Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

Crockett dominates GSC Round four at Kings Speedway

By Gary Thomas

Hanford, CA - March 18, 2007... When former King of California Steve Kent retired in the off-season, it left the Henderson Motorsports 7n team searching for a driver. They ended up coming to terms with Medford, Oregon's Roger Crockett and on Saturday night at Kings Speedway, it showed that they made a great choice as Crockett put together a dominating performance, leading all 30 laps en route to his second career Golden State Challenge Series win.

Crockett, a multiple time champion with both the Northern Sprint Tour and California Civil War 360 sprint car series, dominated the six lap dash to give himself the pole position for the 30 lap Golden Challenge Series feature. As the green flag waved Crockett pulled out to a sizable lead in the Island Muffler & Brake, All Points Petroleum No. 7n.

The main event on Saturday mirrored the one from the night before as multiple cautions plagued the race, but Crockett never faltered on any restart and made it look easy as he held a comfortable lead over the rest of the field for virtually the whole race. He could place the car anywhere on the track as the Henderson Motorsports crew hit a perfect set-up for the slick and hard packed Kings Speedway surface. Crockett's only previous Golden State Challenge Series win came during opening night of the 2002 Mini Gold Cup at Chico's Silver Dollar Speedway. He's been one of the top 360 sprint car pilots on the west coast for many years and on Saturday night he gave notice that he can drive the 410 just as well, and will be a strong force this season whenever he and the 7n team compete with GSC.

While Crockett was out front by himself, Oroville's Sean Becker was on a mission in the Main-Fisher Motorsports, Cherry St. Mini Storage No. 35m carving his way through the field from the 10^th starting position. Becker was up to seventh by lap 10 and then up to fifth by lap 15. The defending Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial champion continued his charge and moved around Ronnie Day and Kyle Hirst to move up to third by lap 22. He wasn't done there and closed in on Bud Kaeding before making the move under the defending USAC Silver Crown champ to take second on lap 25. A caution came out on lap 26, which gave Becker a shot at Crockett on the restart. He dove to the inside of Crockett in turn one but didn't have enough drive to get by as Crockett had the momentum up high. Becker, the 2005 King of California went on to score a solid second place finish for the 35m team. The strong charge through the pack continued a string of stout runs for Becker and team as they've now finished in the top five, three out of the first four races and also had a sixth place finish during opening night. In the four races held this season Becker has had main event runs of: 20^th to 6^th, 18^th to 4^th, 12^th to 4^th and 10^th to 2^nd. The driver known as the "Shark" is unofficially in the top two of the GSC point standings, but unfortunately due to funding he and the team won't be able to make all of the races this season. It's a shame that they can't get the proper funding to come out on the road full time because they are certainly one of the top driver/team combos on the west coast.

Campbell's Bud Kaeding didn't compete on Friday but came on Saturday and scored a third place finish aboard the Wright One Construction, Coehlo Meat No. 35. Elk Grove's Kyle Hirst continued his impressive start to the season and finished fourth in the Mcmillen Motorsports, Tom Rolfe Trucking No. 2. Hirst has been extremely quick every night and looks very comfortable in the No. 2 machine. Friday's winner Brad Sweet rounded out the top five in the GP Development, LRB Manufacturing No 6.

Finishing sixth through tenth were Brent Kaeding in the Al's Roofing Supply No. 69, Ricci Faria in the Darrel Green Trucking No. 89, Jonathan Allard in the GT Trends 0, Craig Stidham in the Brad Johnson Trucking No. 3 and Stephen Allard in the Superior Dairy No. 1m.

Becker picked off the B-main with a lap 10 pass of Stidham. Also transferring to the feature were Willie Croft, Jon Maiwald, Ric McCormack and Shawn Wright.

Crockett got out front in the six lap dash and walked away from the field to pick up the pole for the feature. He was followed by Bud Kaeding, Ronnie Day, Ricci Faria, Kyle Hirst, Danny Faria Jr., Jason Statler and Jonathan Allard.

Four entertaining 10 lap heat races were held and they were won by Chico's Matt Shelton, Grass Valley's Brad Sweet, Chico's Jonathan Allard and Chico's Brett Miller.

Kyle Hirst began the night by setting the fastest lap in timed qualifications with a lap of 13.826.

Next week the Golden State Challenge Series will invade Placerville Speedway on Saturday night for the fifth round of action.

Full results for both night's of competition at Kings Speedway will be available at www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com

GT Promotions
http://www.mbracingteam.com/Gary_Thomas.html

Sweet is "Sweet" in Hanford

By Gary Thomas

Hanford, CA - March 18, 2007... Grass Valley native Brad Sweet put it all together Friday night at Kings Speedway and picked up his first career Golden State Challenge King of California Series victory and first win for his new GP Development team. The 20-year-old driver took the lead on the initial start, lost it on lap eight, and regained it on a late race restart en route to his very first winged 410 sprint car win.

Sweet started outside the front row and stormed into the lead as the green flag waved on the 30 lap Golden State Challenge Series main event. Sweet's GP Development, LRB Manufacturing, Circle Racing Wheels, Rodney Tiner tuned machine was on a rail and he pulled away to a substantial lead early on.

Lap three saw defending King of California Jonathan Allard of Chico pull a slider on Elk Grove's Kyle Hirst in turn three to take second. Allard then closed the gap between himself and Sweet in traffic and on lap seven Sweet was slowed by a lap car, which allowed Allard to close to his back bumper. Allard dove to the bottom in turn one on lap eight using a lap car as a pick and took command of the race. At this point multiple cautions began to appear, reminiscent of last week's season opening Mini Gold Cup. Lap 10 saw 2004 King of California Jason Statler get upside down in a big way in turn one. Statler was charging hard when he hopped over a another car and went for a scary ride. During the same lap 2000 King of California Ronnie Day slowed to a stop on the backstretch and retired from the race.

When the green came back out five more laps were completed when Stockton's Shawn Wright spun to a stop in turn one and two. Five more laps were completed on the next green flag run before Chico's Stephen Allard flipped hard in turn four to bring out the red flag.

Medford, Oregon's Roger Crockett made a wild move on the next restart to go from fifth to second in the first set of corners and a lap was completed before a cone found its way onto the track in turn four, which brought out a caution to retrieve it. Crockett was moved back to fourth for the restart but had found some serious speed aboard the Henderson Motorsports No. 7n.

Sweet had continued to run in second through the cautions but was with Allard every step of the way not letting the 0 machine out of his sights. On the restart he made the move that sealed the deal. As the green waved again Sweet dove to the bottom of Allard to re-take the lead with a truly "sweet" move and two more laps were completed before cautions started to plague the flow of the race again.

Sweet survived a few dive bomb attempts by Allard on three more restarts and drove away from the field to score the $3,000 win in the GP Development, LRB Manufacturing, Circle Racing Wheels, A.R.T. Enterprise No. 6. Sweet had experienced some success in the past at Kings Speedway as in 2004 he out-qualified 77 cars at the Trophy Cup in his family owned 1c sprinter, but this marked his first ever win at the 3/8 mile track.

Roger Crockett moved forward in the final laps to take home second in his first night back driving for the Henderson Motorsports team. Crockett drove the No. 7n machine in the late 90's and with veteran Steve Kent retiring in the off-season, it opened the seat for him to return to the team. Crockett began the night by setting the fastest lap during qualifying in the Island Muffler & Brake sponsored machine.

Campbell's Brent Kaeding rounded out the podium in his Al's Roofing Supply No. 69. It gave BK back to back podiums after getting upside down on the first night of the season. Fourth went to the Main-Fisher Motorsports No. 35m driven by 2005 King of California Sean Becker and rounding out the top five was the Darrel Green Trucking No. 89 of Ricci Faria.

17-year-old GSC rookie Brett Miller had never been to Kings Speedway before and had an impressive night as he qualified well, made the dash and finished sixth in the main event aboard the Care Free Pools No. 1x. Jonathan Allard, who led laps 9-20 slipped back to seventh on the final lap as he ran of fuel in the GT Trends No. 0. Chico's Matt Shelton scored his career best GSC finish scoring eighth in the MJ Shelton No. 44. Discovery Bay's Jim Skinner took home ninth in the Skinner Motorsports No. 73 and Kyle Hirst finished 10^th in the Tom Rolfe Trucking No. 2.

The B-main was won by Carruther's driver Garrett Ishii. Also transferring were Stephen Allard, Evan Suggs, Steve Kilcup, Jim Skinner and Taylor Malsam.

Hirst won the dash to earn the pole position for the 30 lap feature. Finishing behind him were Brad Sweet, Roger Crcokett, Jonathan Allard, Ronnie Day, Brent Kaeding, Ricci Faria and Brett Miller.

The four 10 lap heats were picked off by Visalia's Ricci Faria, Salinas' Ronnie Day, Chico's Matt Shelton and Stockton's Shawn Wright.

Roger Crockett's lap of 13.204 was tops among the 30 cars in qualifying.

GT Promotions
http://www.mbracingteam.com/Gary_Thomas.html

Great write up as always Gary. Anyone have point standing (unofficial even)? . Based on what I'm seeing the point leader has to be either BK or Becker.

Should be on our site fairly soon.

Just checked and they are up

Boy I wasn't too far off. JA better work on the DNF's. Knock on wood we should get the whole schedule in this season the way the weather is looking and it's gonna take consistant top five's to have a real shot at it. Becker and BK don't DNF that often so they will be forces to contend with for sure. Add to that Crocket, Miller, and Statler it's gonna be tough to defend the championship. It ain't over yet of course (far from it) but the real ones that are going to benefit are the fans. Should be real interesting.

Ooooops. My bad. Obviously JA and crew busted their asses to get those top 10 finishes. This just shows how helpful it is to have a good PR guy and GT is one of the best. It's hard to see in a race report how good a night anyone had except for the top five usually. I still maintain that this is gonna be a tough battle for the 2007 GSC title. Get ahold of GT if you want a good PR guy :-)!