the season slowly coming to a close Larson will look to move in on Kaeding starting this Saturday at Giant Chevrolet Speedway behind the wheel of his Stadelhofer Construction, Peppermill Casino No. 99. The two most recent GSC events saw Larson have very strong runs, highlighted by his second series win of the year on Saturday June 12 at the Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford. He then back that up by fighting through problems in qualifying at Cottage Grove to come from the rear of the b-main to transfer into the feature, where he then started in row-10 and charged to fourth by the finish.

After the three Golden State Challenge events during Western Speedweek there is now a tie for fourth in the series standings between Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs and Vancouver, Washington’s Zach Zimmerly. The 23-year-old Suggs continues to look for his first career GSC victory aboard the Suggs Racing, Lucas Oil Products No. 33e, after scoring a pair of season-best runner up finishes so far this year. Suggs had a less than hoped for outing at Western Speedweek and on Saturday will also be looking to rebound after getting upside down during the event at Giant Chevrolet Speedway on May 21.

Zimmerly goes into this weekend as one of the hottest sprint car drivers on the west coast after winning the inaugural Western Speedweek title and also finishing runner up during all three nights at the 39th Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup. The 16-year-old charger also picked up his very first Golden State Challenge 410 Series victory to open Speedweek on June 11 at Chico’s Tribute to Gary Patterson aboard the Christian Stover Foundation, Level One Concrete No. 94. Zimmerly will look to continue the momentum and improve upon a ninth place effort from the Hanford event last month.

Other possibilities to be on hand this Saturday night with the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series at the Giant Chevrolet Speedway will include Campbell’s Bud Kaeding, Easton’s Tommy Tarlton, Grass Valley’s Jason Statler, Clovis’ Peter Murphy, Penngrove’s Alissa Geving, Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan, Visalia’s Cory Eliason, Rio Vista’s Dan & Danielle Simpson, American Canyon’s Matthew Davis, Nevada City’s Pat Harvey, Caruther’s Garrett Ishii, Fresno’s Mark Workentine and more.

The front gate will open at 5:30 pm this Saturday June 26 with Reserved Grandstand tickets costing $20 and General Admission bleacher tickets being $17. The Giant Chevrolet Speedway is located on the Kings County Fairgrounds in Hanford, California. More information can be found at http://www.kingsspeedway.net

For the full Golden State Challenge 410 point standings, results, a remaining schedule of events and more please log onto http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com

Coming up- After Hanford the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series will head next for a holiday-spectacular 4th of July event at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico on Sunday night July 4. The night of racing will be concluded with a giant firework show.

Handy Racing Promotions has teamed up once again with the local business community to provide advance ticket sales for this special event. On July 4th spectators can purchase tickets at the gate beginning at 5 p.m. but those wishing to get their tickets in advance and avoid the long lines can do so by visiting one of six area locations that will begin selling advance tickets.

In Chico race fans can purchase tickets at four different locations. Riebes Auto Parts at 2432 Cohasset Drive will have tickets for purchase, as well as their location at 175 E. 20th Street in Chico. Chico Mobile Air Conditioning will be another outlet for tickets in town. The fourth location in town will be Withrow Motorsports at 2501 South Whitman in Chico.

Additional locations with tickets on sale just outside of Chico include Napa Auto Parts at 402 Walker Street in Orland and Aubrees’ Salon at 605 Birch Street in Paradise. Adult tickets will be on sale at all locations for $18, juniors will be $12 and all children 11 and under are free for the holiday event.