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Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series set for second annual Doug Fort Memorial this Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Santa Maria, CA – April 28, 2010…With May already upon us in a few days the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series will kick-off an action-packed and busy month of racing by making a visit to the beautiful Santa Maria Speedway this Saturday night May 1 for the second annual Doug Fort Memorial.
The weekend as a whole, which also includes the Ocean 360 Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo on Friday, pays honor to Doug Fort, who built the Santa Maria Speedway in 1964 and helped mold it into one of the top dirt tracks in the country as the owner/promoter until his passing in 1999. The 1/3 mile clay oval has been named "Best Short Track Operation West of the Mississippi" on two separate occasions and is nestled in a semi amphitheater of natural terrain, sheltered by dense eucalyptus trees at the top and to the back of the bleacher area.
Last season the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series returned to the Santa Maria Speedway for the first time since 2005 and raced in front of an extremely packed house during the night of racing. Promoter Chris Kearns has done a phenomenal job with the track and Saturday's event will be the first of two season stops, as the traveling 410 circuit will also return for another night of action on July 10. The show this Saturday will also feature the second annual Angello's ATV Rental Wheelie Contest.
This weekend's event will mark the sixth round of competition in the 25-race Golden State Challenge schedule and will be the furthest south that the series will get this year. It will also be the sixth of 13 different facilities that the tour will visit in 2010, from as far south as Santa Maria to as far north as Lebanon, Oregon. A full program of qualifying time-trials, heat races, a dash and the 30-lap $3,000-to-win/ $400-to-start main event will be on tap this Saturday night during the second annual Doug Fort Memorial.
Southwest Contractors is also putting up a $500 total bonus to the three highest finishing 360's on Saturday, with $250 going to the highest finishing 360, $150 to the second highest and $100 to the third.
Following a fourth place finish last Saturday in Watsonville, coupled with a dnf suffered by Chico's Jonathan Allard, former 13-time King of California Brent Kaeding has assumed the Golden State Challenge point lead going into the Doug Fort Memorial.
The driver of the Al's Roofing Supply, Angello's ATV Rental No. 69 has won at the Santa Maria Speedway multiple times in his career, including with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series in 1997. "Santa Maria has always been a special place for us to go and it's the track I won my first ever sprint car race at so it's always fun to go back there," said the 1978 Santa Maria Speedway Rookie of the Year. "We're hoping for a couple good shows on Friday and Saturday and hope as many people as possible can come down to support the weekend, because we know everyone will have a good time."
After leading the points since opening night Allard now finds himself two-digits back of Kaeding for the top spot in the standings. Allard had won three of the first four GSC events of 2010 going into last Saturday and spent time battling for the lead in the feature, until contact while fighting for third resulted in him suffering a dnf at Ocean Speedway. The former two-time King of California will bring his Williams Motorsports, K&N Filters No. 0 into Santa Maria this weekend looking for redemption after the tough ending last week. Allard last season had problems in qualifying at Santa Maria, but rebounded in the feature for a seventh place result.
Continuing to claw his way forward in the standings and now sitting third is Elk Grove's Kyle Larson, who is just 14 out of the lead and has scored podium finishes in each of the last three GSC events aboard his Stadelhofer Construction, Peppermill Resort-Spa-Casino-Reno No. 99 machine. The 17-year-old came close to scoring his third career series victory last weekend in Watsonville, until losing the lead in traffic with just six circuits remaining in the feature and settling for second at the finish. Larson's Santa Maria Speedway debut last year saw him running third in the main event, until contact on a restart knocked him out of contention for a strong finish.
Ranking fourth in the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series standings and still only 18-digits out of the lead is Scotts Valley's Evan Suggs, who has finished among the top-10 in every event so far this season with the tour. The wheel-man of the Suggs Racing, Riley Collins Body Shop No. 33e set fast-time last weekend at Ocean Speedway and goes into a track this weekend where he also has non-wing experience at, as he searches for his first career GSC win. Last season Suggs had a strong night in Santa Maria by setting quick-time, winning the dash and capped the evening by finishing second to Tyler Walker in the feature.
Elk Grove's Bobby McMahan currently rounds out the top-five in the Golden State Challenge Series standings going into the second annual Doug Fort Memorial on Saturday. The 1996 Northern Auto Racing Club Speedweek champion last season captured the Silver Dollar Speedway 410 title and in 2010 has started off the year following the GSC trail in his C&H Veteran Enterprises, World Environmental No. 26b sprinter. McMahan claimed a Golden State Challenge victory at the Santa Maria Speedway in April of 1997, while at the time driving the Bumgarner family No. 88 machine and goes into this weekend sitting just 13-points out of third in the series standings.
Going into this weekend with momentum is Campbell's Bud Kaeding, who drove the Alviso Rock, Angello's ATV Rental No. 29 to his seventh career Golden State Challenge Series victory last Saturday night at Ocean Speedway. The three-time and defending USAC Silver Crown champion has scored top-10 finishes in all of his four GSC starts so far this season and also tallied a runner-up effort three week's ago in Tulare. Kaeding last year ran fifth in the inaugural Doug Fort Memorial and he'll be looking to improve upon that on Saturday.
Other possibilities for Saturday night's second annual Doug Fort Memorial will include Grass Valley's Jason Statler, Easton's Tommy Tarlton, Clovis' Peter Murphy, West Linn, Oregon's Zach Zimmerly, Penngrove's Alissa Geving, Visalia's Cory Eliason, Pleasanton's Brad Furr, American Canyon's Matthew Davis, Fresno's Mark Workentine and Anthony Simone, Selma's Charlie Louden, Caruthers Garrett Ishii, Merced's Mark Barroso and more.
The front gate will open at 3pm on Saturday night May 1 with the drivers meeting scheduled for around 3:45pm, qualifying at 5 and racing at 6. Adult tickets will cost $19, with seniors, student and military $17, kids 6-12 $5 and children 5 and under free. Parking and camping at the Santa Maria Speedway is free of charge. Saturday's event will also see two kids bikes being given away. For discounted lodging rates in Santa Maria contact the Fairfield Inn & Suites 805-925-8500.
The Santa Maria Speedway is a 1/3 mile clay oval, located 12 miles inland from the Pacific coast, three miles north of the city of Santa Maria and is located a 1/4-mile north of the US 101/166 interchange on Hutton Road. The facility is one hundred seventy miles north of Los Angeles and 260 miles south of San Francisco. More information on the second annual Doug Fort Memorial and Santa Maria Speedway can be found at http://www.racesantamariaspeedway.com
Coming up this month- The month of May has traditionally been one of the fun and exciting months in Northern & Central California 410 sprint car racing and this season is no different, as the Golden State Challenge Series will head for its biggest race of the season next Saturday night with the 20th running of the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico.
Following the Bradway the series will then make its second and final visit of the season to the Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare for the annual running of the prestigious Pombo/Sargent Classic on Saturday May 15. After that the Golden State Challenge Series will then make its return to the Giant Chevrolet Kings Speedway in Hanford for a Friday night event on May 21.
The tour will then close the month of May with a triple-header on Memorial Day weekend beginning with a night of racing at the Petaluma Speedway on Friday May 28, followed by two-night's of action at the famed Calistoga Speedway half-mile on Saturday and Sunday May 29 & 30. Sunday's show will be the 19th running of the Salute to Walter T Ross as we pay tribute to the former Northern Auto Racing Club president and car owner.
The Golden State Challenge King of California Sprint Car Series offers an array of sponsorship opportunities for the 2010 racing season. Sponsorships range from series/event advertisements, weekly contingency (product) sponsors and full title sponsorships. If you are interested in becoming a part of the 2010 Golden State Challenge King of California Sprint Car season please contact the business office at (916) 969-7484.
For a full schedule of events, updated point standings and all your info pertaining to the Golden State Challenge Sprint Car Series log onto http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com
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Campbell's Brent Kaeding will go into this weekend leading the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series points for the first time this season aboard his Al's Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza, Angello's ATV Rental No. 69. "BK" is pictured after winning last year's Angello's ATV Rental Wheelie Contest during the inaugural running of the Doug Fort Memorial at Santa Maria Speedway. The 13-time King of California was also the Rookie of the Year at the 1/3 mile clay oval in 1978. Photo by Chuck Fry of http://www.chucko.com/photo/index.html
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