By Gary Thomas
Antioch, CA – April 4, 2011…Toward the end of last year’s Golden State Series season one of the hottest drivers on tour was Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs. Keeping that in mind the 24-year-old will look to continue that trend when the King of the West 410 Sprints open the season on April 9th at the Antioch Speedway.
Last season Suggs ranked third place in the final Golden State 410 Series standings behind Kyle Larson and Brent Kaeding, to earn a career best point finish with the tour aboard his Suggs Family Racing No. 33e sprinter.
Suggs finished off the Golden State season in strong fashion by earning three consecutive podium finishes, which included leading 27 of 30 laps at the season-finale in Placerville, before getting passed by former series champions Tim Kaeding and Sean Becker in the final circuits.
“It was definitely disappointing at the end of last season since we came so close to winning our first Golden State race, but just couldn’t seal the deal,” commented Suggs. “On the positive side though we were able to put ourselves in position to do it and I have a lot of confidence that it will happen this year.”
For Suggs the Golden State King of the West Sprints opener this weekend at Antioch Speedway comes at a track where he tallied a runner up finish last April and always seems to run well.
“We are always pretty good in Antioch so I’m looking forward to getting there on Saturday,” said the former Dirt Cup preliminary night winner at Skagit Speedway. “Last April we ran second to Jonathan Allard at Antioch and were really fast in July there and should have been on the podium, but got sideways trying to pass Brent Kaeding for second in the last turn and lost a couple spots.”
Overall the Scotts Valley racer tallied a pair of second place efforts throughout the Golden State year to mark his career best finishes with the traveling 410 circuit. In addition to the runner up in April at Antioch, Suggs’ other second place finish came at Petaluma Speedway in May. An interesting note for that night in Petaluma was the fact that he also missed his college graduation to be in action.
“When you’re racing against guys like Tim Kaeding, Jonathan Allard and Kyle Larson, it makes it real tough and with everything Dan Simpson and the KWS team is doing it will make it even more competitive,” said Suggs. “We love racing 410’s and are really excited about opening the Golden State King of the West season and hope to see everyone in Antioch this weekend.”
In addition to Suggs, other drivers expected to compete in the KWS season-opener at Antioch Speedway on Saturday April 9 will include Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson, San Jose’s Tim Kaeding, Chico’s Jonathan Allard, Campbell’s Brent Kaeding, Grass Valley’s Jason Statler, Vancouver, Washington’s Zach Zimmerly, Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan, Placerville’s Andy Gregg, Stockton’s Brad Furr, Clovis’ Peter Murphy, Fremont’s Shane Golobic, Chico’s Kenny Allen and many more.
The front gate will open at 5pm this Saturday night with qualifying expected to get underway around 6:30 and racing to follow.
The Antioch Speedway is located at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds on the corner of 10th & L Streets in Antioch, California.
The Golden State King of the West Series is a traveling Winged 410 Sprint Car Association that will be racing in California, Oregon and Nevada this season. The 2011 season will be the 26th year of competition for the Golden State 410 Sprint Car Series. For the schedule, registration forms and more info please visit http://www.kwssprints.com
Follow KWS on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/KWS410s#!/pages/Golden-State-King-of-the-West-Series/150145691703907 and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/KWS410s