By Gary Thomas
Medford, OR – June 9, 2012…Chico, CA’s Jonathan Allard and San Jose, CA’s Tim Kaeding shared victories this past weekend with the Cancen Oil KWS Series presented by Goodyear, with Allard snagging the win at Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night and Kaeding claiming glory at Southern Oregon Speedway on Saturday.
The win for Allard was the second in two KWS starts this season at his home track and marked his third overall triumph of the year with the series. The current Cancen Oil KWS presented by Goodyear point leader dominated much of the feature, before holding off a hard charging Tim Kaeding over the later course of the 30-lapper.
“It feels nice to come out and win again here at my home track and I have to dedicate this win to David Tarter,” said an emotional Allard in victory lane. “We’re one big family out here and whenever you lose somebody it’s a tough thing so I just hope everyone keeps the Tarter family in their thoughts and prayers.”
The night on Friday started out with an unfortunate pit area incident claiming the life of Chico, CA driver David Tarter. Drivers and teams raced with heavy hearts the rest of the weekend and a helmet pass was conducted both nights to help aid the Tarter family.
Good friend John Michael Bunch also ran Tarter’s No. 35 in remembrance during Saturday’s event in Medford and spoke some very nice words about David to the crowd. On behalf of KWS we want to thank all that donated during the helmet pass both nights and we once again ask everyone to keep the friends and family of David Tarter in your thoughts.
Friday’s main event began with Bixby, OK’s Shane Stewart and Chico youngster Kenny Allen on the front row, but early on Allard showed that he would not be denied. The two-time state 410 champ charged to the lead in no time and had his way out front during the early going.
Much of the attention however, was turned to 18th starter Tim Kaeding, who was carving his way through the field like a hot knife through butter. All things pointed to another classic JA/TK show and once Kaeding got up to second, the fans definitely got their money’s worth.
With Allard up front Kaeding tried desperately to make something happen and put his Roth Motorsports No. 83 on the tip top of the racing surface. A couple of times it looked like “TK” would sweep around the top, but Allard got great bite running the lower portion of the speedway.
Following a caution period late in the going Allard then kicked it into over-drive and impressively pulled away from Kaeding and the rest of the field. The final two-laps saw Kaeding close in and give it more stab at the lead, but coming off turn four to the checkered Allard had the groove and crossed the line for victory in the Williams Motorsports No. 0 mount.
Kaeding came home second to earn the Pit Stop USA Hard Charger Award with Andy Forsberg rounding out the podium aboard his A&A Stepping Stone No. 92 sprinter. It marked Forsberg’s first podium finish with the series in a few years. Completing the top-10 were Evan Suggs, Kyle Hirst, Peter Murphy, Kenny Allen, Bobby McMahan, Willie Croft, Jason Statler.
The 12-lap Last Chance Qualifier on Friday was won by Rio Linda’s Cody Lamar, with Shane Stewart claiming the KSE Racing Products Dash and Kaeding Performance Heat Race wins going to Roger Crockett, Tyler Wolf, Jonathan Allard and Bobby McMahan. Setting the BR Motorsports Fast Time to begin the night was Shane Stewart, who toured the quarter-mile in 12.285 seconds.
On Saturday the Cancen Oil KWS Series presented by Goodyear made the drive up I-5 to John Skinner’s Southern Oregon Speedway, where Tim Kaeding scored his tour leading fourth victory of the year aboard Dennis & Teresa Roth’s No. 83 machine.
“That was some really fun racing there with Jonathan Allard, Willie Croft and the rest of the field so hopefully all the fans enjoyed the show tonight,” said Kaeding, who also won at Southern Oregon Speedway in 2004 with Roth Motorsports. “I want to thank my whole team and we’ll go to try and have some more fun the rest of the week.”
Sacramento’s Willie Croft set fast time to open the night and then proceeded to also win the dash to earn the pole for the main event. When the green lights came on in the 30-lapper the driver known as “Double Down” sliced into the lead ahead of Tim Kaeding. Croft was able to sit out front for a number of laps until it became a three car fight for the lead between himself, Kaeding and Jonathan Allard.
The trio had the crowd on the edge of their seats and when the dust had settled from the battle Kaeding came out with the lead. Grass Valley’s Jason Statler also had a solid run going and would take over third from Allard racing through traffic. A late race single file restart unfortunately saw Croft hit the orange cone and was penalized two spots, moving Statler to second and Allard to third.
A wild final lap saw cars going sideways in the first set of corners, but up front it was all about “TK” and the defending KWS champ took the checkered for victory. Statler put together his best night of the year and brought home a strong runner up finish in the DF Rios Motorsports No. 00 sprinter.
The remainder of the top-10 was made up of Jonathan Allard, Peter Murphy, Brent Kaeding, Roger Crockett, Willie Croft, Brad Bumgarner, Jayme Barnes, Dean Brindle. Brent Kaeding’s run was noteworthy as he earned the final transfer into the main event and then charged from 22nd to fifth to score the hard charger award.
Andy Gregg won the Last Chance Qualifier and Willie Croft captured the KSE Dash. Kaeding Performance Heats went to Jason Statler, Kyle Hirst, Tim Kaeding and Roger Crockett. The BR Motorsports Fast Time was taken by Willie Croft, who timed in with an 11.223.
KWS will take the coming week off and be back in action on Saturday June 23 at the Antioch Speedway in Antioch, California. For all your news and info on the series please log onto http://www.kwssprints.com