By Gary Thomas,Steven Cox photo
Scotts Valley, CA – October 27, 2011…Continuing to climb the ladder in Northern California 410 sprint car racing, Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs experienced a career best season in 2011, highlighted by his very first King of the West victory and a second place result in the series standings.
In fact since 2008 Suggs has improved one position in the Golden State 410 points each year, with a fifth place effort seen in ’08, followed by a fourth in ’09, third in ’10 and now second in ’11. Ultimately there’s just one more spot to move up next season, but for now he is celebrating the strong campaign put together this year.
“We had a great season and to finish second in the points and get a win was a really cool accomplishment for our team,” said Suggs, who concluded his fifth year of competition in a winged sprint car. “It was a fun year with the King of the West Series and probably the toughest fields we’ve had since I got into the winged ranks.”
On the King of the West 410 Series season Suggs had the second most Grant’s Fine Art fast time awards, having set the quickest mark on four separate occasions, including track records at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway and the Antioch Speedway. He also had the third most top-five finishes behind series champion Tim Kaeding and two-time champ Jon Allard.
Suggs’ most impressive night of the year came on July 2 at the inaugural “Howard Kaeding Classic” where he won his heat race, the Grant’s Fine Art/ KSE Dash and then passed both Tim Kaeding and Tommy Tarlton in the main event to claim his biggest career victory.
“We had come really close in the past so to finally get our first Golden State King of the West win was an awesome thing and to do it at the “HK Classic” made it even better,” commented the 24-year-old Suggs. “Tommy Tarlton and TK don’t get passed very often so to do it in one main event was pretty amazing.”
Other highlights for Suggs with KWS this year were a runner up finish during the season opener at Antioch in April, a podium effort at the annual “Pombo/Sargent Classic in Tulare, a fourth place result during the “Salute to Walt Ross” at Calistoga Speedway (tying a career best at the track) and his first ever Kings Speedway podium finish in August.
Another interesting stat for the season was the fact that the other drivers in the top-five of points with the King of the West 410 Series (Tim Kaeding, Jonathan Allard, Brent Kaeding and Jason Statler) have combined for 18 of the 26 Golden State 410 titles. All four of those drivers have also captured World of Outlaws wins in the past and Suggs is extremely happy to be part of such a stout top-five in points with KWS this year.
“It’s pretty special to be in a group with guys like that and to finish ahead of some of them is an honor when you look at what they’ve done in this sport,” said Suggs. “I think we showed this year that when we’re on our game we can run with anyone out here and that just gives us a lot of confidence going into next season.”
Outside of KWS this year Suggs also brought home a fourth place finish at the prestigious Johnny Key Classic, in which he started 11th on the grid and got up to as high as third at one point. The San Jose State grad was also the hard charger with the World of Outlaws at the annual Gold Cup on opening night in September. He then ended the season with some tough luck though, as a broken rocker arm at the Trophy Cup ended his night early last Saturday.
Suggs Racing would like to thank Riley Collins Body Shop, Lucas Oil, Jeff Pippin, S&S Automotive, Brad Scadden, HoservilleCA and their longtime friend and mechanic, Brian Poe for all of their support this season and throughout the years.
Suggs also made a pair of appearances on the “KWS Tonight” show this season, which can be viewed at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15873356 and http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/13673407
For more information on Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs and to learn how to become a marketing partner with Suggs Racing please visit http://www.evansuggs.com