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Photo by http://www.johnsracingphotos.com
Brent Kaeding wins another in Antioch and moves atop Golden State Challenge 410 Series standings with five races to go
By Gary Thomas
Antioch, CA – July 18, 2009…Continuing his strong 2009 campaign 13-time King of California Brent Kaeding inherited the lead with seven laps to go on Saturday night at the Antioch Speedway and led the remaining distance to pick up his fourth Golden State Challenge victory of the season, which was good enough to make him the third different point leader in as many weeks with the touring 410 series.
It was Kaeding's 83rd career GSC triumph and also marked his fourth victory at the Antioch Speedway since 2003. "We're just having a lot of fun out here this season and it feels great to get another win," said the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame member. "They're trying hard to get this place back to where it used to be and the added bank is definitely nice and makes it pretty racy. I want to thank all you fans for coming out tonight and supporting us because it's great to see these stands packed."
The 30 lap Golden State Challenge Series main event was led down by Selma's Charlie Louden, who earlier in the night scored a huge victory by winning his first ever dash with the series. When the green lights flashed on however, it was outside front row starter Jason Statler charging into the lead aboard his DF Rios Construction No. 00. Placerville's Andy Gregg quickly jumped into the second spot and would hound Statler over the early laps as the track had become very slick and treacherous.
With slide jobs being traded with regularity throughout the field, Chico's Jonathan Allard showed his strength in the early going from his third row starting spot and would make a strong move to take over second from Gregg with an outside pass in turn four on lap eight. Soon after that Gregg, Kaeding, Elk Grove's Kyle Larson and Los Angeles' Tyler Walker would then duke it out as they flung their 850 hp machines around the extremely slick Antioch Speedway bullring, before a yellow flag flew on lap 10.
When the green flag came out again the battle for the lead heated up as Allard was all over the rear of Statler challenging for the top spot. The two veterans ran nose-to-tail for a handful of laps until Allard got to the inside of Statler and ran side-by-side with him through turns three and four, but didn't have enough to stick the pass as Statler hung on as they crossed the line. Allard would not be deterred though and would finally get the traction he needed down low off the second corner to rocket into the lead on lap 17.
A lap after that the caution lights would flash on again and with 18 laps in the books the top five positions on the speedway were filled by Allard, Statler, Kaeding, Larson and Gregg. The restart saw Allard charge away from the field in his Williams Motorsports No. 0 however, the second and third positions would change hands, as Statler slid a bit high off turn two and gave Kaeding the chance to shoot into the runner-up spot with Larson following along in third. With traffic soon coming into play Allard held a comfortable lead, but it would soon evaporate as the slower cars allowed "BK" the opportunity to close in.
With heavy duty lapped traffic ahead of him Allard was doing a solid job after getting bogged down at one point and actually began to put distance back between himself and Kaeding, until he got in a little bit hot in turn one and looped the car sideways on lap 23. As he attempted to keep it going a lapped car had nowhere to go and contacted the side of Allard's machine, which resulted in it tipping over and causing a red flag. The two-time King of California was able to go to the work area and then rejoin the field to get back up to eighth by the finish.
With Kaeding now in front with just seven laps remaining he had no worries as he pulled away from the field to score his third win in the past five Golden State Challenge Series races. "Every week it's been a battle out here with the competition level being really strong up front and the racing has been great," said the driver of the Al's Roofing Supply No. 69. "We'll now move on to Chico for two nights next week and see if we can keep running good and get this thing towards the front again."
Crossing the line in second after making an inside pass of Larson on the lap 23 restart was Statler, who continued his solid season with the Golden State Challenge Series. "I thought we were going to get a win tonight, but we'll take a second place finish because we just need to keep running consistent out here with these guys," said the Grass Valley driver. "I just slipped up a bit there late in the race on that restart and lost a couple of positions and couldn't recover from it. We're going to try to finish out the season with Golden State and see if we can get some wins in these last few races."
Making a great rebound in the main event to come home third after starting 11th was Larson, who had various issues plaguing his Vertullo Racing No. 83v right from the beginning of the event. "With the way the night started we're happy to bring this car home in third," said the 16 year-old throttle masher. "The track was tricky tonight but we had the car really good and it was fun to race like that with those guys. I have to thank all our sponsors and we're definitely looking forward to going back to Chico next weekend because we've been pretty fast at that place and got a win there earlier this season."
Ending the feature in fourth and making a good rebound in his own right was Walker, who was involved in a wreck during his heat race and was forced to start the main event from the fifth row aboard his SC Motorsports No. 24. Finishing fifth and scoring his fourth top-five result in six GSC starts was Gregg in his Guts Racing No. 16x. Rounding out the top 10 in the main event were Scotts Valley's Evan Suggs, Ripon's Brandon Carey, Allard, Louden and Fresno's Mike Stallings.
Full results will be available at http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com
Next week will see the Golden State Challenge King of California Sprint Car Series invading the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico for two nights of action on Friday and Saturday July 24 and 25. Saturday's event will be the 26th annual Tribute to Gary Patterson and will feature extra money on the line to be detailed in the coming week.
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