M&M Racing Photos pic

Southwest Contractors Trophy Cup benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation fires-off this Thursday at Merle Stone Chevrolet Thunderbowl Raceway

Tulare, CA - October 17, 2016...Excitement & buzz is floating through the air as one of the biggest weeks in California Sprint Car racing has arrived, which means only one thing, it must be Trophy Cup time at Merle Stone Chevrolet Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.

The Southwest Contractors Trophy Cup is not only known for featuring some of the best racing seen all year long, but it’s also well regarded for being held to benefit one of the truly great organizations around, the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Two seasons ago Dave Pusateri & the Trophy Cup team went over the $1,000,000 mark for donations to the foundation and this weekend that total will grow even more when the 23rd installment of the prestigious show takes place.

All of the special events on the fairgrounds that help add to the Make-A-Wish Foundation pot will be held once again, including the Thursday Chili Dog Night sponsored by Taco Bravo, the Taco Bravo Fiesta Night on Friday and the Saturday afternoon spaghetti feed sponsored by La Villa Delicatessen. The post race parties run from 11pm to 1am, while the spaghetti feed goes from 12:30pm to 3:30pm. Live music will be featured with drinks available for purchase inside.

A Friday morning breakfast sponsored by the Tulare County Fairgrounds is also going to occur from approximately 8am to 10:30am. A new twist is being added to the Taco Bravo Friday Fiesta later that night, as a dancing with the stars competition will be held. Current & past racers such as Kyle Hirst, Bud Kaeding, Andy Forsberg, Ryan Bernal, Howard Kaeding, Craig Smith & others will test out their dancing skills with the crowd watching on.

As always a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation at the door during all the special events is appreciated. Cow Pie Bingo will also be held on Saturday, with squares available to be purchased throughout the weekend for $10 each. The winner of Cow Pie Bingo will go home with $1000.

This weekend’s action will also take place on a new & improved surface that is wider in each set of corners thanks to Thunderbowl promoter Steve Faria. It certainly passed the test during the King of the West event on October 8, with the extra room allowing drivers the opportunity to slide each other back & forth, which bodes well with the best of the best set to be on hand this Thursday-Saturday. The entry list is scattered with talent from all around, in what has turned into a true “All Star Showcase” for the west coast.

Past Trophy Cup winners entered this year include defending champion Bud Kaeding of Campbell, three-time winner Tim Kaeding from San Jose, two-time victor Jason Meyers of Clovis, plus single-time winners Willie Croft of Sacramento, Chico’s Jonathan Allard and Fresno’s Craig Stidham.

“To finally get the Trophy Cup under my belt last year was a huge deal,” Bud Kaeding commented. “Joining my dad & brother as a Trophy Cup winner is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. This is one of, if not the biggest race we run all season so it’s something we take very seriously. Above & beyond however, it’s put on to benefit a great cause, so we hope all the fans will come out and pack the stands. The track was really racy at the KWS show and I think everyone is going to be treated to an outstanding weekend of racing at the Trophy Cup.”

Driver’s looking to take home the Trophy Cup for the first time will include Paradise, California’s Kyle Hirst; Fresno’s Cory Eliason; Altoona, Iowa’s Terry McCarl; Fremont’s Shane Golobic; Kokomo, Indiana’s Parker Price Miller; Hanford’s DJ Netto; Hollister’s Ryan Bernal; Clarksburg's Justyn Cox; Princeton’s Mason Moore; Watsonville’s Justin Sanders; Fresno’s Dominic & Gio Scelzi; Roseville’s Sean Becker & Colby Copeland; Hanford’s Mitchell Faccinto; Visalia’s Blake Robertson & Steven Tiner plus many many more.

“It’s been great to see the fan support continue to grow at the Trophy Cup year after year,” said Steve Faria. “The extra events on the fairgrounds have definitely turned the race into a happening and one that people mark down on their calendar every season. I know we are looking forward to it and hope everyone else is too. Dave Pusateri and his entire team do an outstanding job with everything and I know we’re honored to host the Trophy Cup for the 12th straight year.”

Tickets continue to be on sale for the 23rd annual Southwest Contractors Trophy Cup, with all seating in the house reserved during the weekend. Grandstand tickets cost $40 on Thursday & Friday and $45 on Saturday. Bleacher tickets are $35 on Thursday & Friday and $40 on Saturday. Kids 6-12 are half price and 5 & under are free. A seating chart is available at www.thunderbowlraceway.com and tickets can be acquired by calling 559-688-0909. The pit gate opens at 10am on Thursday October 20, with the drivers meeting at 3:30pm sharp.

Williams Roofing of Fremont, CA has put up the Royal Fan Draw for all 3-nights at the Trophy Cup. A trivia question will be asked and the fan that answers correctly will pull a random number (1-24) out of a bag. The fan automatically wins $100 and if the driver wins the feature from the starting spot drawn, the driver receives a $1000 bonus. If nobody wins the bonus on Saturday night the $1000 will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

To keep track of all the latest happenings from the 23rd annual Southwest Contractors Trophy Cup be sure & follow the official Twitter of the event https://twitter.com/trophy__cup

Top 10 in final Trophy Cup points last year: 1. 0 Bud Kaeding, 2. 21x Carson Macedo, 3. 21m Jason Meyers, 4. 22 Shane Golobic, 5. 26 Willie Croft, 6. 83 Sheldon Haudenschild, 7. 88 Terry McCarl, 8. 83sa Tim Kaeding, 9. X1 Sean Becker, 10. 83sr Jac Haudenschild

The Merle Stone Chevrolet Thunderbowl Raceway is located at the Tulare County Fairgrounds on the corner of Bardsley and K Streets in Tulare, California. From the junction of SR 99 and SR 137, go west on SR 137. At South K go south one-half mile to the Fairgrounds.

www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com

TDS Shots Photo

www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com

Former Trophy Cup champions

1994 Ronnie Day
1995 Kevin Pylant
1996 Brent Kaeding
1997 Mark Kinser
1998 Brent Kaeding
1999 Brent Kaeding
2000 Tommy Tarlton
2001 Craig Stidham
2002 Tim Kaeding
2003 Steve Kent
2004 Jac Haudenschild
2005 Brent Kaeding
2006 Tim Kaeding
2007 Jason Meyers
2008 Brad Sweet
2009 Tim Kaeding
2010 Jonathan Allard
2011 Jac Haudenschild
2012 Jason Meyers
2013 Kyle Larson
2014 Willie Croft
2015 Bud Kaeding

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2014 winner Willie Croft returns to the Rudeen Racing 26 this weekend. TDS Shots Photo

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Gary, is there any PPV of this great weekend, here's hoping.....Mike

The Cushion has PPV for the trophy cup, the website is not showing me the cost though.  Nothing beats being at the track in person (especially all the passing at this race), but last year the grapevine (I5) got me mudded out (remember Doty's road trip).

But if you can not be there in person, the PPV is one of the best out there (good connection, quality and great announcers).  Other than maybe knoxville, it's one of the best's out there.

cheers

We'll have special #TrophyCup23 "Light up the World" Water Bottles available to purchase this weekend in Tulare. Bottles will be $5 each, with every cent of the money going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We'd like everyone who gets a bottle to bring them on Saturday night to have them with you for the check presentation & 4-wide to help light up the grandstands blue! Bottles will be available at the post race parties, the spaghetti feed or by seeing myself or Steve Gomez during the weekend at our campsites.

www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com

Water party at Gary's motorhome!!

Radio silence on the pay per view has me concerned. It'd be nice to know for setting weekend plans etc. Lets not keep this a secret and then announce a price the day of. Get the hype machine rolling now and tell us if its happening for sure and how much, thanks.

Cheers!

GT....excitement might be able to float through the air but i just can't seem to get off the ground.

signed....buzz.

to indy and beyond!!

Radio silence and secrets? Has anyone bothered to check their website instead of throwing out insinuations? This website has been nothing but first class and provides some of the best streamed sprint car content out there.

Pricing is right there on the site: 

PRICING

Single night pricing also available.  Thursday/Friday $27($24 for members).  Saturday $32($28 for members).

I'm a longstanding paying monthly member of their website, so yes I checked the site first before posting my question. The price wasn't there until I checked late last night. Also you still couldn't pre purchase it as of yesterday. That is odd since all the other live pay per view they have offered has been available for preorder. Nowhere was I saying they were anything but first class. I love thecushion.com. The fact is there hasn't been any PR on this forum about pricing and availability. It would seem since the race is happening this week you would want to hype the production to get people buying the pay per view. Literally that IS attempting to help their cause. I want all streaming services to succeed as I 100% believe it is the future of our sport. Mainstream TV just doesn't work for live sprint car racing.

Cheers!

what time does hotlaps/broadcast start on Thursday?  Have to wait till friday to be there in person

Will likely pick up the PPV, which is about $105 up here in Canuckland.  Can Henry or some other left coaster explain the format for each night, many thanks in advance....Mike

format (get as many points as you can, invert of 12 on Thursday/Friday for mains, and on Saturday after all the action including heats on Sat, INVERT THE FIELD for the last race.  

but here are the specifics  http://www.trophycup.org/2016RulesPointStructureFormat.pdf

trophycup.org should have the information you might want or need.

...............

the cushion shows a start time of 7 PST, I sure hope they will show hot laps/qual.  They normally do.  Anyone know when hotlaps start on Thursday/friday? and qual?

hotlaps 4pm PST

time trials 5 pm

6:30 first race

.....

jdfast pretty much got you sorted with the PDF file you can download. I recommend doing that and printing it out as this format can get confusing at times for anyone new to the process. The main thing to remember is that every single lap matters to every single car. Points, points and more points. Thats what its all about to set them up for the Saturday A Main. Normally in a format where the most points earned in qualifying and prelims would place you at the back of the field you'd have sand bagging but with this format thats not what happens. You want to be the guy with the most points thus earning the privilege to start dead last in Saturdays A Main. That means you're in the running for the points title which is what pays the most money. The rest of the spots work there way down the points totals to line up the event. 24th in points starts on the pole. There are so many great battles raging throughout the A Main thats its hard to keep up. I've seen TK start 24th place as top point earner going into the A Main on Sat night and win the points title while passing every car to win the race. An amazing feat passing all those cars and then taking the big prize home of the points title. I've never seen a crowd so pumped up as I did when he won that race. Unless that type of feat occurs again there is two drivers at the end of the night that are happy in victory lane, points title holder and A Main winner. 

Now somebody who has attended one out of the prior 22 years of this race (I wont mention names but they've done it the past couple years) might have seen a stinker and feel the need to tell you it isn't as great as it's hyped up to be but disregard that. I have yet to find another event that so consistently produces such an exciting event. Will there be crashes? Yes, there always are. It's to be expected when so many good cars are going all out every time they're on the track. For me this is the absolute best racing format for the FANS. It just so happens the racers love this event too. Who doesn't love an event where it's all about the passing?

Cheers!

^  what Henry said.

of all the events I have been too, this is the one I look most forward too (other than hopefully doing chilli bowl one year).

Bottom line, everytime you hit the track, drive it like you stole it.  and it's a big party which benefits the Make A Wish Foundation

cheeers

That could have been me. I don't think the race was a "stinker", just too many wrecks & yellows. 

I love the concept of total inversion for the final, thats why I went....

Hopefully wider track will be an improvement

I'd be willing to try again

Results???

It was a fantastic 3 nights of racing. 59 cars, down a bit from last year and previous yrs, but still great excitement in every race that hit the track. A few wrecks, but no trips to the hospital and even a 9:58pm checkered flag on night 1. 

Night 1, Shane Golobic leads the field comfortable until a lap 26 yellow, with 2 or 3 grooves of racing all around the track. Kyle Hirst (Roth 83jr) and Jason Meyers (Tarlton 21x) running 2nd and 3rd, line up behind Golobic. Hirst slides Golobic in Turn 1&2 on the restart, then Golobic gets past in turn 3, slides up turn 4, and Meyer nailed the bottom and drives under both for a 3rd to 1st pass, and goes on for the win. Hirst passes Golobic coming off 4 with 1 to go, runs 2nd and Golobic 3rd. Allard 4th, TK 5th. 

Night 2, Track reworked before main event, was very fast, narrow and passing minimal during the first 10-15 laps. TMac had things in check, but spins with 8 to go, giving the lead to 14 yr old Michael "Buddy" Kofoid, who becomes the youngest winner at Tulare and will be a name to hear alot more in the future. Jason Sowald 2nd, Sean Becker runs 3rd. Golobic 4th, up from 10th, Meyers 5th, Reutzel 6th. 

Hirst top point driver after 2 nights (only use 1 of the 2 nights points) at 280, Golobic tied with Allard and Sowald @ 274pts. 

Night 3 After heat races of the top 48 in points fully inversted, TK is top points, followed by Hirst, Golobic and Allard. 

Track was reworked before 50 lap main event, but not as wet as night 2 so it came in much sooner. Willie Croft in Rudeen 26 takes the lead and checks out. Allard flipped on lap 6. Netto runs from 10th to top 3 early on. Excitement was watching Hirst, TK and Golobic carve their way through the field, Golobic using the high line exclusively, Hirst and TK going high and low, multi grove racing was awesome. At lap 35 red for fuel running order was Croft, VanDam, Netto, Tiner, with Hirst 5th, TK 6th and Golobic 7th, Tmac 8th. On the restart, Steven Tiner, running 4th, half spins off of turn 4, with TK and Hirst committed to the low side collecting some of Tiner, who keeps going, along with Hirst. TK to the pits. On the restart, Golobic rails the top in 1&2 around Hirst and Tiner, moving to 4th, but TK brings out a 2nd yellow, done for the night. On restart, Golobic used the low line in 1& 2 to get under Hirst and passes Tiner down the backstraight. Hirst slipped back a few more spots to TMac and Ryan Bernal. lap 41, TMac spins, setting from 6th or 7th, setting up final 9 lap dash. Croft has 4-5 lappers behind him, checks out easily, Netto gets around Henry VanDam, Golobic runs 4th, Tiner 5th and Hirst back up to 6th. 

Croft wins the main event leading all 50 laps, Netto got 2nd late in race, VanDam 3rd, Golobic 4th (TCup Points Championship), Tiner 5th, Hurst 6th (2nd in overall points). 

Tulare, Steve Faria promoter, Dave Pusateri (Tcup organizer) and everyone involved put on an incredible 3 days of racing and festivities. This has become the premier West Coast race of the year and this year did not disappoint. For those who did not attend or watch on the Cushion.com, I suggest purchasing the 3 day DVD's from the Cushion for $35, it will be well worth it.