Bud Kaeding wins with USAC West Coast 360's and scores fourth with Golden State Challenge 410's at Pombo/Sargent Classic Saturday night
By Gary Thomas
Tulare, CA – May 17, 2010…A busy week of racing for Campbell, California's Bud Kaeding was wrapped up in victory lane Saturday night after taking the lead on lap-seven in the feature and holding on the rest of the way to score his first win of the year with the USAC West Coast 360 Sprints during his first start of the season with the series.
The week started on Wednesday as Kaeding visited the historic Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio for the USAC National Sprint Car Don Branson/Jud Larson Classic, where he finished 17th in the feature after running out of tear-offs and making contact with the turn one wall.
On Friday Kaeding then headed to the Ocean Speedway for the fourth round of competition with the Ocean 360 Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo and opened the evening by timing-in 13th quick, after being the last qualifier to hit the track in the 31-car field. A third place finish in the heat race then put him into the main event, where he started from the outside of row six in the Sala/Matherly Racing, M&M Powder Coaters, Alviso Rock No. 19 Maxim.
At the drop of the green flag in the 30-lap contest Kaeding began to methodically work his way forward, but had to be patient as a number of yellows plagued the early going. By lap-11 however, the 30-year-old driver had already made his way up to fourth and looked to move even further up the order, with the high-side of the track beginning to come in more and more. As the halfway point approached Kaeding made the move by Justin Sanders for third and on lap-16 would charge by Shane Golobic to steal second.
With Kyle Larson sitting out front Kaeding gave it a hard run with about five-circuits remaining, as he charged to the high-side in turns one and two and got alongside the youngster heading down the back stretch into the third corner. Larson got a slightly better run off the bottom in turn four however, and was able to slide up to hang onto the top-spot. Kaeding motored on and eventually crossed the stripe in second at the conclusion after holding off a late race charge from Golobic.
"We certainly wanted to win tonight, but to finish second after starting 12th is pretty good so we'll take it," said Kaeding. "I have to thank this whole team for giving me a great car every week and want to give a big thanks to all the fans for coming out to support us tonight. I caught Kyle there at one point, but he was really fast tonight and we never got another chance after getting side-by-side with him that one time."
On Saturday night Kaeding then made the trip to the Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway for the Pombo/Sargent Classic to pull double duty, competing in the Roth Motorsports No. 83jr with the Golden State Challenge 410 Series and the Buster & Ziggy Enterprise No. 2 with the USAC West Coast Wingless 360 Series.
In the GSC portion of the night Kaeding qualified fourth fastest, finished second in his heat race and then scored an exciting win in the dash, after riding the high-side to pass Peter Murphy late in the six-lap contest to earn the pole position in the feature aboard the HR Cattle, DTR Transport sprinter. A very racy track was presented to competitors and Kaeding was part of an entertaining three-wide battle for the lead on the opening lap with brother Tim and defending ASCS National champ Shane Stewart.
The Campbell driver came out of the exchange leading the race, before battling with T. Kaeding and Tommy Tarlton for the top-spot in an exciting three-car duel over the next handful of laps. Brother Tim was able to grab the lead on lap-seven and then Tarlton would also make the pass soon after to take second. Bud settled in third for a good portion of the race until dropping one more spot to Kyle Larson with the laps winding down and after 30-laps of action brought home a fourth place finish.
Making his first start driving for car owner's Junior Bowman and George "Ziggy" Snider Kaeding moved into second on the fifth-lap of the main event with the USAC West Coast 360's and then made a beautiful slider in turns three and four to take the lead from Chris Ennis on lap-seven.
With the track getting drier and dusty things became very treacherous, but Kaeding was able to cut smooth laps up front and hold off Peter Murphy to tally the victory. "I had some of my regular crew members come and lend a hand on this car tonight and it was really good in the main event" he said. "It was also cool to see my brother win the GSC main event, because this Pombo/Sargent is always a special race for our family so it feels nice to win here."
Kaeding will now gear-up for the second round of competition in the 2010 USAC K&N Silver Crown Series season this Saturday at the Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. The three-time & defending series champ currently sits second in the standings after leading all but the final lap during the season-opener in February at the USA Raceway in Tucson, Arizona.
For more info on Bud Kaeding and a selection of merchandise please visit http://www.budkaedingracing.com
Photo courtesy Paul Trevino of http://www.paultrevinoracingphotos.com
- Gary Thomas on May 17, 2010
- Article Date: 5/17/2010