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Photo courtesy http://www.johnsracingphotos.com
Bud Kaeding scores podium in Watsonville and 6th in Antioch
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – April 5, 2009…A third place finish at the Ocean Speedway on Friday night highlighted this past weekends action for Campbell, CA's Bud Kaeding in what was his first race of the season behind the wheel of the Sala Racing No. 19 sprinter.
Friday's event at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds facility marked the very first event of the season for the GLR Investments 360 Series at the track and a total of 26 cars signed in at the back gate.
Kaeding started off the night by qualifying eighth fastest overall to give him a front row starting spot in his heat race. The 29 year-old driver jumped into the lead at the waving of the green flag and proceeded to hold off father Brent Kaeding and drive the M&M Finishes, Weldway Construction, Kaeding Performance No. 19 to victory in the eight lap contest.
The scheduled 30 lap main event saw Kaeding line-up from the eighth position and he quickly moved forward through the pack. The two-time Silver Crown champ fought his way forward in the yellow flag plagued contest and when the checkered flag came out on lap 22 he sat in the third position. "It was a good way to start the season with this team," he said. "We were really fast and got Statler for second at one point, but the yellow came out and had to go back."
After Friday's event Kaeding made then made the drive down to the newly re-configured Antioch Speedway for Saturday's Golden State Challenge Series show. After timing-in 12th fastest in the field he would start from the second row in his heat race and make a nice move early on to get into the lead. Kaeding would then go on to easily win his heat race for the second night in a row.
With a few cars not transferring out of the heat races it gave Kaeding a chance to compete in the evening's dash. The Campbell driver started from the fifth position and at the checkered brought home a fourth place result to put the K&N Filters, Alviso Rock, Swift Metal Finishing No. 29 in the second row for the feature.
By main event time the track had slicked off and become tricky to navigate. At the waving of the green flag Kaeding sliced his way into third and ran much of the early stages fighting it out among the top five. A long green flag run was seen during the middle part of the race and it made for some hectic racing as lapped traffic was a huge part of the story.
As the laps ticked down Kaeding was part of a great battle for the fifth spot and narrowly missed out on a top five finish at the checkered flag when Kyle Hirst was able to edge him out. "The track was pretty tough tonight and getting through traffic was difficult with all the cars bunched up together," Kaeding said. "We'll take it though and go on from there and look forward to taking the wing off next weekend."
This coming Friday and Saturday will find Kaeding traveling back to the famed Eldora Speedway to compete with the USAC National Sprint Car Series in the Coca-Cola Spring Classic. The event will mark the season opener at the blazing fast half-mile dirt oval and will feature many of the top wingless sprint car racers in the country on hand to compete at the historic speedway.
More news and info on Campbell, CA's Bud Kaeding can be found at http://www.budkaedingracing.com
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Bud Kaeding drove the Sala/Matherly No. 19 sprinter to a third place finish in the main event on Friday night at the Ocean Speedway. Photo courtesy L & J Photography
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