From Dick Jordan
Watsonville, CA — (June 14, 2013) — “The Demon” Damion Gardner of Concord used a last lap slidejob to top Campbell’s Bud Kaeding for the $2500 USAC/CRA win on Friday night at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville. Gardner topped the 29 entries in the pits on an emotional night.
Gardner’s win came after tributes to Long Beach’s Jason Leffler throughout the evening. Leffler passed away after a 410 Sprint Car crash this week in New Jersey and was well-known throughout the circles of the Southern California-based USAC/CRA club.
“I know Bud really wanted to win this one for Jason but so did I,” Gardner said. “Jason really believed in me when I made my move back east and I’ll never forget that.”
Two-time Ocean champion Ryan Bernal of Hollister led the 23 car starting field to the green, but it was second in points Nic Faas leading lap one. Kaeding leapt from fourth starting to second in the early laps as well.
The first red flag of the race came out on lap seven when former Ocean feature winner Colton Slack flipped in turn four. On the restart, “Cadillac” Cody Williams biked hard in turn one and stalled in turn four with damage.
The race went back to green with Williams in the work area, but five-time defending series champion Mike Spencer rolled to a stop with apparent engine problems. Spencer’s issues allowed Williams time to rejoin the field without loosing a lap.
Gardner and Bernal went toe-to-toe for third for the next few laps while Kaeding put the pressure on Faas for the top spot. Williams’ long night ended with a bang, when he flipped out of the ballpark in turn four but was uninjured.
The restart on lap 21 coming out of the red flag allowed Kaeding to seize the lead from Faas in a crossover move out of turn four. Gardner followed through the following lap as well.
Austin Williams stalled with a flat tire on lap 27 to set up a three lap shootout between Gardner and Kaeding. Kaeding initially dashed away from Gardner, but The Demon was able to claw back with two laps to go. On the white flag lap, Gardner dive bombed turn one and crossed the nose of Kaeding, with the two making slight contact.
Gardner drove away to the thrilling victory and Kaeding recovered to pedal ahead of Faas for second. Matt Mitchell and Bernal rounded out the top-five.
Heat race wins on the night went to 2012 Ocean Sprints champ Shane Golobic, Tracy’s Austin Liggett, Tipton’s Danny Faria, and Cody Williams. The 12 lap semi was won by Mitchell and Gardner set the standard in qualifying with a 12.764 second lap.
USAC/CRA competition will move on to Santa Maria Speedway on Saturday while the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo will make their return to Ocean this Friday night.
For more information on the Ocean Sprints log onto http://www.oceansprints.com and for more on the Ocean Speedway visit http://www.oceanspeedway.com
Ocean Speedway would like to thank Taco Bravo, Digital Delivery Networks, Nobel Construction, Get Som Sports, Ray Scheidt’s Electric, Hoosier Tires West, and Kaeding Performance for their support.
AMSOIL USAC/CRA & WESTERN CLASSIC SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: June 14, 2013 – Watsonville, California – Ocean Speedway
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Damion Gardner, 4a, Alexander-12.764; 2. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-12.809; 3. Bud Kaeding, 29, Bowman-12.850; 4. Austin Williams, 2, Jory-12.870; 5. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-12.933; 6. Marty Hawkins, 3M, Hawkins-12.982; 7. Nic Faas, 4, Alexander-13.009; 8. Ryan Bernal, 73, Ford-13.053; 9. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-13.067; 10. Austin Liggett, 83, iggett-13.071; 11. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-13.077; 12. Cory Kruseman, 7, Priestley-13.147; 13. Landon Hurst, 179, Hurst-13.152; 14. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, Vander Weerd-13.198; 15. Danny Faria Jr., 17v, Faria-13.204; 16. D.J. Johnson, 33, Johnson-13.286; 17. Shane Golobic, 121, Vonschriltz-13.300; 18. Colby Copeland, 24, Copeland-13.338; 19. Tony Hunt, 56, Phulps-13.361; 20. Klint Simpson, 84, Simpson-13,374; 21. Geoff Ensign, 5v, McClish-13.474; 22. Markus Niemela, 81, Watt-13.480; 23. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-13.489; 24. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-13.530; 25. Colton Slack, 17, Slack-13.607; 26. Nathan Washam,
33x, Hood-13.814; 27. James Sweeney, 11x, Lewis-14.452; 28. Shauna Hogg, 5, Hogg-NT; 29. Terry Rothweiler, 17s, Shanoian-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Golobic, 2. R.Vander Weerd, 3. Ensign, 4. Gardner, 5. Mitchell, 6. Hurst, 7. Slack. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Liggett, 2. Niemela, 3. Spencer, 4. J.Vander Weerd, 5. Washam, 6. Hawkins, 7. Copeland. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Faria, 2. Faas, 3. Kaeding, 4. Hunt, 5, R.Williams, 6. Roa, 7. Sweeney. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. C.Williams, 2. Kruseman, 3. Bernal, 4. A.Williams, 5. D.J. Johnson, 6. Simpson, 7. Hogg. NT
SEMI: (10 laps) 1. Mitchell, 2. Roa, 3. Copeland, 4. D.J. Johnson, 5. R.Williams, 6. Slack, 7. Washam, 8. Hawkins, 9. Sweeney, 10. Simpson, 11. Hogg, 12. Hurst. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Damion Gardner, 2. Bud Kaeding, 3. Nic Faas, 4. Matt Mitchell, 5. Ryan Bernal, 6. Cory Kruseman, 7. Richard Vander Weerd, 8. Markus Niemela, 9. Austin Liggett, 10. Geoff Ensign, 11. Colby Copeland, 12. Brody Roa, 13. Danny Faria, 14. D.J. Johnson, 15. Jace Vander Weerd, 16. Rip Williams, 17. Tony Hunt, 18. Austin Williams, 19. Cody Williams, 20. Mike Spencer, 21. Shane Golobic, 22. Shauna Hogg, 23. Colton Slack. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-21 Faas, Laps 22-29 Kaeding, Lap 30 Gardner.
NEW AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT POINTS: 1-Gardner-667, 2-Faas-626, 3-Kaeding-539, 4-Spencer-508, 5-Mitchell-414, 6-C.Williams-372, 7-A,Williams-372, 8-Roa-356, 9-Bernal-321, 10-R.J. Johnson-300.
NEW USAC WESTERN CLASSIC SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bernal-254, 2-D.J. Johnson-200; 3-Hunt-186, 4-Slack-167, 5-Hogg-148, 6-Sweeney-128, 7-Washam-113, 8-Simpson-101, 9-Matt Streeter-93, 10-Copeland-93.
NEXT AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT RACE: June 15, 2013 – Santa Maria (CA) Speedway
NEXT USAC WESTERN CLASSIC SPRINT RACE: June 21, 2013 – Stockton (CA) 99 Speedway