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SEASON NEWS
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2010
Ocean Speedway Taco Bravo 360 Sprint Car Series |
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Photo by Paul Trevino of
http://www.paultrevinoracingphotos.com
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Tim Kaeding
comes out on top of ultra exciting Ocean Sprint Car
Series presented by Taco Bravo main event Saturday
night at Groppetti Automotive
Thunderbowl Raceway
By Gary Thomas
Tulare, CA – May 23, 2010…When
it comes to thrilling races at the
Groppetti Automotive
Thunderbowl Raceway San Jose, California's Tim
Kaeding is routinely in the thick of things each
time and on Saturday night the former King of
California once again put his name towards the front
of the field and claimed victory in the 30-lap
feature with the Ocean 360 Sprint Car Series
presented by Taco Bravo.
The most recent 360 sprint car event at the Tulare, California
based track had seen Kaeding score the win at the
annual Trophy Cup, coming from 24th to
first during the final night's main event and his
victory this past Saturday marked his third career
triumph with the Ocean Sprints.
"That was some of the most fun I've had racing there
and trading the lead with
Kyle Larson and Tommy Tarlton through traffic
because you can't get much better than that," said
Kaeding, who also captured the final two events of
the 2009 Ocean Sprints season last October. "We had
a real great track tonight so that made for some
great racing again
here and I have to thank Dennis & Teresa Roth, my
whole team and all you fans for coming out tonight."
With the number zero pill being drawn it put
fast-qualifier Tommy Tarlton on the pole with T.
Kaeding on the outside and when the
green flag waved the
San Jose driver jumped into the lead aboard his Roth
Motorsports, DTR Transport No. 83. Early on it was
apparent that great racing was going to be seen as
drivers used every inch of the expertly prepared
Thunderbowl Raceway 1/3 mile clay oval. Following a
couple of caution periods Tarlton started to hound
the rear of Kaeding and with a handful of laps down
the current Ocean Sprint Car Series point leader and
defending champ made the move by to claim the lead.
The final caution of the event would come out on
lap-six for Grass Valley's Jason Statler and Vancouver, Washington's
Zach Zimmerly, who had both come to a stop in turn
four. When flagman Willie Williams waved the green
once again the final 24-circuits were clicked off
caution free and featured some tremendous racing as
side-by-side action was seen all throughout the
pack. Elk Grove's Kyle Larson made his presence
known on the lap-six restart by carving his way into
fourth after starting from the sixth row aboard the
Stadelhofer Construction, Peppermill Casino No. 99
mount. The fight for the lead remained a torrid one
as T. Kaeding closed back in and around lap-12 would
make his way back by Tarlton for the top-spot.
Tarlton showed that he wasn't done just yet however,
and returned the favor shortly after to re-claim the
lead as the pair put on a thrilling show for the
crowd on hand. As the midway point was reached
Larson continued his charge to the front and
dispatched of Salinas, CA's
Ronnie Day to claim third, before quickly closing in
and making it a three-way fight for the lead. The
trio proceeded to put on some of the best
wheel-to-wheel racing you could ever see as they
went three-wide multiple times with lapped cars in
the mix every step of the way.
With about 10-laps remaining Larson then got the
bite needed to slip under both Tarlton and T.
Kaeding to make it three-abreast down the front
stretch and push his way to the front of the field
as the crowd got on their feet. "TK" stuck his
machine at the tip-top of the raceway though and
charged back around Larson to move to the front of
the field off turn two heading down the back
straightaway. The 17-year-old youngster stayed with
it and got side-by-side with the Roth No. 83
sprinter multiple times over the next few laps,
until T. Kaeding got into a groove and put some
distance between he and the rest of the field.
With T. Kaeding stretching the lead out Larson now
had to deal with
Campbell's Brent Kaeding, who
had come out of nowhere and sliced his way under the
youngster with just six-laps remaining to steal the
runner-up spot aboard his Al's Roofing Supply, High
Five Pizza No. 69. As "TK" had the race in hand out
front the battle to watch was the fight for second
between the BK Motorsports teammates with B. Kaeding
and Larson having a tremendous duel over the closing
laps.
When flagman Willie Williams waved the checkered T.
Kaeding crossed under it in first with B. Kaeding
winning the fight for second and Larson finishing in
third. Both Brent Kaeding and Larson started in row
six and had great runs in the feature to round out
the podium. Completing the top-10 in the exciting
Ocean Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo main
event were the Corporate America Lending No. 21 of
Tarlton, the Keith Day Trucking No. 22 of Ronnie
Day, the Buster & Ziggy Enterprise No. 11 of Clovis'
Peter Murphy, the KRC Saftey No. 3 of Fresno's Craig
Stidham, the BR Motorsports No. 94t of Visalia's
Steven Tiner, the Ray Scheidts Electric No. 2 of
Pleasanton's Brad Furr and the DF Rios Construction
No. 00 of Jason Statler.
The evening's b-main was captured by Gilroy's Kurt Nelson with the three eight-lap
heat races being won by Prunedale's Justin Sanders,
Statler and Zach Zimmerly. Tarlton set fast-time to
begin the evening with a clocking of 13.816 around
the 1/3 mile clay oval. Full results will be
available at
http://www.oceansprints.com
Also winning main events during the night at the
Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway were Alex
Stanford, who won his fourth consecutive dirt
modified feature at the track and Chris Smith, who
scored victory in the inaugural
Tulare
appearance for the
west coast street stocks.
The Ocean Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo
will take this coming week off before resuming
action at the Ocean Speedway on Friday evening June
4. The Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway will
be back in action this coming Sunday night with the
annual Salute to Indy featuring the USAC/CRA
Wingless 410 Sprint Cars.
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