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Trophy Cup on deck for Thunderbowl Raceway this weekend
By Gary Thomas
Tulare, CA - November 12, 2007...The 2007 racing season at Tulare’s Thunderbowl Raceway is coming to an end and will officially conclude this Friday and Saturday Nov 16 & 17 with the running of the 14th annual Trophy Cup for winged 360 sprint cars. All the top 360 drivers in California are set to do battle with several competitors from the 410 ranks who will be looking to get their hands on part of the $90,000 purse.
The Trophy Cup’s unique format makes for "on the edge of your seat" racing all weekend long as some sort of larger than normal invert is featured during both night’s of action. Everything leads up to the big 40 lap main event on Saturday night that inverts the entire 24 car field based on points accumulated up till that point. The driver that gains the most points for the weekend will walk out of Tulare with a guaranteed payday of $15,000. The Trophy Cup also benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the organization will be presented another check on the front straightaway this Saturday night.
Last season it was San Jose’s Tim Kaeding who took home his second career Trophy Cup title and he will be looking for number three this year behind the wheel of the Tom Rolfe Trucking No. 10. "TK" is coming off a third place finish during the Dave Helm Memorial World of Outlaw event at the Thunderbowl in October and is almost always the man to beat at the 1/3 mile clay oval. The 28 year-old also recently won Northern California’s other big 360 sprint car event, the Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals in Chico. He did so by charging from the 14th position, showing that he still knows how to get it done from the back, something very important at the Trophy Cup. "TK" has had much success at the Trophy Cup over the years and in addition to his overall point wins in 2002 and last season, he finished runner-up in 2003 and won the Saturday night main event in 2005.
Kaeding’s win in the Trophy Cup last season was boosted by a terrific drive from 18th to second in the 40 lap finale, but it was just enough to beat out Clovis driver Jason Meyers who put on a outstanding charge from 22nd to fourth. Meyers drove his Primerica Financial No. 14 to within just one position of taking home his first Trophy Cup championship. The dramatic ending saw Meyers finish fifth at the checkered, however, third place finisher Ricci Faria was dq’d for being too light at the scales, which moved Meyers up to fourth in the final order. Even more amazing was the fact that Meyers finished less than a ½ a car length behind the driver running in front of him at the line, making the difference between winning 15 grand that little. It’s just one of the many things that make the Trophy Cup what it is and keeps fans flocking back year after year. Just this past month Meyers captured victory at the Short Track Nationals in Arkansas, which paid $20,000 to win. He also finished the 2007 season fifth in World of Outlaw points and will be looking to add his name to the list of Trophy Cup champions this weekend. Meyers won just this past Saturday night at Kings Speedway when he dominated the 360 sprint car portion of the Cotton Classic.
No driver has had a better last few months of racing than Indianapolis, Indiana’s Shane Stewart who will be one of the drivers to beat at the Trophy Cup. Stewart hooked up with the Oregon based Doyle’s Harley Davidson team in July and experienced success right out of the gate. The crew chief on the Doyle’s No. 1hd is talented wrench Paul Silva and he & Stewart have proven to be a deadly combination. They won seven times in just 10 starts with the Northwest Sprint Challenge Series and have picked up several big wins including the Knoxville 360 Nationals, the Fred Brownfield Memorial Challenge, the Skagit Speedway 360 Nationals and have even won a World of Outlaws event in Elma, Wash. In late October Stewart led 39 laps at the Short Track Nationals in Arkansas, only to get passed on the final lap by Meyers for the $20,000 top prize. It was reminiscent of the Fall Nationals in Chico where he was also passed on the last lap of the main event. With that said you can bet that those will only make the former World of Outlaw Rookie of the Year hungrier for a Trophy Cup title.
Another driver to look out for at the Trophy Cup would certainly be Campbell’s Brent Kaeding who took home his 13th King of California title this season and has won four Trophy Cup championships making him the winningest driver in the event. BK has had a tremendous season at the Thunderbowl winning three times in four starts, including the Chris & Brian Faria Memorial & the Pombo/Sargent Classic. The living legend won the Trophy Cup in 2005 during the first year the event was held in Tulare and he would like nothing more than to close out a great season with another Cup title.
Brownsburg, Indiana’s Joey Saldana had the best year of his career in ‘07 and will be looking for his first Trophy Cup title behind the wheel of the Harold Main owned H.A.M. Construction No. 35. "The Brownsburg Bullet" drove Kasey Kahne’s Open Joist No. 9 to 13 main event wins en route to a second place finish in the final World of Outlaw standings this season. He finished eighth in last years Trophy Cup points and will look to better that position as he puts a cap on a terrific season. One of Saldana’s biggest career wins came at this years Gold Cup Race of Champions when he took home $50,000 for winning the event held at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway.
Central Valley car owner Dennis Roth will field a car for Fairmont, Indiana’s Brandon Wimmer. The 21 year-old drove the Roth Motorsports No. 83 jr. to victory in the $25,000 to win Dirt Cup in June at Skagit Speedway and has had a multitude of top finishes this season. Other World of Outlaw drivers expected will include Mount Vernon, Wash’s Jason Solwold; Nashville, Ten’s Paul McMahan and San Jose’s Randy Hannagan. Solwold will be at the helm of the Rod Tiner owned No. 83 which is the car that T. Kaeding drove to victory last season at the Trophy Cup. Tiner is widely regarded as one of the best wrenches in sprint car racing and with Solwold as his driver the pair should be definite players during the weekend.
A couple former Golden State Challenge King of California’s are also expected to challenge for the Cup title this weekend. Chico’s Jonathan Allard has won 11 main events this year in the Williams Motorsports No. 0 including a prelim with WOO at the Gold Cup. Allard has never won the Trophy Cup but is a driver that can do it if he plays his cards right. Last Saturday night he won the Cotton Classic at Kings Speedway giving him momentum coming into the weekend. Salinas driver Ronnie Day won the Trophy Cup in 1994 and is coming off a stout fourth place finish in the Dave Helm Memorial at Thunderbowl Raceway. Day finished fourth in Trophy Cup points last year and is always one of the hardest chargers in Nor Cal as he competes aboard the Ridgeline Framing No. 1.
Medford, Oregon’s Roger Crockett won the NSCS title this season driving in his second stint for Vallejo based car owner Roger Henderson. Crockett has been fast from the get go this season as he and the Island Muffler & Brake No. 7n team have been one of the top combos on the West Coast in 2007. One thing that Crockett possesses is great qualifying skills and he has been the quickest qualifier an amazing 12 times this year, including once at the Thunderbowl and both night’s at Skagit’s Dirt Cup. With fast time awarding 150 points it’s always important to get the weekend started off on the right foot in a point system such as the one drivers will be dealing with. As a car owner Henderson won the Trophy Cup in 2003 with Fresno driver Steve Kent and this season Crockett appears to have his best shot yet at taking home his first Cup title.
Two-time USAC Silver Crown Series champion, Bud Kaeding of Campbell will be a top contender at the Trophy Cup aboard the Werbach Motorsports No. 20 machine. The younger of the two Kaeding brothers picked up his third career victory in the Oval Nationals a couple weekend’s back and also showed speed with the wing on at the Fall Nationals in October where he finished in fourth place. The 27 year-old has a knack for performing well in big races so it wouldn’t be a surprise for the former Hammerdown NARC Rookie of the Year to make some noise during the weekend.
Some of the top drivers in Northern California 360 sprint car racing will also be on hand looking to put their names near the front of the field. This year’s Civil War Series champion Andy Forsberg of Auburn will make his first Tulare start of the season in the A & A Motorsports No. 92. Forsberg finished third at the Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals in October and also won Coca Cola Championship night at Chico in August. Colfax’s Colby Wiesz finished runner-up in Civil War points and has been flawless during the last few events aboard the F & F Racing X1. Wiesz recently won a prelim feature during the Fall Nationals and finished in the second position during the 40 lap finale. In September he also picked up the win in the Pacific Sprint Cup Invitational during Gold Cup week in Chico.
Placerville drivers Andy Gregg & Jimmi Trulli have had some of the best moments of their career’s in 2007. Gregg has driven to four personal victories this season and finished third in both the Civil War standings and the Silver Dollar Speedway points. However, he will not be piloting his familiar Guts Racing 16x as he’ll be behind the wheel of the orange 24m normally driven by Jackson’s Matt Petty. In ‘07 Trulli picked up his first career Civil Win in June at his home track of Placerville following many years of competition. He also picked up a win during a Civil War event at the scary fast Calistoga Speedway ½ mile in August. Elk Grove’s Greg Decaires has also had a strong season. Decaires won the Placerville Speedway track title for the second year in a row and picked up the $5,000 to win Mark Forni Memorial in July at the El Dorado County Fairground track.
Northwest car owner Kevin Rudeen will be fielding two cars at the Trophy Cup, one for 18 year-old Tayler Malsam of Bellevue, Wash and one for Langley, BC’s Travis Rutz. Malsam has driven for Rudeen Racing the last couple years and is set to move to the ARCA ReMax Series in 2008. Rutz will be making his first California start since February of 2006 and will be a welcome addition to the Trophy Cup. The 19 year-old has shown in the past that he’s not afraid to stand on the loud pedal and has become one of the most exciting drivers on the West Coast. The word through the grapevine is that Rutz will be moving to Rudeen Racing for ‘08 and this will be his first start for the team.
Other names expected will be Sacramento’s Willie Croft; Fresno’s Craig Stidham; Grass Valley’s Billy Wallace; Burlington, Wash’s Brock Lemley; Sedro Woolley, Wash’s Steve Kilcup; Carruthers’ Garret Ishii and many more. Reserved tickets can be purchased by calling (559) 688-0909 and general admission tickets can be bought at the door on race night. For more details visit http://www.thunderbowlraceway.com
There will also be an auction and a free spaghetti feed during Saturday afternoon on the fairgrounds. For the Trophy Cup race format, point breakdown and the pay out log onto http://www.trophycity.com/trophycup/
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
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www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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