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Tim Kaeding fends off
challenges of Justin Sanders to claim fourth Ocean Sprints presented by Taco
Bravo victory of season with Tommy Tarlton 2010 champion
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – October 17, 2010…In a main event worthy of championship night
on Friday at the Ocean Speedway San Jose, California’s Tim Kaeding charged from
the eighth starting spot and withstood the relentless challenges of Prunedale’s
Justin Sanders to record his fourth win of the season with the Ocean Sprints.
The victory for Kaeding marked the second year in a row that he has captured the
season-finale, as he gears up for this coming weekend’s Trophy Cup in Tulare at
the helm of his Roth Motorsports, DTR Transport Inc., HR Cattle No. 83jr mount.
Friday’s exciting win was also “TK’s” 14th overall on the West Coast this year
and tied him for the most victories with the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco
Bravo in 2010.
“That was a fun one right there and I have to say what a great job by Justin
Sanders tonight because he was running the bottom really well and made me work
for this one,” said Kaeding. “I just want to thank my whole crew and Dennis and
Teresa Roth, who have given me a great opportunity and hopefully we can put
something together in the off-season to be back out here as a team.”
The final 30-lap main event of the season for the Ocean Sprints began with the
previous week’s winner Brent Kaeding of Campbell jumping into the lead. Things
got off to a rough start as yellows and reds plagued the early stages, which
included a lap-one red flag period that saw Easton’s Tommy Tarlton involved. The
incident didn’t hurt Tarlton’s chances at the title however, as he had
mathematically clinched his second consecutive championship following heat race
competition.
After going to the work area Tarlton was able to rejoin the field and on the
ensuing restart second place in points Kyle Larson of Elk Grove also had issues
of his own, when he suffered damage to his front end and came to a stop off the
first and second corners. The 18-year-old was unable to make it back out for the
next restart, but following a red flag period for fifth running Shane Golobic of
Fremont on lap-four, Larson pushed back out a couple laps down.
Once things got shaken out the action started to heat up with clean and green
laps finally being seen and it soon became a battle between Brent Kaeding and
Tim Kaeding up front, with Justin Sanders shadowing the father/son duo. Entering
lapped traffic “TK” closed right up to the bumper of “BK” and as they came
around turn four to complete lap 13 the younger Kaeding shot by to grab the
lead. One-lap later Sanders followed suit and made an impressive pass to get by
B. Kaeding and move the North County Plastering, B&K Trump Farms No. 17 to
second.
The final half of the race saw T. Kaeding and Sanders battle wheel-to-wheel up
front, as the recently turned 18-year-old gave the former King of California all
he could handle in the fight for the lead through lapped traffic.
With “TK” continuing to run his patented high-line Sanders remained committed to
the bottom of the Ocean Speedway and got to the inside of T. Kaeding on a number
of occasions, even inching his way to the lead a few times. Despite Sander’s
best efforts “TK” was once again a master through traffic and drove off to take
the checkered by 1.008 seconds and earn his fourth win of the year with the
Ocean Sprints in just five starts.
Crossing the line in second to tally his second best finish of the Ocean Sprint
Cars presented by Taco Bravo season was Sanders, who also locked up the fifth
position in the final standings, the highest finish of his young sprint car
career. “It feels pretty awesome to race with Tim Kaeding like that and is
really great to be back up here on the podium,” said Sanders, who claimed a win
on May 7 with the Ocean Sprints. “I have to thank my whole team, all of our
sponsors and also Eric Rossi because he’s been a big help here recently.”
Coming home in third for his second straight podium result to finish off the
Ocean 360 Sprints season was Brent Kaeding in the Al’s Roofing Supply, High Five
Pizza No. 69 machine. “We really wanted to win this thing tonight, but it’s a
pretty good way to the end the season here being on the front stretch the last
couple weeks,” said B. Kaeding, who ended the year fourth in points. “We’ll just
get ready for the Trophy Cup now because it’s the best event of the year and we
hope everyone comes out to support it.”
Rebounding from the early race incident and charging all the way back to fourth
by the time the checkered flag waved was Tarlton aboard the Corporate America
Lending, Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino No. 21 sprinter. Tarlton officially won his
second consecutive Ocean 360 Sprints title by 44-points over Kyle Larson and did
it by claiming four wins overall, as well as finishing among the top-five in
each of the last six events of the season at Ocean Speedway.
“It’s just great to bring home another title this season and we couldn’t be
happier right now,” commented Tarlton. “We’ve really been focusing on having fun
the last couple years and I think it has definitely paid off for us and I owe a
huge thanks to my dad, my whole family and all my crew for their support. Paul
Baines and my guys have given me awesome race cars this year and we’ve been fast
no matter where we’ve gone. I also have to thank each and every one of our
sponsors. Corporate America Lending came on board this year and it feels awesome
to give them a championship.”
Rounding out the top-five in the 30-lap feature was Salinas, CA’s Ronnie Day in
the Keith Day Trucking, El Camino Machine and Welding No. 22 mount. The former
King of California finished off a successful first season driving for his
brother Keith Day, by ending the year third in the Ocean Sprints presented by
Taco Bravo standings. Completing the top-10 in the main event at the
season-finale were Stockton’s Brad Furr, Morgan Hill’s Devon Ostheimer,
Corralitos’ Jerry Bonnema, Gilroy’s Kurt Nelson and San Jose’s Matt Sargent.
The 12-lap b-main was claimed by San Jose’s Ryan Rusconi with three eight-lap
heat races also being held and captured by Shane Golobic, Tommy Tarlton and
Ronnie Day respectively. Beginning the night by settling fast time was Brad Furr,
who was also the quick time qualifier at the season-opener in April. The veteran
driver carved his way around the quarter-mile on Friday in 12.353 seconds aboard
the Ray Scheidts Electric No. 2 sprint car. Full results are available at
http://www.oceanspeedway.com
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"Designed
for dirt track racers, by dirt track racers" Thomas Arbogast