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Tim Kaeding, Danny Sheridan & Alex Stanford win features at Tulare Thunderbowl |
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Tulare, CA – April 11, 2009…When you put San Jose's Tim Kaeding on the pole at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway, often times there will only be one result and that was apparent on Saturday night with the 30 year-old driving Dennis & Theresa Roth's No. 83 to a dominating flag-to-flag victory in the main event. Also sharing victory lane during the night was Danny Sheridan with the Bandit 360 Series & Alex Stanford with the Western States Modifieds. The win for Kaeding marked the 41st of his career with the Golden State Challenge Sprint Car Series and also was the first in many years for car owner Dennis Roth at the Thunderbowl Raceway. "It's great to come out here and get a win in Tulare because Dennis hasn't won a race at this place in eight years," Kaeding said. "I just have to thank this whole team and everyone whose out here supporting 410 sprint car racing. I also have to thank all the fans for coming out and hopefully they saw a good show all night." Kaeding started from the pole by way of winning the dash for the second weekend in a row aboard the DTR Transport, Roth Motorsports No. 83. The former King of California shot into the lead at the waving of the green flag and had his way for much of the 30 lap contest en route to his first Golden State Challenge Series win of the year. Early on the in the feature the man to watch was last week's winner Tyler Walker, who started 10th and tried to run the extreme high-line around the 1/3 mile clay oval. The driver of the SC Motorsports No. 24 looked to be marching his way forward, but with the track still being very fast it made things difficult and the highest he could get up to was fifth, before dropping a few spots and ultimately ending the feature in eighth. As the laps ticked down Kaeding continued to lead, although traffic allowed Grass Valley's Jason Statler the opportunity to close in slightly, but with "TK" being mistake free it never gave Statler a chance to pounce. The final handful of laps actually saw Statler have his hands full with 16 year-old Golden State Challenge Series Rookie Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, who put his Vertullo Racing, Star Property Management No. 83v on the tip top of the track. With Kaeding taking the white flag with plenty of breathing room, the attention was focused on second place as Statler and Larson were nose to tail. Larson charged to the high-side in turn one and looked to the outside of the DF Rios Construction, YAK Graphics No. 00. The pair raced closely together down the backstretch with Larson once again shooting to the top of the track in turn three and looked to have the momentum to make the pass, but Statler was able to use his veteran experience and slide up in front of Larson to take the line away and score second at the Willie Williams checkered flag. It marked the second runner-up finish of the season for Statler and is exactly what he needs to continue running with the traveling 410 sprint car series. "We would have liked to get up there and race with Tim, but finishing second is a good finish in Tulare for us and that's what we need to keep doing," Statler said. "I have to thank Mark and everyone with this team for giving me a good car tonight and we'll move on and try to get a win next week." Larson's third place finish happened to be his first career Golden State Challenge Series podium and came on a night in which he was extremely impressive right from the get go, qualifying second fastest, winning his heat race in dominating fashion and also scoring fourth in the dash. "We finally got this engine running tonight and it was a big help getting down these straight-aways," said Larson, who finished sixth in the final Trophy Cup point standings last year. "I really like this track and we seem to have success whenever we come here. I have to thank the Vertullo family for giving us the chance to come out and race with GSC this year and I'm looking forward to next week." Rounding out the top 10 were Placerville's Andy Gregg, Chico's Jonathan Allard, Campbell's Brent Kaeding, Easton's Tommy Tarlton, Los Angeles' Tyler Walker, Ripon's Brandon Carey and Fremont's Brent Bjork. An exciting Bandit 360 Wingless Series main event was captured by veteran driver Danny Sheridan of Santa Maria. The USAC 410 racer ran much of the early stages of the feature around sixth, before methodically working his way forward and dicing it up with Clovis' Peter Murphy and leader Richard Vanderweerd. Sheridan made his presence known just before the midway point as he battled Murphy for a couple of laps until getting by on lap 13. Once in second Sheridan quickly closed in on the leader and the pair proceeded to put on a great show for the fans running nose-to-tail for a number of laps. Vanderweerd was doing a great job out front, but the driver as "Showtime" executed a picture perfect slide job in turn four to claim the top spot on lap 22. As the five to go signal was given however, the top three cars started to bunch up and the action intensified. Murphy had found a groove up higher than the other two drivers and used it to get a nice drive coming off the corners aboard his Tarlton & Son Inc. No. 21. The Australian native continued to charge around the Thunderbowl Raceway up high and blasted around Vanderweerd to claim second on lap 28. He then stayed to the high-side and as the white flag waved he had Sheridan in his sights. Murphy motored to the top of the track and looked to have the speed needed to race by Sheridan, but "Showtime" drove a perfect final set of corners to narrowly beat him out at the line for the victory. Sheridan also set fast time to begin the night and won his heat race to score a clean sweep for the evening in his Kittle Motorsports No. 18 sprinter. The Western States Modifieds featured a stout 43 car field and at the end of the night it was Chowchilla's Alex Stanford who stood in victory lane after making a late race pass to pick up the win. "I still can't believe I was able to the pull it off on that restart," Stanford said. "It was a fun race and the track was great so it made for some good racing." The main event started off with former Silver Dollar Speedway track champ Richard Papenhausen jumping into the lead. The veteran held the top spot for 10 circuits before Brad Pounds took command off turn four. The race changed on a lap 17 restart however, when Papenhausen and Pounds made contact battling for the lead, allowing Stanford the chance to shoot by to take command of the race. The final lap saw Stanford cross under the checkered to pick up the win with Papenhausen, Bobby Hogge, Paul Stone and Ryan McDaniel rounding out the top five. Pounds slowed rounding turn four and dropped to eighth at the finish. Results can be found at http://www.westernracer.com Racing will return to the Thunderbowl Raceway on Saturday night May 2 with the Golden State Challenge Series and Western States Modifieds in action. More info can be found at http://www.thunderbowlraceway.com |
