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FIRST WIN OF 2010
FOR CAMPBELL'S BRENT KAEDING
10/10/2010
- Series press release
 Throughout
2010 in Northern California one of the many story
lines as the season progressed was the fact that
Campbell’s Brent Kaeding had yet to visit victory
lane. With the year slowly coming to an end that
all changed on Friday night when the 13-time King
of California took the lead with just under
10-laps remaining and drove off for his first
triumph of the season.
The victory also broke a long winless spell at the
Ocean Speedway for Kaeding, whose most recent win
at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds track had
come during the season opener last year aboard his
Al’s Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza No. 69 mount.
“It feels great to get back up here in victory
lane and it’s been so long since I’ve done this I
really don't know what to say,” said an emotional
“BK” on the front stretch. “I want to thank all my
guys and sponsors for sticking behind me because
they’ve been working real hard all year long. My
crew chief Billy Albini was home sick tonight so
Brian Matherly came over and he made some great
calls on the car all night.”
The penultimate main event of the year for the
Ocean Sprint Cars presented by Taco Bravo began
with Salinas, CA’s Ronnie Day jumping into the
lead from the pole behind the wheel of his Keith
Day Trucking No. 22 machine. The opening lap
however, saw a pileup in turn four bring on the
red lights before a lap had been completed, which
made for a complete restart.
When the field realigned and the green lights came
back on it was Day once again rocketing into the
top-spot in the first and second corners. He was
soon followed by second row starter Brent Kaeding,
who made the move by Easton’s Tommy Tarlton to
grab second. It then set up a classic fight
between the two veteran drivers that were both in
search of season win number one for the 2010
campaign.
A few stoppages and slowdowns during the first
half of the race created an excessive number of
yellow flag laps, which then forced officials to
throw the red with 15-laps complete for a fuel
stop. At the midway point the top-five cars on the
speedway were Day, Kaeding, Tarlton, Visalia’s
Cory Eliason and 12th starter Kyle
Larson of Elk Grove.
After cars were pushed back off and racing got
back underway Kaeding proceeded to step up his
challenges and hounded the rear bumper of Day as
lapped traffic soon came into play on the blazing
fast quarter-mile clay oval. With Day continuing
to hang onto the lead “BK” then blasted to the
bottom of the raceway and got just enough of an
opening to slice his way underneath and into the
top-spot on lap 21.
Immediately after the exchange of the lead Day’s
night took a turn for the worse when a spun car
left him with nowhere to go and ultimately knocked
him out of contention in the fourth corner. On the
restart Kaeding charged away from the pack, but
the action behind him started to heat up with
drivers looking to dice it up for position as the
laps wound down. The driver on the move was the
recently crowned King of California Larson, who
made the pass of Eliason with six to go and then
closed in on Tarlton for second.
With just a few circuits remaining in the race
heavy duty lapped traffic approached for the
leaders, but Kaeding made some quick and precise
moves to give himself a slight cushion over the
rest of the pack. Tarlton though had his hands
full with Larson and the pair would fight it out
among a gaggle of slower cars, trading spots
multiple times over the final couple laps. After
taking the white flag “BK” charged off to grab the
checkered by 1.150 seconds and record that elusive
first victory of the season.
Winning out in the intense fight for second was
Larson, who made a number of great passes to get
up to the runner up spot after starting from the
outside of row six aboard his Stadelhofer
Construction, Peppermill Casino-Reno No. 99x
sprinter. “I just want to congratulate Brent on
finally getting a win tonight, because he deserves
it and I couldn’t be happier for him,” said
Larson. “I don’t know how many cars I passed in
those last few laps, but it was pretty exciting
and I have to thank my crew for giving me an
awesome car.”
Tarlton crossed the stripe in third and will go
into next week’s Ocean Sprint Cars presented by
Taco Bravo finale with a 28-point advantage at the
top of the standings over Larson, as he looks to
finish off his bid at making it back to back
titles. “I’m a little disappointed to come home
third after starting on the front row, but these
are the finishes we need trying to wrap up the
championship,” said the driver of the Corporate
America Lending, Tachi Palace No. 21. “We’ll just
come back next week and try to finish it off with
a win.”
Having a solid run in the main event to score
fourth and earn his best finish of the late season
at Ocean Speedway was Prunedale’s Justin Sanders
in the North County Plastering No. 17 and rounding
out the top-five was Eliason aboard the Advance
Auto & Smog No. 00x sprint car. Finishing sixth
and claiming the “On the Move with Thirty Five
Industries” hard charger award was Fremont’s Shane
Golobic, who carved his way through the field from
the 17th starting spot. Completing the
top-10 were San Martin’s Craig Smith, Stockton’s
Brad Furr, Corralitos’ Jerry Bonnema and Fremont’s
Brent Bjork.
A pair of 12-lap b-mains were held during the
evening and were claimed by Brent Kaeding and Cory
Eliason respectively, with four 10-lap heat races
being picked off by San Jose’s Matt Sargent,
Morgan Hill’s Devon Ostheimer, Shane Golobic and
Fresno’s Anthony Simone. A total of 34-cars signed
into the back gate and the night began with Ronnie
Day topping the charts in qualifying with a lap of
11.946 around the quarter-mile. Full results from
the night can be found at
http://www.oceanspeedway.com
The 2010 Ocean Sprint Car Series presented by Taco
Bravo season will come to an end next Friday night
October 15 at the Ocean Speedway with the front
gate opening at 4:30pm, hot laps at 5:45,
qualifying around 6 and racing to follow.
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