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Photo by http://www.johnsracingphotos.com
Brent Kaeding scores Golden State Challenge Series win No. 80 at Placerville to open season
By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA – March 28, 2009…A standing room only crowd witnessed history on Saturday night at the Placerville Speedway as 13-time King of California Brent Kaeding became the first driver to reach 80 career wins with the Golden State Challenge Series after leading the final 12 laps of the 30 lap feature.
The season opening main event for the Golden State Challenge Sprint Car Series began with pole sitter Jonathan Allard of Chico jumping out into the lead. The two-time and defending King of California had earlier won the six lap dash to earn the pole position, but he soon had company in the form of Auburn's Andy Forsberg.
Forsberg has long been searching for his initial Golden State Challenge Series victory at his home track and early in the feature it was apparent that he wanted it to come on this night. The driver known as "Mr. Excitement" hounded Allard over the first half of the race as the pair put on some breathtaking racing in lapped traffic. Forsberg was able to get alongside Allard on a few different occasions during the first 15 circuits, but never had the momentum to complete the pass as Allard made great moves to slice and dice through the lapped cars.
It all changed rounding turn four on lap 17 however, as Forsberg showed no fear and shot to the high side of the race track as Allard got boxed in by a lapped car. The former Placerville Speedway track champ was able to get ahead of Allard entering turn one, but disaster struck as he got in a little to hot and the rear end began to come out from underneath him.
It resulted in Forsberg spinning sideways and with Allard having nowhere to go he made contact with the A&A Motorsports No. 92, leaving both cars with damage, but each were able to keep going. It did however allow Kaeding the opportunity to shoot from third to first in one fell swoop aboard his Al's Roofing Supply No. 69.
A caution flag then appeared the following lap and during it both Forsberg and Allard exited to the pits for repairs. Each driver was able to return, but on the ensuing restart a log jam occurred in the back and it ended with Forsberg flipping off the first set of corners to put a tough end to a night that had much promise going.
On the next restart another wild flip was seen when Colfax driver Colby Wiesz was struck by another competitor and went for a ride in turn four. Following this the final laps were able to tick off and with Kaeding now in front it was almost certain that he would have no troubles with the track being extremely fast and locked down. That wasn't the case though as Grass Valley's Jason Statler put his DF Rios Construction No. 00 on the ragged edge of the Placerville Speedway clay and gave it everything he had to try and track down the 13-time champ.
A couple of times it looked like Statler might have the opportunity to pounce on Kaeding, but the Campbell driver did what he had to do in the closing laps and drove off on the final circuit to take the checkered flag for his 80th career Golden State Challenge Series victory. "It feels good to come out here and start off the GSC season with a win," said BK. "We kinda struggled a bit to start the year and after qualifying tonight I didn't know if we'd have a shot at victory, but the guys got the car running good and thankfully we were in the right place at the right time in the main event."
Statler crossed the line in second, which was a nice way for the former King of California to begin his season. "We would have liked to finish one position higher, but we'll take a second cause we need to keep doing good to try and make this whole Golden State Challenge Series deal," Statler said. "I got alongside Brent once and thought I had it and he came up a bit and blocked my line, but that's what you have to do when you're leading a race and it was fun in those closing laps."
Coming home third in the 30 lap main event and picking up his best career Golden State Challenge Series finish was Placerville racer Andy Gregg in the Guts Racing No. 16x. "It feels pretty good to come out here and finish on the podium with these guys," Gregg commented. "I'm still looking for that first GSC win, but a third place finish in front of my hometown crowd is really cool. We had the car pretty good in the main event and hopefully this will be a sign of things to come for us this season."
San Jose's Tim Kaeding started 13th on the grid and methodically worked his way forward to score a fourth place finish in the Roth Motorsports No. 83jr. The 30 year-old driver challenged Gregg over the closing laps for a podium finish, but couldn't get the opening he needed and settled for fourth at the checkered.
Rounding out the top five was Scotts Valley's Evan Suggs in the Suggs Racing No. 33e, who earlier in the night tied the all-time Placerville Speedway track record with a clocking of 9.913. The result in the main event marked his best career Placerville Speedway finish.
Jonathan Allard charged forward late in the feature to get all the way back to sixth in the Williams Motorsports No. 0 with Mike Benson finishing seventh in the Benson Racing No. 77, Tyler Walker eighth in the SC Motorsports No. 24, Greg Decaires ninth in the Remund Racing No. 39 and Bud Kaeding completing the top 10 aboard the BK Motorsports No. 29.
The Golden State Challenge Sprint Car Series will return to action next Saturday night at the Antioch Speedway in Antioch, CA.
More results and info on the Golden State Challenge King of California Series can be found at http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com and for more info on Placerville Speedway log onto http://www.placervillespeedway.com
Placerville Results March 28-
Fast time- Evan Suggs 9.913
Heat 1- Tim Kaeding
Heat 2- Brent Kaeding
Heat 3- Greg Decaires
Dash- Jonathan Allard
B-main- Bud Kaeding
A-main- Brent Kaeding, Jason Statler, Andy Gregg, Tim Kaeding, Evan Suggs, Jonathan Allard, Mike Benson, Tyler Walker, Greg Decaires, Bud Kaeding, Myles Bishop, Colby Copeland, Kyle Larson, Richard Brace Jr, Mike Stallings, Bill Strange Jr, Colby Wiesz, Brandon Carey, Andy Forsberg, Dan Simpson, Pat Harvey, Justin Johnson
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