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TIM KAEDING WINS
AT PLACERVILLE, LARSON WINS KING OF CALIFORNIA
8/24/2010 - Series press release
 Entering
the final night of the Golden State Challenge
Series season on Saturday with a nine-point lead
in the standings Elk Grove, California’s Kyle
Larson put together a smooth and consistent
30-laps of racing in the main event and drove to a
fourth place finish at the conclusion to wrap up
his very first King of California title.
By winning the championship the 18-year-old
becomes the youngest driver to ever claim the
Golden State Challenge title in the 25-year
history of the series and finished the season with
five A-main victories, 17 top-five finishes, 21
top-10’s and six heat race triumphs aboard the
Stadelhofer Construction,
Peppermill-Resort-Spa-Casino-Reno No. 99.
“It feels great to bring home this title and I
have to give a big thanks to Rich Stadelhofer, my
whole crew and all our sponsors for supporting us
this year,” said Larson. “We’ve had a great season
overall and it has been a lot of fun so far and
hopefully we can continue it the rest of the year.
To win a title racing against a guy like Brent
Kaeding, who is a legend out here and also my car
owner is pretty cool and I couldn’t be more
excited to be standing up here right now.”
A rather rough and tumble 30-laps of competition
was seen on Saturday during the season finale for
GSC at the Placerville Speedway and in the end it
was San Jose’s Tim Kaeding, who ended up making
the move by Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs with just
three-laps left in the race to score his
sixth series victory of the year.
When the green lights came on in the feature it
was Suggs shooting into the lead, but exiting turn
two he experienced a monster bicycle and then a
huge wheelie, which allowed Oroville’s Sean Becker
the chance to sneak under for the top-spot. It was
all for naught however, as the red flag waved
for second place in points Brent Kaeding of
Campbell, who had tipped over in turns three and
four.
On the ensuing restart Suggs once again jumped out
in front and led the field across the line to
complete the opening circuit, prior to a caution
for Vancouver, Washington’s Zach Zimmerly. When
racing got back underway things got into a flow
with a number of green flag laps being run and the
man on the move was T. Kaeding, as the former GSC
champ made his way around Auburn’s Andy Forsberg,
Larson and Becker to take second by lap 11.
 As
“TK” tried to close in on the lead things began to
come to a near crawl just after the midway point
of the race when a number of red flag periods
cropped up with multiple cars getting upside down
during the final 10-laps. For the many restarts
Suggs remained committed to the bottom line while
T. Kaeding tried to give it everything he had up
on the high-scary side of the high-banked
quarter-mile. With Suggs in search of his first
ever Golden State Challenge Series victory he
looked to hit his marks on the tight bullring, but
on lap 27 “TK” was able to thread the needle off
turn four and rocket into the top-spot in exciting
fashion.
Once in front the
San Jose
wheel-man had no problems and charged off to score
his 48th career Golden State Challenge
410 Sprint Car Series win. His sixth victory of
the season was also the most of any driver with
GSC this year and came in just 10 overall starts.
“We just love racing at this place and I hope you
fans enjoyed that one because it was a lot of
fun,” said the driver of the Roth Motorsports, DTR
Transport Inc. No. 83. “I have to thank Dennis and
Teresa Roth, my whole team and also want to give
congrats to Kyle Larson for winning the
championship.”
Making a strong move up high off the final corner
and just nipping Suggs at the line to score second
was Becker aboard the Brian Sperry Racing, Cherry
Street Mini Storage No. 51 sprinter. The solid
finish continued the impressive results seen from
the “Shark” and the 51 team over the last month.
“We love running with GSC and it’s great to get
back up here on the podium tonight,” said Becker.
“This whole team has really come together and it’s
given me a lot of confidence behind the wheel so
hopefully we can keep this momentum rolling with
Gold Cup coming up fast.”
Suggs crossed the stripe in third to mark his
third consecutive podium effort to complete the
Golden State Challenge Series season at the helm
of his Suggs Racing, HoservilleCA No. 33e mount.
The 23-year-old also ends the season third in the
final series standings to tally his career best
GSC point finish. “It’s disappointing to lose the
race with just a few laps to go, but Tim and Sean
are two of the best out here so being up here with
them is nice, even though we wanted to get a win
bad,” said Suggs. “We’ve been doing really well
lately though so it’s been a good way to end the
season.”
Finishing in fourth was Larson, who had actually
passed Becker for third on one of the late-race
restarts, but was forced to go back behind due to
a red flag on that same lap. The youngster
officially captured the Golden State Challenge
Series title by just 15-points over Campbell’s
Brent Kaeding. Completing the top-five in the
feature was current Placerville Speedway 360 point
leader Andy Forsberg of Auburn at the helm of the
A&A Motorsports, Red Line Oil No. 92.
Rounding out the top-10 in the final Golden State
Challenge Series main event of the season were Elk
Grove’s Bobby McMahan, Sacramento’s Billy Strange,
Placerville’s Andy Gregg, Chico’s Jonathan Allard
and Penngrove’s Alissa Geving.
The evening’s 12-lap b-main was won by Andy Gregg
with three 10-lap heat races being held and
captured by
Chico’s
Kenny Allen, Bobby McMahan and Brent Kaeding. Evan
Suggs claimed victory in the night’s dash and also
began the event by setting his fourth fast time of
the GSC season by ripping off a 10.114 around the
quarter-mile clay oval. Full results from the
night can be found at
http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com |
