Penultimate event of Ocean Sprints year on Friday night marks first win of 2010 for Campbell’s Brent Kaeding

By Gary Thomas

Watsonville, CA – October 8, 2010…Throughout 2010 in Northern California one of the many story lines as the season progressed was the fact that Campbell’s Brent Kaeding had yet to visit victory lane. With the year slowly coming to an end that all changed on Friday night when the 13-time King of California took the lead with just under 10-laps remaining and drove off for his first triumph of the season.

The victory also broke a long winless spell at the Ocean Speedway for Kaeding, whose most recent win at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds track had come during the season opener last year aboard his Al’s Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza No. 69 mount.

“It feels great to get back up here in victory lane and it’s been so long since I’ve done this I really don't know what to say,” said an emotional “BK” on the front stretch. “I want to thank all my guys and sponsors for sticking behind me because they’ve been working real hard all year long. My crew chief Billy Albini was home sick tonight so Brian Matherly came over and he made some great calls on the car all night.”

The penultimate main event of the year for the Ocean Sprint Cars presented by Taco Bravo began with Salinas, CA’s Ronnie Day jumping into the lead from the pole behind the wheel of his Keith Day Trucking No. 22 machine. The opening lap however, saw a pileup in turn four bring on the red lights before a lap had been completed, which made for a complete restart.

When the field realigned and the green lights came back on it was Day once again rocketing into the top-spot in the first and second corners. He was soon followed by second row starter Brent Kaeding, who made the move by Easton’s Tommy Tarlton to grab second. It then set up a classic fight between the two veteran drivers that were both in search of season win number one for the 2010 campaign.

A few stoppages and slowdowns during the first half of the race created an excessive number of yellow flag laps, which then forced officials to throw the red with 15-laps complete for a fuel stop. At the midway point the top-five cars on the speedway were Day, Kaeding, Tarlton, Visalia’s Cory Eliason and 12^th starter Kyle Larson of Elk Grove.

After cars were pushed back off and racing got back underway Kaeding proceeded to step up his challenges and hounded the rear bumper of Day as lapped traffic soon came into play on the blazing fast quarter-mile clay oval. With Day continuing to hang onto the lead “BK” then blasted to the bottom of the raceway and got just enough of an opening to slice his way underneath and into the top-spot on lap 21.

Immediately after the exchange of the lead Day’s night took a turn for the worse when a spun car left him with nowhere to go and ultimately knocked him out of contention in the fourth corner. On the restart Kaeding charged away from the pack, but the action behind him started to heat up with drivers looking to dice it up for position as the laps wound down. The driver on the move was the recently crowned King of California Larson, who made the pass of Eliason with six to go and then closed in on Tarlton for second.

With just a few circuits remaining in the race heavy duty lapped traffic approached for the leaders, but Kaeding made some quick and precise moves to give himself a slight cushion over the rest of the pack. Tarlton though had his hands full with Larson and the pair would fight it out among a gaggle of slower cars, trading spots multiple times over the final couple laps. After taking the white flag “BK” charged off to grab the checkered by 1.150 seconds and record that elusive first victory of the season.

Winning out in the intense fight for second was Larson, who made a number of great passes to get up to the runner up spot after starting from the outside of row six aboard his Stadelhofer Construction, Peppermill Casino-Reno No. 99x sprinter. “I just want to congratulate Brent on finally getting a win tonight, because he deserves it and I couldn’t be happier for him,” said Larson. “I don’t know how many cars I passed in those last few laps, but it was pretty exciting and I have to thank my crew for giving me an awesome car.”

Tarlton crossed the stripe in third and will go into next week’s Ocean Sprint Cars presented by Taco Bravo finale with a 28-point advantage at the top of the standings over Larson, as he looks to finish off his bid at making it back to back titles. “I’m a little disappointed to come home third after starting on the front row, but these are the finishes we need trying to wrap up the championship,” said the driver of the Corporate America Lending, Tachi Palace No. 21. “We’ll just come back next week and try to finish it off with a win.”

Having a solid run in the main event to score fourth and earn his best finish of the late season at Ocean Speedway was Prunedale’s Justin Sanders in the North County Plastering No. 17 and rounding out the top-five was Eliason aboard the Advance Auto & Smog No. 00x sprint car. Finishing sixth and claiming the “On the Move with Thirty Five Industries” hard charger award was Fremont’s Shane Golobic, who carved his way through the field from the 17^th starting spot. Completing the top-10 were San Martin’s Craig Smith, Stockton’s Brad Furr, Corralitos’ Jerry Bonnema and Fremont’s Brent Bjork.

A pair of 12-lap b-mains were held during the evening and were claimed by Brent Kaeding and Cory Eliason respectively, with four 10-lap heat races being picked off by San Jose’s Matt Sargent, Morgan Hill’s Devon Ostheimer, Shane Golobic and Fresno’s Anthony Simone. A total of 34-cars signed into the back gate and the night began with Ronnie Day topping the charts in qualifying with a lap of 11.946 around the quarter-mile. Full results from the night can be found at http://www.oceanspeedway.com

The 2010 Ocean Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo season will come to an end next Friday night October 15 at the Ocean Speedway with the front gate opening at 4:30pm, hot laps at 5:45, qualifying around 6 and racing to follow.