Tim Kaeding fends off challenges of Justin Sanders to claim fourth Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo victory of season with Tommy Tarlton 2010 champion

By Gary Thomas

Watsonville, CA – October 17, 2010…In a main event worthy of championship night on Friday at the Ocean Speedway San Jose, California’s Tim Kaeding charged from the eighth starting spot and withstood the relentless challenges of Prunedale’s Justin Sanders to record his fourth win of the season with the Ocean Sprints.

The victory for Kaeding marked the second year in a row that he has captured the season-finale, as he gears up for this coming weekend’s Trophy Cup in Tulare at the helm of his Roth Motorsports, DTR Transport Inc., HR Cattle No. 83jr mount.

Friday’s exciting win was also “TK’s” 14th overall on the West Coast this year and tied him for the most victories with the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo in 2010.

“That was a fun one right there and I have to say what a great job by Justin Sanders tonight because he was running the bottom really well and made me work for this one,” said Kaeding. “I just want to thank my whole crew and Dennis and Teresa Roth, who have given me a great opportunity and hopefully we can put something together in the off-season to be back out here as a team.”

The final 30-lap main event of the season for the Ocean Sprints began with the previous week’s winner Brent Kaeding of Campbell jumping into the lead. Things got off to a rough start as yellows and reds plagued the early stages, which included a lap-one red flag period that saw Easton’s Tommy Tarlton involved. The incident didn’t hurt Tarlton’s chances at the title however, as he had mathematically clinched his second consecutive championship following heat race competition.

After going to the work area Tarlton was able to rejoin the field and on the ensuing restart second place in points Kyle Larson of Elk Grove also had issues of his own, when he suffered damage to his front end and came to a stop off the first and second corners. The 18-year-old was unable to make it back out for the next restart, but following a red flag period for fifth running Shane Golobic of Fremont on lap-four, Larson pushed back out a couple laps down.

Once things got shaken out the action started to heat up with clean and green laps finally being seen and it soon became a battle between Brent Kaeding and Tim Kaeding up front, with Justin Sanders shadowing the father/son duo. Entering lapped traffic “TK” closed right up to the bumper of “BK” and as they came around turn four to complete lap 13 the younger Kaeding shot by to grab the lead. One-lap later Sanders followed suit and made an impressive pass to get by B. Kaeding and move the North County Plastering, B&K Trump Farms No. 17 to second.

The final half of the race saw T. Kaeding and Sanders battle wheel-to-wheel up front, as the recently turned 18-year-old gave the former King of California all he could handle in the fight for the lead through lapped traffic.

With “TK” continuing to run his patented high-line Sanders remained committed to the bottom of the Ocean Speedway and got to the inside of T. Kaeding on a number of occasions, even inching his way to the lead a few times. Despite Sander’s best efforts “TK” was once again a master through traffic and drove off to take the checkered by 1.008 seconds and earn his fourth win of the year with the Ocean Sprints in just five starts.

Crossing the line in second to tally his second best finish of the Ocean Sprint Cars presented by Taco Bravo season was Sanders, who also locked up the fifth position in the final standings, the highest finish of his young sprint car career. “It feels pretty awesome to race with Tim Kaeding like that and is really great to be back up here on the podium,” said Sanders, who claimed a win on May 7 with the Ocean Sprints. “I have to thank my whole team, all of our sponsors and also Eric Rossi because he’s been a big help here recently.”

Coming home in third for his second straight podium result to finish off the Ocean 360 Sprints season was Brent Kaeding in the Al’s Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza No. 69 machine. “We really wanted to win this thing tonight, but it’s a pretty good way to the end the season here being on the front stretch the last couple weeks,” said B. Kaeding, who ended the year fourth in points. “We’ll just get ready for the Trophy Cup now because it’s the best event of the year and we hope everyone comes out to support it.”

Rebounding from the early race incident and charging all the way back to fourth by the time the checkered flag waved was Tarlton aboard the Corporate America Lending, Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino No. 21 sprinter. Tarlton officially won his second consecutive Ocean 360 Sprints title by 44-points over Kyle Larson and did it by claiming four wins overall, as well as finishing among the top-five in each of the last six events of the season at Ocean Speedway.

“It’s just great to bring home another title this season and we couldn’t be happier right now,” commented Tarlton. “We’ve really been focusing on having fun the last couple years and I think it has definitely paid off for us and I owe a huge thanks to my dad, my whole family and all my crew for their support. Paul Baines and my guys have given me awesome race cars this year and we’ve been fast no matter where we’ve gone. I also have to thank each and every one of our sponsors. Corporate America Lending came on board this year and it feels awesome to give them a championship.”  

Rounding out the top-five in the 30-lap feature was Salinas, CA’s Ronnie Day in the Keith Day Trucking, El Camino Machine and Welding No. 22 mount. The former King of California finished off a successful first season driving for his brother Keith Day, by ending the year third in the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo standings. Completing the top-10 in the main event at the season-finale were Stockton’s Brad Furr, Morgan Hill’s Devon Ostheimer, Corralitos’ Jerry Bonnema, Gilroy’s Kurt Nelson and San Jose’s Matt Sargent.

The 12-lap b-main was claimed by San Jose’s Ryan Rusconi with three eight-lap heat races also being held and captured by Shane Golobic, Tommy Tarlton and Ronnie Day respectively. Beginning the night by settling fast time was Brad Furr, who was also the quick time qualifier at the season-opener in April. The veteran driver carved his way around the quarter-mile on Friday in 12.353 seconds aboard the Ray Scheidts Electric No. 2 sprint car. Full results are available at http://www.oceanspeedway.com

Final top-10 in Ocean Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo standings:

1. Tommy Tarlton 793; 2. Kyle Larson 749; 3. Ronnie Day 683; 4. Brent Kaeding 674; 5. Justin Sanders 663; 6. Cory Eliason 636; 7. Brad Furr 627; 8. Devon Ostheimer 621; 9. Craig Smith 595; 10. Matt Sargent 591

Main event winners in 2010:

April 16- Bud Kaeding
April 30- Tommy Tarlton
May 7- Justin Sanders
May 14- Kyle Larson
May 22- Tim Kaeding
June 4- Tommy Tarlton
June 25- Kyle Larson
July 16- Kyle Larson
July 30- Tommy Tarlton
August 20- Tim Kaeding
August 28- Tim Kaeding
September 24- Tommy Tarlton
October 8- Brent Kaeding
October 15- Tim Kaeding

For more information on the Ocean Sprint Cars presented by Taco Bravo log onto http://www.oceansprints.com and for more on the Ocean Speedway visit http://www.oceanspeedway.com