Exciting night on tap when the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series invades Silver Dollar Speedway for the 21st annual Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial on Saturday
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – May 4, 2011…Much of the focus on Northern California sprint car racing this weekend will be turned to the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico as the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series is set for the 21st annual Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial on Saturday.
The Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial pays tribute to fallen race car driver Dave Bradway Jr., who lost his life during a sprint car crash at Skagit Speedway's Dirt Cup in 1987. It is the biggest event of the season for the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series and packs extra money and awards all night.
Dave and Diane Durica have once again collected lap money and each lap of the A-main event and Last Chance Qualifier will pay $100 to be distributed among the top three each lap. The leader of the lap gets $50, second $30 and third $20.
Butler Built Performance has also donated $500 to the winners share of the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial so the A-main on Saturday will pay $3500 to win!
Fast time & hard charger will also have extra money on the line. As of press time, the driver that sets fast time will receive $950 courtesy of donations from Brent Kaeding, Rich Stadelhofer, Carwash Mike, Paul Brandon, GT Promotions & Shaver Racing Engines. Like all KWS events the fast time qualifier will also be awarded with a custom plaque from Grant’s Fine Art.
The hard charger in the A-main will receive $500 courtesy of donations from Cherry St. Mini Storage, American Tool & Mfg, Bobby McMahan Racing, the Mussell Brothers of Santa Maria and Steward Ranches Eat Beef! The hard charger as always with KWS will also get a $200 gift certificate from PitStopUSA.com
Two-time Bradway Memorial winner Tim Kaeding of San Jose will lead the charge into Silver Dollar Speedway this Saturday aboard the Roth Motorsports No. 83 sprint car.
“TK” will bring a 29-point lead into Chico on the strength of podium finishes in each of the first four races of the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series season. The former Silver Dollar Speedway 410 champion has claimed a pair of wins so far this year with KWS and will be gunning for number three on Saturday.
Home-town favorite Jonathan Allard from Chico will be searching to make up some ground on Kaeding in the points, as he comes into Saturday sitting runner up in the standings. The driver of the Williams Motorsports No. 0 captured the season opener in Antioch on April 9 and has won the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial four-times in his career.
Following a podium effort last week Placerville’s Andy Gregg has jumped to third in the KWS standings while driving the Bret Ervin Racing No. 53 mount. The former Golden State Rookie of the Year has had a pair of good runs during the last two weekends and goes into a track on Saturday he always seems to run strong at.
Coming into the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial ranking fourth in the KWS standings is Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs. The 24-year-old sits just one-digit back of Gregg for the third spot and will be searching to rebound after a late spin in the feature last week left his Suggs Racing No. 33e with a 14th place finish.
Fresh off his big victory last Saturday in Marysville “Double Down” Willie Croft now rounds out the top-five in the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series standings. The Sacramento wheel-man also set fast time last weekend to catapult his way up in the standings and is just three-markers out of third in the points.
Four-time Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial winner Brent Kaeding of Campbell ranks sixth in the KWS standings. “BK” fought a badly wounded car to a seventh place finish in the main event last weekend. Seventh in the points and just two-digits behind Kaeding is 2004 Bradway champion Jason Statler of Grass Valley. “The Big Guy” last year brought home a fifth place finish in the prestigious event.
Fremont’s Brent Bjork has had a great past couple of weekend’s and goes into the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial eighth in the standings. Bjork tallied his first Golden State KWS top-five finish last week in Marysville. Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan is ninth in the points and will be looking for a good run at a track he was champion at in ‘09. Rounding out the top-10 in points is first year traveler Billy Strange of Elk Grove, who finished 11th last weekend in Marysville.
A trio of special drivers looking to throw their name into the mix this weekend will include reigning Golden State 410 champion Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, Loomis resident Kyle Hirst and Australian native Ian Madsen.
Larson last season finished second at the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial and will return to KWS competition after a couple of weekend’s racing out of state. The 18-year-old ran third during his most recent KWS start at Tulare and was also a winner in Golden State competition at Silver Dollar Speedway on July 4 of last year.
Hirst will join forces with McMillen Motorsports for the Bradway, as he looks to win the race that has been so special to his family for so many years. Hirst came close to winning the Bradway a few seasons back, until contact late in the race ended his chances. Madsen, the brother of the “Madman” Kerry Madsen will be spending time in California with KWS over the next handful of weeks and is expected to have special advisor Lee Watson at his side.
Other drivers expected on Saturday will include 1976 Silver Dollar Speedway champion Doug Gandy of Oakhurst, Hoseheads.com/Grant’s Fine Art Rookie of the Year contender Kenny Allen of Chico, Stockton’s Brad Furr, Chico’s Brad Bumgarner and Jason York, Clovis’ Peter Murphy, San Francisco’s Nick Rescino Jr., Merced’s Mark Barroso, Rio Vista’s Dan and Danielle Simpson, Gilroy’s Ken Fredenburg, North Kingstown, Rhode Island’s Eli Deshaies and more.
Sponsoring the heat races at the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial for the ninth consecutive season will be the fan group known as Hoserville. Each heat race winner will stop on the front stretch to be interviewed and will receive a right rear tire & five sleeves of tear offs. Each driver will also receive a trophy to hand out to a kid in the stands.
Each heat race winner will also receive a coupon towards powder coating one sprint car chassis courtesy Willie Croft and Amerikote.
The front grandstand gate will open at 5pm this Saturday night, with qualifying around 6:30 and racing beginning around 7. Adult tickets will cost $20, juniors 12-15 will be $14, children 6-11 are $12 and kids five and under will be free. The Silver Dollar Speedway is located on the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, a half-mile west of SR 99 on Park Ave in Chico, California. More info can be found at http://www.kwssprints.com
- Gary Thomas on May 04, 2011
- Article Date: 5/4/2011