BY Gary Thomas
Tulare, CA…Making his first career start at Thunderbowl Raceway this week Benton, Arkansas racer Cody Gardner looked like a season veteran at the track on Friday night, scooping up victory at the Abreu Vineyards Trophy Cup benefiting the Rayce Rudeen Foundation.
Gardner made the move by Colby Copeland and fended off a late challenge to bring home the win aboard the Burkham Contracting No. 6 Sprint Car.
The 30-lap Trophy Cup night two feature started with Colby Copeland and Bud Kaeding leading the field down to green. The action was hot and heavy right off the bat, with several battles taking place throughout the field.
Copeland, driving the C&M Motorsports No. 7C this weekend, shot out front ahead of Cody Gardner who claimed second early on. Gardner had picked up an impressive heat race win earlier in the program hounded the leader and would carve his way past on lap 10 to assume the point.
Copeland then began to deal with a very fast Bud Kaeding, as the pair exchanged the second spot on multiple occasions. The Roseville driver eventually got the better of it and closed back in on Gardner to make it race for the win going down to the wire.
Gardner was certainly kept on his toes as Copeland stayed withing striking distance for several circuits. The Arkansas wheelman was up to the challenge though and drove off to accept the Ed Entz checkered flag for the huge triumph. Copeland came home in second with Bud Kaeding rounding out the podium.
Sebastopol’s Joel Myers Jr. had an exciting run to finish in fourth, followed by Hollister’s Ryan Bernal in fifth. Completing the top 10 were Anthony Macri, Hard Charger Justyn Cox, Tim Kaeding, Landon Brooks and Caeden Steele.
Cody Gardner goes into the Trophy Cup finale with a one-point lead over Tim Kaeding. The top five drivers in points are separated by just four points in one of the closest races in recent memory.
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Results
Trophy Cup Night Two
Thunderbowl Raceway
360 Sprint Cars 60 Entries
A Feature 30 Laps | 00:21:12.471
1. 6-Cody Gardner[4]; 2. 7C-Colby Copeland[1]; 3. 29-Bud Kaeding[2]; 4. 19-Joel Myers Jr[3]; 5. 73-Ryan Bernal[8]; 6. 94TH-Anthony Macri[15]; 7. 42X-Justyn Cox[17]; 8. 0-Tim Kaeding[12]; 9. 21L-Landon Brooks[11]; 10. 121-Caeden Steele[6]; 11. W-Spencer Bayston[20]; 12. 17W-Shane Golobic[7]; 13. 3K-Kaleb Montgomery[22]; 14. 2A-Austin Wood[5]; 15. 7B-Sean Becker[16]; 16. 83SA-Kalib Henry[14]; 17. 83T-Tanner Carrick[23]; 18. 10-Dominic Gorden[10]; 19. 21P-Robbie Price[9]; 20. 25-Seth Standley[18]; 21. 26-Levi Hillier[19]; 22. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt[13]; 23. 21-Tanner Holmes[21]; 24. 41-Dominic Scelzi[24]
B Feature 20 Laps | 00:22:20.066
1. 26-Levi Hillier[1]; 2. W-Spencer Bayston[5]; 3. 21-Tanner Holmes[2]; 4. 3K-Kaleb Montgomery[6]; 5. 83T-Tanner Carrick[3]; 6. 41-Dominic Scelzi[12]; 7. 15-Nick Parker[8]; 8. 33D-Dylan Bloomfield[7]; 9. 02-Ashton Torgerson[21]; 10. 88N-DJ Netto[14]; 11. 7P-Jake Andreotti[10]; 12. 7-Jett Barnes[23]; 13. 17-Jace Park[22]; 14. 61-Travis Labat[13]; 15. 33-Colton Heath[16]; 16. 67-Grant Duinkerken[11]; 17. 3-Cole Schroeder[18]; 18. 94-Greg Decaires V[20]; 19. 17C-Chase Goetz[9]; 20. 10R-Tyler Thompson[19]; 21. 2XM-Max Mittry[15]; 22. 5R-Ryan Rocha[17]; 23. 14E-Mariah Ede[24]; 24. 5-Cole Danell[4]
C Feature 15 Laps | 00:06:54.284
1. 10R-Tyler Thompson[7]; 2. 94-Greg Decaires V[5]; 3. 02-Ashton Torgerson[12]; 4. 17-Jace Park[8]; 5. 7-Jett Barnes[18]; 6. 14E-Mariah Ede[10]; 7. F1-Levi Klatt[2]; 8. 15K-Cody Key[17]; 9. 36B-Kevin Barnes Sr[4]; 10. 15H-Pat Harvey Jr[9]; 11. 9L-Luke Hayes[1]; 12. 88A-Joey Ancona[3]; 13. X1-Chance Grasty[6]; 14. 55-Trey Starks[11]; 15. 5DD-Destry Miller[13]; 16. 2K-Gauge Garcia[14]; 17. 38N-Kyle Rasmussen[15]; 18. 29K-Levi Kuntz[16]
Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:03:10.000
1. 83SA-Kalib Henry[3]; 2. 7P-Jake Andreotti[2]; 3. 33D-Dylan Bloomfield[4]; 4. 3K-Kaleb Montgomery[5]; 5. W-Spencer Bayston[6]; 6. 17-Jace Park[1]; 7. 26-Levi Hillier[8]; 8. 88N-DJ Netto[7]; 9. 7-Jett Barnes[9]
Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:03:07.912
1. 5-Cole Danell[2]; 2. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt[4]; 3. 0-Tim Kaeding[8]; 4. 5R-Ryan Rocha[1]; 5. 83T-Tanner Carrick[6]; 6. 21-Tanner Holmes[7]; 7. F1-Levi Klatt[3]; 8. 33-Colton Heath[5]; 9. 15K-Cody Key[9]; 10. (DNS) 9-Dustin Freitas
Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:04:12.963
1. 7B-Sean Becker[3]; 2. 67-Grant Duinkerken[2]; 3. 29-Bud Kaeding[6]; 4. 19-Joel Myers Jr[7]; 5. 2A-Austin Wood[8]; 6. 36B-Kevin Barnes Sr[9]; 7. 9L-Luke Hayes[4]; 8. 5DD-Destry Miller[1]; 9. 88A-Joey Ancona[5]
Heat 4 8 Laps | 00:07:29.590
1. 6-Cody Gardner[4]; 2. 21P-Robbie Price[6]; 3. 21L-Landon Brooks[8]; 4. 15-Nick Parker[5]; 5. 94TH-Anthony Macri[7]; 6. 3-Cole Schroeder[3]; 7. 15H-Pat Harvey Jr[9]; 8. 14E-Mariah Ede[2]; 9. 38N-Kyle Rasmussen[1]
Heat 5 8 Laps | 00:13:43.049
1. 10-Dominic Gorden[6]; 2. 61-Travis Labat[2]; 3. 121-Caeden Steele[7]; 4. 17W-Shane Golobic[8]; 5. 41-Dominic Scelzi[5]; 6. 10R-Tyler Thompson[9]; 7. 02-Ashton Torgerson[1]; 8. X1-Chance Grasty[4]; 9. 55-Trey Starks[3]
Heat 6 8 Laps | 00:06:36.648
1. 17C-Chase Goetz[2]; 2. 25-Seth Standley[4]; 3. 7C-Colby Copeland[6]; 4. 73-Ryan Bernal[8]; 5. 42X-Justyn Cox[7]; 6. 2XM-Max Mittry[5]; 7. 94-Greg Decaires V[3]; 8. 2K-Gauge Garcia[9]; 9. 29K-Levi Kuntz[1]
Qualifying 1 2 Laps | 00:00:53.000
1. 0-Tim Kaeding, 00:13.762[2]; 2. 21L-Landon Brooks, 00:13.780[15]; 3. 73-Ryan Bernal, 00:13.839[21]; 4. 21-Tanner Holmes, 00:13.844[20]; 5. 94TH-Anthony Macri, 00:13.910[7]; 6. 42X-Justyn Cox, 00:13.910[26]; 7. 83T-Tanner Carrick, 00:13.919[8]; 8. 21P-Robbie Price, 00:13.919[28]; 9. 7C-Colby Copeland, 00:13.930[12]; 10. 33-Colton Heath, 00:13.932[18]; 11. 15-Nick Parker, 00:13.976[3]; 12. 2XM-Max Mittry, 00:13.998[5]; 13. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt, 00:14.001[4]; 14. 6-Cody Gardner, 00:14.021[17]; 15. 25-Seth Standley, 00:14.032[24]; 16. F1-Levi Klatt, 00:14.067[19]; 17. 3-Cole Schroeder, 00:14.108[1]; 18. 94-Greg Decaires V, 00:14.131[11]; 19. 5-Cole Danell, 00:14.157[14]; 20. 14E-Mariah Ede, 00:14.189[27]; 21. 17C-Chase Goetz, 00:14.253[6]; 22. 5R-Ryan Rocha, 00:14.303[9]; 23. 38N-Kyle Rasmussen, 00:14.339[25]; 24. 29K-Levi Kuntz, 00:14.526[16]; 25. 15K-Cody Key, 00:14.527[22]; 26. 15H-Pat Harvey Jr, 00:16.658[13]; 27. 9-Dustin Freitas[10]; 28. 2K-Gauge Garcia[23]
Qualifying 2 2 Laps | 00:01:01.000
1. 26-Levi Hillier, 00:14.087[12]; 2. 2A-Austin Wood, 00:14.105[17]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic, 00:14.113[5]; 4. 88N-DJ Netto, 00:14.120[13]; 5. 19-Joel Myers Jr, 00:14.189[6]; 6. 121-Caeden Steele, 00:14.200[19]; 7. W-Spencer Bayston, 00:14.202[18]; 8. 29-Bud Kaeding, 00:14.244[9]; 9. 10-Dominic Gorden, 00:14.259[21]; 10. 3K-Kaleb Montgomery, 00:14.280[2]; 11. 88A-Joey Ancona, 00:14.295[15]; 12. 41-Dominic Scelzi, 00:14.331[24]; 13. 33D-Dylan Bloomfield, 00:14.336[4]; 14. 9L-Luke Hayes, 00:14.356[10]; 15. X1-Chance Grasty, 00:14.358[11]; 16. 83SA-Kalib Henry, 00:14.402[8]; 17. 7B-Sean Becker, 00:14.412[16]; 18. 55-Trey Starks, 00:14.416[14]; 19. 7P-Jake Andreotti, 00:14.483[1]; 20. 67-Grant Duinkerken, 00:14.529[22]; 21. 61-Travis Labat, 00:14.530[3]; 22. 17-Jace Park, 00:14.561[23]; 23. 5DD-Destry Miller, 00:14.632[26]; 24. 02-Ashton Torgerson, 00:14.658[7]; 25. 7-Jett Barnes, 00:14.675[25]; 26. 36B-Kevin Barnes Sr, 00:15.140[27]; 27. 10R-Tyler Thompson, 05:37.398[20]