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Kaeding Wins Wild Sprint Car Main at Chico |
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(Chico, CA 4-25-08)...Tim Kaeding won his 47th career main event at Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night. It was his second Friday night win of the year during the Feather Falls Casino point championship series. Kaeding pocketed $2, 000 for the win with the nights sponsor being Withrow's Motorsports and JP's Paint and Body Works. “This one is for Joel McCray tonight,” said Kaeding in victory lane. McCray, a long time sprint car supporter, recently passed away. The J.F. McCray name has been proudly displayed on the top wing of the #10 Tom Rolfe / Duke McMillen sprint car for years. “It feels good to come home and actually get to race,” said Kaeding. “We went back East for a few weeks and I think I was starting to grow some web-feet with all the rain outs we had back there.” Loomis resident Kyle Hirst led all 20-laps to win the non wing sprint car main event. “It was fun tonight driving for the Orth family,” said Hirst. “The track was real good tonight and it provided for some fast racing.” Defending track champion driver Richard Papenhausen won the 15-lap dirt modified main event. “We've had a lot of bad luck to start this year,” said Papenhausen. “But hopefully tonight we are starting to turn things around with this win.” The 410 winged sprint car main event rolled onto the speedway with 20 cars set to go 25-laps. The track was perfectly prepared with a top and bottom groove and an old school choppy middle that would bite some of the drivers during the race. Andy Forsberg lived up to his “old” nickname of Mr. Excitement and took the early lead from pole sitter John Allard. Three laps into the race Forsberg clipped a rut in turn one and drifted off the edge of turn one. With the mistake Forsberg fell back to the fifth spot. Allard assumed the lead with Willie Croft in second. The race was halted on lap four when Mike Monahan stopped in turn for with front end damage. He would make repairs and return to the track and play a part in the overall outcome of the race. On the restart rookie Colby Copeland flipped in turn four. He was uninjured but could not return. Racing resumed and Allard built up a little bit of a lead. Allard's night turned from promising into devastating on lap ten. Going into turn one Allard closed in quickly on the slower car of Monahan. As Allard went to set his car the two made contact sending each driver up and over. The red flag was waived. While drivers tried to slow down Matt Shelton clipped a rear wheel and flipped down the front stretch. All three driver were uninjured but done for the night. Croft was now the leader of the race. Following Croft was Tim Kaeding, Blake Robertson and Sean Becker. Another red was needed on lap 12 when Emalee Ramirez flipped off turn two. She was fine but her car was not able to continue on. On the restart Kaeding made his move. He passed Croft entering turn three. Croft tried to pass Kaeding back but hit a rut, lifted the front end off the ground and consequently Croft slammed into the front grandstand wall. He came to a stop and was done for the night. Kaeding took over as the leader. He was challenged by Sean Becker for the lead a few times. Becker had moved into the second spot with some nice passing on the bottom of the race track. Becker made the battle for the lead entertaining but during the final few laps Becker got stuck behind some slower cars and Kaeding was able to stretch the lead. Kaeding crossed the line in first followed by Becker and Robertson. Forsberg finished fourth and Stephen Allard was fifth. Jason York was in the fourth spot with laps winding down but slid off the back stretch and fell to the sixth spot. It was a championship night when you consider the top six in the finishing order are all former track champions at Silver Dollar Speedway. Kyle Hirst started on the front row of the 20-lap non wing main event. He grabbed the lead on lap one and was never challenged during the next 19 laps. Behind Hirst was a good battle for second. Most of the race had Justin Funkhouser holding down the spot. On lap 15 contact between himself and Kenny Webber sent Funkhouser around into the infield and a yellow was needed. Funkhouser never rebounded and finished 16th. The hard charger of the night was point leader and rookie driver Keith Bloom Jr. He was originally slated to start outside row one with Hirst but he needed to be push started for the main event. With the infraction Bloom Jr. was sent to the back of the field. He started in the 14th spot and on lap 15 moved into second. During the final restart Hirst had a three car cushion over Bloom Jr. It proved to be too much for Bloom Jr. to overcome and his charge to the front would end in the second spot. Hirst went on to record the victory. Mason Myers drove a great race to finish in the third spot. Taylor Simas wound up finishing in the fourth spot while Rob Jones rounded out the top five. Richard Papenhausen started on the front row of the nights 15-lap dirt modified main event. Out front was something Papenhausen would not give up. To say he dominated the race would be an understatement. At one point Papenhausen had a half lap lead over the rest of the field. Moving into the second spot on lap seven was Randy McDaniel. The veteran of the speedway needed a yellow to reel in Papenhausen and make a race of it. The race went non-stop and McDaniel was never able to get a shot at the leader. Dustin Massey made a rare start and was solid all night. He drove a hard race and battle McDaniel throughout the night. Massey ended up third. Eddy Lewis pulled double duty tonight and finished fourth in the modified main event. Darin Ruley finished fifth. Jason York led all 12 laps to win the B main event. Mason Moore finished second. Sean Becker won the first heat race of the night. Heat race two was thrilling as John Michael Bunch held off Kaeding to get the popular win. It was his first bit of success behind the wheel of a sprint car. Keep an eye out for this rookie. Third heat race went to 64-year-old Dan Simpson. He held off a charging Andy Forsberg to get the win. Willie Croft once again wowed the crowd by turning an 11.508 in qualifying. The top ten in qualifying were all in the 11-second bracket. Rookies Mitch Miller and Bloom Jr. each won their 8-lap heat race in the wingless division. Papenhausen won the only modified heat race. Full results of tonights races are available at www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com |
