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Tulare Recap
Posted 3/24/09 by: Joe Burrage

Live at the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare California. Sprint car fans could not have asked for a better day, with perfect temperatures and a beautiful evening forecast everything was set for an excellent night of World of Outlaws racing. Thunderbowl Raceway is the home track for car owners Dennis and Teresa Roth who were in attendance for the racing festivities this weekend and Tim Kaeding and the rest of the crew were ready for a good showing at the lightening fast 1/3 mile facility.

The night would start off good, Tim came out early in qualifying and posted a lap time of 12.981 seconds for 9th quick out of 32 cars in the pit area. With heat race action just about the start, Guy Forbrook and the crew went to work and made some minor adjustments to The DTR #83. Tim had an excellent starting position in Heat #4 and wanted to keep things rolling along with a top 2 finish to lock himself into the dash later in the evening. Heat #4 was quickly underway and Tim did not get the start he wanted and was running in 3rd place by the end of lap #1 where he would maintain his position until lap 8, where the rear-end let go coming down the front stretch resulting in an 8th place finish in Heat #4.

The Roth Motorsports crew quickly got another rear-end from the trailer and instantly went to work with time playing a huge factor, since the Dash drivers were already starting to draw for positions in front of a huge crowd on hand. The DTR crew completed the change just in time, and Tim was pushed off for the B-Main. With a front row starting position Tim kept to his usual line along the cushion and brought home the Roth Motorsports #83 in 2nd place with a transfer to the A-Main where he would line up 13th in the A-Main.

For the 35 lap A-Main Tim had to dip into his bag of tricks and pull something out in order to have a solid finish. Tim pulled out a crazy move on the start of the feature and passed Roger Crockett and Tommy Tarlton along the cushion before lap 1 was even completed. Tim kept to the top of the track for a few laps while running down Joey Saldana for 9th place and eventually took over the position and the DTR #83 was on the move. "We were set up to run the top, and the car was ok when we needed to duck down low" Tim said. After a few yellow flags and a heated battle between Terry McCarl and Jason Meyers, Tim found himself running in the 6th position with plenty of laps left to catch the leaders. Jason Meyers pulled off an excellent pass on Tim using a lapped car to his advantage and Tim was not phased one bit. He ran down Jason Meyers again and passed him, but a yellow flag came out so the pass did not count and Tim was forced back to the 7th position. On the restart Tim biked the DTR #83 violently and lost 3 positions quickly putting him back to 10th place. Tim would pass two more cars before the checkered flag came out and brought home the Roth Motorsports sprinter in 8th place.

Night #2

With a solid 8th place finish on Friday night Tim Kaeding was looking to keep the San Jose streak alive after another San Jose pilot Randy Hannagan won on Friday night. With the track very fast in hot laps, Thunderbowl Raceway was shaping up to be an exciting place to race this evening. Tim was second fast overall in hot laps and was already looking to improve on last nights finish.

For qualifying the cushion was already near the fence in both turns making it very tricky for drivers to keep their momentum up without scrapping the wall. This track conditions were right up Tim's alley, right along the fence and very fast. For the second straight time Tim would time in inside the top ten with an excellent lap of 13.275 seconds, 7th quick. Right after qualifying the crew changed gears and shocks hoping the setup would be good enough to put the Dennis and Teresa Roth owned #83 in the dash later in the evening.

Heat #3 saw Tim line up in the 3rd starting position. Once the green flag came out Tim made a quick move around Peter Murphy and was in 2nd place with Friday night's feature winner Randy Hannagan running right behind Tim in the 3rd position. Hannagan was using the low line and making up lot's of ground and Tim kept to the cushion and held off The Hurricane for a 2nd place finish and a trip to the dash.

The DTR #83 was ready for the dash, Tim was confident he could bring home a solid finish and an excellent starting position for the A-Main. Coming down for the green flag Tim would hit a slick spot on the track and not get the start he wanted too and fell back to the 5th position, trying to run down Donny Schatz for 4th Tim ran out of time and settled for the 5th place finish. With the slick track conditions and the cushion right along the fence in both turns, Thunderbowl Raceway was playing right into Tim Kaeding's hand.

With rain in the area the World of Outlaws officials wasted no time in getting the A-Main underway. The green came out and Tim got the start he wanted and instantly started battling with Donny Schatz and Craig Dollansky for the 5th position. Tim battled with Schatz and Dollansky for many laps before the 15 and 19 cars broke away, and then Tim had another battle on his hands with Chad Kemenah. Kemenah and Tim battled the entire race with Tim running the cushion and Kemenah glued to the middle and the low line. It was a fierce and clean battle to the end where Tim would hold onto to finish in the 6th position in the caution free event. Tim was happy with the results and the car is getting faster and faster after every race. "Were going to get a win here soon, if we keep running up front our time will come." "Guy Forbrook and the rest of our crew give me a great racecar every time out, and Dennis and Teresa Roth supply us with the best equipment around, I really want to win for them."

The Sponsors: Roth Motorsports, DTR Transport Inc., HR Cattle, Weld Racing Wheels, Bell, Kistler Engines, Kent Performance Chassis, Crane Cams, Hoosier Tires

The insiders inside track: Tim Kaeding and the Roth Motorsports team will compete at Placerville speedway this weekend. Previous plans had the team going to Manzanita Speedway this week but has decided to forgo the trip and let the traveling portion of the team go to the Midwest shop to tune up for the road. This will leave the California team to compete with Todd Ventura as the chief this week. The team is breaking out the long awaited 09 shirts and they look about as good as any we have done. I am posting the art work by Frank N Signs Randy Frank who has done our last 3 shirts and I think this is his best one yet. I also want to take the time to thank Joe Burrage for making the long trip from Minnesota to take in the race and for all the good press he is taking on for the busy Insider this year. Team DTR is getting stronger and with the addition of the Flat Out Magazine writer Joe Burrage it gets more professional all the time. I would like to thank Jason Solwold for keeping his car so clean this weekend (inside ha ha) and making the weekend one this writer won’t forget for awhile it was great to work with Jason he is a class act! See you at a race soon!

"Just Win Baby" Al Davis Owner of the Oakland Raiders

Thanks for the info on TK. I was wondering if TK will be making the Fridays Silver Cup at Chico. I see they are runing winged and non-winged sprints. Placerville I think runs only on Saturday night leaving Friday free.

When in life, you find you are going in the wrong 
direction, God allows for U-turns

Here is the new shirt for Placerville this weekend. Nice work Randy.

"Just Win Baby" Al Davis Owner of the Oakland Raiders