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Photo by Mike Seifert of http://www.hoseheadswest.com/
Bud Kaeding finishes 6th at Oval Nationals before heading to Arizona for more USAC action
By Gary Thomas
Lake Perris, CA – November 4, 2008…Strapping behind the wheel of a wingless sprint car for the first time this season Campbell, CA’s Bud Kaeding knocked off the rust and drove to a sixth place finish during the final night of the 13th annual Budweiser Oval Nationals this past weekend.
Kaeding went into the prestigious event as the defending champion and the only three-time winner of the Oval Nationals, but also went into it this season without having made a wingless sprint car start in 2008. With that in mind he would have to knock the rust off quickly, considering the immense talent on hand that featured National and Regional stars who had been running without the wing on a weekly basis throughout the year.
Opening night saw 59 cars take times to begin the 13th annual Oval Nationals and Kaeding, along with many other top drivers, didn’t get the qualifying time he would have liked as his 17.432 placed the BK Motorsports, K&N Filters, MPD Racing Products Maxim sprinter 39th quickest. The 28 year-old then rebounded in his heat race to tally a third place finish and proceeded to charge from 23rd to 10th in the 25 lap main event to cap off the night on a good note.
Another prelim followed on Friday and it saw Kaeding qualify much better as he clocked the 15th quickest lap of the session out of 60 cars, before running fourth in his heat race and finishing 10th in the main event for the second night in a row. With the consistent finishes from the first two nights it was good enough to place the two-time Silver Crown champ ninth in the overall weekend points and it gave the Kaeding Performance, High Five Pizza, Alviso Rock No. 29 a fifth row starting spot come Saturday.
When Kaeding won last year’s Oval Nationals he ironically started in the fifth row of the main event on the final night and he hoped to duplicate that run this year during the 40 lap contest. Early on he was able to move up a couple spots after the waving of the green flag, but backed up a bit during the middle stages of the race. Kaeding then re-grouped and began to come forward in the later stages of the 40 lap feature and by the checkered flag had made it back up to sixth, finishing just behind a stacked top five that included winner Jesse Hocket, Jerry Coons Jr., Kevin Swindell, Brad Sweet and Darren Hagen.
Copper Classic and Western World up next:
After completing the Oval Nationals Kaeding and BK Motorsports will now turn the attention to a big weekend of racing beginning this Thursday with the Copper World Classic at the Phoenix International Raceway, where Kaeding will be in action with the USAC K&N Silver Crown Series. It will mark his first pavement start of the season and he’ll go into it sitting 10th in the Silver Crown standings.
The Copper World Classic is shaping up to be the best Silver Crown Series event of the season as a full field of race cars is expected with top names such as Ryan Newman, Bobby East, Michael Annett, Davey Hamilton and more entered for the race, in addition to the usual stars such as Jerry Coons, Dave Darland, Brian Tyler, Levi Jones, Shane Cottle, Tracy Hines and others.
After Thursday’s Silver Crown event Kaeding will head for the 41st Budweiser Western World Championships at the Manzanita Speedway, which will put a wrap on the 2008 USAC National Sprint Car Series season. The Campbell veteran has had a lot of success throughout his career at the Manzy half-mile having won the Western World Championships twice in his career, with those victories coming in 2002 & ’04, and also finished runner-up in ’03 and third in ‘06.
Last season Kaeding set fast time on opening night of the Western World Championships and then brought home a third place finish during the 40 lap A-main on Saturday night. A very talented field is expected to be on hand once again this weekend at the Manzanita Speedway and Kaeding will look to continue his success at the track when the event kicks off on Friday evening.
More info and pictures of Bud Kaeding can be found at http://www.budkaedingracing.com
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After finishing sixth at the Oval Nationals, Bud Kaeding and BK Motorsports will now head to Arizona for the Copper World Classic at PIR on Thursday and the Western World Championships at Manzy on Friday & Saturday. Photo by http://www.JohnsRacingPhotos.com
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