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Tim Kaeding Clean Sweeps ay Chico
By: Troy Hennig
(Chico, CA 7-28-07)…Since returning back to California the only thing that has stopped Tim Kaeding visiting victory lane has been a back problem that prevented him from racing the Golden State Challenge race on July 14. Kaeding led all 30 laps to win his fourth main event in a row and fifth for the season during the King of California Series. In fact, Kaeding has won five of the six main events he has entered this season and the other race he finished third. Tonight, Kaeding clean swept the field. He turned the quickest lap, won his heat race and won the main event. Kaeding addressed the question if it's been easy for him by responding, "No way has this been easy in fact tonight was a tough track you had to hit your marks every lap. I knew my old man was right behind me and closing. During the last restart I had sealed over my tire and couldn't get away from him." Brent finished second and alluded to Tim's winning ways. "Tim's been real good since coming home but we want to wish him luck as he returns back to the Mid West and hopefully will kick some butt out there too," said Brent. Enjoying a podium finish was Peter Murphy who joined the Ridgeline Racing #9 earlier in the week. "I am so happy to be back in a winged 410 sprint car and it feels good to be back in Chico," said Murphy.
Murphy and Kaeding started on the front row of the 30-lap main event. However, it was Tim Kaeding who was the leader after the first lap. Kaeding started on the inside of row two but it was soon very apparent that he was the class of the field. On lap three Shain Matthews and Mark Workentine spun in turn one. The race resumed with Kaeding leading Murphy. On lap six it was Brent's turn to move around Murphy and take over the second spot. On lap eleven Brandon Wimmer and Mike Henry stopped in turn four. Another six laps went by until Robbie Whitchurch flipped to bring out the red.
Kaeding was still leading Kaeding. Lap 19 brought out another yellow when Ken Fredenburg in turn four collected Trevor Green. The local story of the night was Mason Moore. The 16-year-old was running in the fifth position until lap 22 when he clipped the infield tire and broke his front end. He came to a stop and was towed off the track but received a nice ovation from the crowd. On the next restart Wimmer tangled with Johnny Gray and both were wrecked for the night. With the two cars tangled on the track the officials decided to do a fuel only stop before continuing the race.
The final seven laps clicked off without a problem. Tim was never able to shed Brent the final few laps. Murphy was holding off his teammate Ronnie Day for third. Day had a good run to finish fourth. Greg DeCaires moved from his ninth place starting spot to finish fifth. Chico's top finisher was Matt Shelton who finished an impressive sixth. Oroville's Sean Becker finished seventh. Becker is Brent Kaeding's closest competitor in the King of California championship chase. Going into tonight's finale Kaeding leads Becker by an unofficial 30-point lead. Three drivers each moved up ten spots from their starting spot. Willie Croft, Jon Maiwald and Pat Harvey each gained 10 spots during the 30-lap main event.
DeCaires led all ten laps to win the B main event. Wimmer and Evan Suggs were the next three to cross the finish line.
Murphy won the six-lap dash to earn the right to start on the pole of the main event.
Tim Kaeding started sixth in the first heat race and ended up winning the ten-lap race. Shain Matthews won the second heat race. Johnny Gray won the third heat race. Jason Statler led all ten laps to win the fourth heat race.
Tim Kaeding started off the night by turning the quickest lap in qualifying with an 11.582.
A total of 32 cars raced during round number 24 of the King of California Series.
Full results are at www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com
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