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Golden State Challenge Series begins final two weekends with Ocean/Antioch double-header this Friday & Saturday
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – July 16, 2008…Just two weekends remain in the fight for the Golden State Challenge King of California Series championship and the start of four races to go will begin with the final visit of the season to the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville on Friday night. Following Ocean Speedway the series head will head for an event at the Antioch Speedway on Saturday, which will also be the final visit of the season to the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds bullring.
Former King of California Jonathan Allard goes into the weekend holding a 41 point advantage over Tyler Walker in the GSC standings, as he shoots for his second title in the last three seasons with the traveling 410 winged sprint car series.
Allard will look for a consistent weekend to maintain the edge going into his home track of Silver Dollar Speedway next Friday & Saturday. The driver of the Williams Motorsports No. 0 led laps in the main event before finishing fourth in the most recent series visit to Ocean Speedway. He also finished third in the visit to Antioch in early April and has spent this week racing in Oregon with the ASCS NW Series where he picked up the win on Monday night.
Walker was victorious during the last GSC event at the Ocean Speedway and was also the winner of the Antioch event in April. The exciting driver is coming off a runner-up finish at Silver Dollar Speedway last Saturday night and will look to put the SC Motorsports No. 24 near the front of the field this weekend. Walker made a rare 360 start in Watsonville last Friday and finished in the third spot.
Current Ocean Speedway point leader Bud Kaeding will look to put his BK Motorsports No. 29 into victory lane when the Golden State Challenge Series invades his home track on Friday. The Campbell racer continues to sit third in the standings with one victory during his first full season back with the series in many years. Kaeding finished runner-up in the previous GSC event at the Ocean Speedway.
Sacramento’s Mike Henry comes into the weekend fresh off a fourth place result last Saturday in Chico and will look to finish off his inaugural GSC campaign on a strong note. Henry has scored a best finish of 11th at the Ocean Speedway this year and also ran eighth in the early season event in Antioch. He’ll look to improve upon those finishes this weekend aboard the HMH Motorsports No. 93.
Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs continues to round out the top five in the GSC point standings and is coming off back to back sixth place finishes at the Silver Dollar Speedway. The 21 year-old driver of the Suggs Racing No. 33e also sits fifth in the Ocean Speedway standings and will certainly like to pick up his first career GSC victory in front of his home town crowd on Friday.
“The Big Guy” Jason Statler will to run up front this weekend at a pair of tracks he routinely does well at. Last Saturday night in Chico saw the Los Gatos driver running out front during the main event until an incident in lapped traffic took away his shot at victory. The driver of the Statler Racing No. 00 sits third in the Ocean Speedway point standings.
Another driver looking for a better outing this weekend will be 13-time and defending King of California Brent Kaeding who got upside down on two different occasions in the main event last Saturday. The Campbell veteran currently sits runner-up in the Ocean Speedway standings and was the track champion last season. The driver of the Al’s Roofing Supply No. 69 has also been very successful at the Antioch Speedway as he’s won three times at the bullring since 2004 and finished runner-up in April.
San Jose’s Tim Kaeding will look for his GSC Series high fifth main event win of the season this weekend after picking up the victory last Saturday in Chico, which came during his first night behind the wheel of the Roth Motorsports No. 83jr. The 29 year-old finished third during the most recent Ocean Speedway event and was also the winner of the July event at the Antioch Speedway last year.
Other drivers expected this weekend will include Fremont’s Shane Golobic & Brent Bjork; Chico’s Stephen Allard; Easton’s Tommy Tarlton; Oroville’s Destiney Hays; Ripon’s Brandon Carey; Gilroy’s Ken Fredenburg & Kurt Nelson; Fresno’s Mark Worketine; Rio Vista’s Dan Simpson and more.
The front gate at the Ocean Speedway will open at 4:30 pm on Friday with adult tickets costing $20, children 6 to 12 $10, seniors 65 and older $15 and kids five and under will be free. The Ocean Speedway is located on the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville, California. For more info on the track visit http://www.oceanspeedway.com
The front gate at the Antioch Speedway will open at 5 pm on Saturday with adult tickets costing $16 while kids and seniors are $10. An early arrival is recommended as all seating is general admission and the Antioch grandstand tends to fill to capacity when the Golden State Challenge Series is in town. The Antioch Speedway is located at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds on the corner of 10th & L Streets in Antioch. For more info on the track log onto http://www.antiochspeedway.com
Up Next-
The Golden State Challenge King of California Series season will come to a conclusion with the annual two-night finale at the Silver Dollar Speedway next Friday & Saturday July 25 and 26. A big weekend of action is expected with extra money and special goodies on the line beginning with Friday’s festivities that will pay $4,000 to win the A-main courtesy extra money being kicked in by Specialized Parts Planet.
In addition to the extra main event money on Friday, Mancamp Motorsports along with Twin Cities Trophies will also be supplying two trophies for each heat race winner and the dash winner. The winners will stop on the front stretch and do a quick interview before heading up into the stands and giving one trophy to a boy and one trophy to a girl. Mancamp Motorsports will also be giving each heat race winner and the dash winner two sleeves of tear-offs.
The weekend will also feature a $1,000 bonus put up by Mike & Carol McCann of Cherry St. Mini Storage to the driver who earns the most points over the two-night event. It should make drivers get their elbows up just that much more as they compete on the always action packed Silver Dollar Speedway bullring.
Saturday July 26 will also feature the first Tribute to Gary Patterson at the Silver Dollar Speedway as the event honoring the late driver has moved over to Chico after many years of being in Calistoga. Everyone involved with Silver Dollar Speedway is happy to host the event and keep the long standing tradition going. More news on all the happenings over the next couple weeks can be found at http://www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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