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4^th annual Howard Kaeding Classic shaping up to be a can’t miss weekend on July 11 & 12 at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway

By Gary Thomas

Watsonville, CA – June 24, 2014…One of the most anticipated weekends of the year in Northern California Sprint Car racing will go green at the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville on July 11 & 12, with that being the fourth annual Howard Kaeding Classic.

Adding to the excitement this year will be the very first double-header weekend featuring both of the west coast’s premier Winged Sprint Car Series’ taking to the track on back-to-back nights. On Friday evening the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo vs. the Civil War 360 Sprint Car Series presented by Flowmaster will attack the Ocean Speedway clay, while the powerful King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series invades the quarter-mile on Saturday.

Special events on tap during the weekend will include a Thursday night car show & party on July 10 at the High Five Pizza location at the Silver Creek Sportsplex off Hellyer Road in San Jose from 5pm-9pm. Various drivers and race cars will be on hand at the get together, for what will be the official kick-off of the Howard Kaeding Classic weekend.

There will be a bbq chicken & rib dinner from 6pm-8pm for donation, with proceeds going to the Silver Creek Sports Plex Foundation, which aims to ensure that every child, regardless of financial ability, is able to participate in local amateur athletic training and competition. Please come out and enjoy a fun night with some great food, all put on for a great cause.

Hive Five at the Plex is located at 800 Embedded Way in San Jose, CA 95138.

Following Friday nights races High Five Pizza will also be putting on a post-race party at the track, along with a Saturday afternoon luncheon, which will kick-off the final night’s action. Both events will be held to support the Northern Auto Racing Club Benevolent Fund, which supports and aids injured drivers in California 410 Sprint Car racing. There will also be a 50/50 raffle and a silent auction.

“We definitely hope to see everyone at the Howard Kaeding Classic in Watsonville,” said Brent Kaeding, who is one of the NARC Benevolent Fund coordinators. “The special events support a very good cause and it’s an opportunity for everyone to have the chance to socialize and enjoy some great food. We always love getting the opportunity to hang with all the fans and we look forward to seeing everyone there. It’s going to be a big weekend with Civil War and the King of the West Series both at Ocean Speedway.”  

The Northern Auto Racing Club Benevolent Fund uses 100% of the funds raised to support the families of injured drivers, crew members and officials running 410 Sprint Car Series’ in California. Various beneficiaries of the fund over the last 10-years include Dennis Moore Jr., Billy Sellers, Danny Faria Jr., the family of Alan Urias, Randy Hannagan, Tom Milne, Brad Bumgarner, the family of David Tarter and Peter Murphy.

The HK Classic luncheon catered by High Five Pizza on Saturday July 12 at the track will feature a tasty lunch for a $20 donation to the benevolent fund.  Howard, Brent & Bud Kaeding will all be available for photos and autographs at the luncheon. Easy access will be available to enter from the grandstands for fans. All race teams & fans are invited to come enjoy a great lunch prepared by Myles & the crew at Catering by 5.

“We really want to thank Myles at High Five Pizza & Catering by 5 for all of his support at the Howard Kaeding Classic,” said Brent Kaeding. “Myles is doing so much for us with the food and set up for these extra events that it’s pretty special. We’re trying to make this event one of the big showcases in Northern California and one that fans want to attend every year.”

On Saturday night the cameras of MAVTV will also be capturing all the action for airing on the Dirty 30 Series. It will be the third King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series event filmed by MAVTV American Real this season.

Howard Kaeding was a multiple-time California state super-modified champion, a four-time Johnny Key Classic winner and once captured a record 17-straight races at the San Jose Speedway. The driver known as the "Campbell Comet" claimed over 300 main event victories in his career and even raced into his 60's, before retiring in the 1990's. The “HK Classic” has been a great weekend of re-living memories from the past and will certainly be so once again in 2014.   

The Ocean Speedway is located on the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, two miles east of Watsonville, California on SR 152. The physical address is 2601 East Lake Ave, Watsonville, CA 95076. For more info on the track & ticket info log onto http://www.oceanspeedway.com/

Previous Howard Kaeding Classic King of the West winners

2011- Evan Suggs
2012- Jonathan Allard
2013- Jonathan Allard

Howard is a class act. Always has time to talk to fans. Motels are not cheap, but this is a must see show.

Seeya there Randy?

  I thought the SCRA.com web site was for NON- WING traditional sprint car racing. Why all this advertising for garage door racing???

Well, half the NorCal board is filled with USAC PR flak and there ain't 5 people up there who care about USAC. SCRA board has become a USAC PR flak site with very few general interest posts. Down here there are a lot of folks who like "barndoors".

I personally am bisexual when it comes to sprint cars. Some wingers refer to nonwings as "trucks". Thats not fair either. As Rodney King said "can't we all get along". NOT! If we all agreed, the PAS parking lot liars club would be terribly boring. I like to read the posts of those PA boys on Hoseheads, they really like to mix it up. If some are so in love with nonwings how come I don't see many at Ventura? What are they doing on Sat. nites?  They are sittng at home whining about low car counts, bad track prep, traffic, boring support classes and whatall. I have been to Jimmies joint 5 or 6 times so far, and every show was good. BTW 18 sprinters last week plus 6 old farts.

Seeya at the Firecracke!

SCRAFAN.COM board a USAC PR flak site??? Dave, that is called doing my job.

The fact is there are very few non-wing groups/tracks that are sending out any PR at this time. There has been a general shift to social media and in my opinion, you still need message boards. 

I happen to be the PR guy for 4 Western USAC Sprint groups, plus the USAC Western Midgets. I still get stuff from MSCS and KISS and those notes are posted here. I also post USAC's "National" PR from Dick Jordan.

You will only occasionally see VRA notes. There was much more here when I was doing the VRA PR.

As far as the NorCal board, the USAC West Coast, USAC Western Classic, and USAC/CRA Sprints happen to fall under Northern California news- also USAC Western Midgets. There are plenty of tracks in Nor Cal that run on Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday. You barely see any of their notes on that board. Gary Thomas, Troy Hennig, and Ron Lingron do a great job, but there is so much more that is not there. That is why my USAC notes seem dominate that board. 5 people interested? The West Coast and Western Classic are fairly new to the scene and it is the PR guy's job to get the information out there. Wings will always dominte the Nor Cal scene.

I started SCRAFAN.com because you had to search very hard to find information on any non-wing sprint car groups. Over the years, we have posted SCRA, Bandits, VRA, CRA, USAC, NMMRA, ASCA, Spec Sprints, SCRL, ARA, Barona 360s, CASA, USAC Western, CSRA, CFWSCA, ASCS Canyon, USAC NM-AZ, Hollywood Hills, Victorville, Kings Bandits, SCRA 360s, non-wing 305s, Moler, Gas City, Bloomington, Santa Maria, TnT, and more. Most of those groups are gone now.

LANCE. ,,,,You just keep on doing what your doing. ,,, I think your doing a fantasic job. ,,,   ZZ. ,,, Turn 4 Hood at the PAS.

I'm another one here Lance,for the outstanding,never ending JOB you do, keeping us abreast of upcoming scheduled Events and then updates at times, with final Results!!....all, for us  'SCRAFan.com' faithfuls... is very much appreciated!!...we would most certainly be lost...without all the INFO you provide us with!!.....Thanks again Lance!!...

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Brucer'(Brewskis')   

Thanks for all you do Lance.I know its a lot of work.Wings or nonwings We like sprintcars.The Buckleyz....