Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Photo by PT Race Photos

Large crowd sees the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series sanctioned “Howard Kaeding Classic” go to red hot Jonathan Allard on Saturday night at Ocean Speedway

By Gary Thomas

Watsonville, CA – July 13, 2013…Up until last season’s “Howard Kaeding Classic” Chico, California’s Jonathan Allard had never won a 410 Sprint Car main event in his career at the Ocean Speedway. After capturing the event last year the three-time & defending King of the West champion returned to the track on Saturday & in front of a huge crowd put together a near perfect night, en route to his second consecutive “HK Classic” triumph at the Watsonville, CA based quarter-mile.

For Allard it was his KWS Series-leading third main event victory of the season and the 35th of his Golden State/ King of the West 410 career, making him the third driver to reach that plateau in series history along with Brent & Tim Kaeding. On the season Allard now has eight Winged 410 Sprint Car wins on the west coast and Saturday was a near clean sweep as he set fast time, finished second in his heat, won the dash and led all 30-laps in the feature aboard his Williams Motorsports No. 0 machine.

“I can’t say enough about the team I have behind me with my crew chief Ashley Smith, all our crew guys and my owners Morrie & Katie Williams,” said Allard on the front stretch. “We’ve been on a pretty good roll lately and it’s been great. Winning the Dirt Cup last month gave us all a lot of confidence and it’s definitely showing. It’s really special to win the HK Classic again here in Watsonville and I really want to thank promoter John Prentice for having us here because we love racing at Ocean Speedway.”

Allard and current King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series point leader Kyle Hirst shared the front row in the 30-lapper and when flagman Willie Williams waved the green flag it was “JA” jumping into the lead. An extremely quick pace was set early on and when Allard got into lapped traffic he had to pick his spots wisely. As Hirst looked to find a way by the top-four cars ran nose to tail while weaving through the slower traffic, but a caution on lap-14 brought the party to a stop.

The surface had started to lay rubber more and more as the race went on and Allard hit his marks to perfection, even despite some pressure at times from Hirst. Over the final 10-laps Allard kicked it into overdrive and held a comfortable advantage with no worries out front. The four-time & reigning “Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup” winner eventually crossed the stripe by a little over a second to become the first driver to reach three wins on the season with the King of the West Series in 2013.

The battle to watch over the final lap was the fight for second between Hirst and youngster Dominic Scelzi. As the duo entered turn three for the final time Scelzi made a strong move to the inside and got alongside Hirst. They both drag raced to the checkered flag and Hirst was able to get the second position by just inches to earn his fifth runner up finish of the season with the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series. Hirst continues to lead the points and has been the most consistent driver thus far in 2013 with the series.

“That was a pretty exciting last lap with Dominic Scelzi poking his nose in there, but luckily we were able to hang on for second, “Hirst commented after the race. “The track took rubber there in the main event and it was tough to make stuff happen. A couple times I thought I may have had a shot at Jonathan (Allard) but he was real strong tonight so I want to congratulate him on the win. I also want to thank Dennis & Teresa Roth and all my guys for giving me a great car tonight. We’ll go on to Antioch next week and try to put this thing in victory lane.”

Scelzi’s third place finish was a career best for him with the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series in his Scelzi Enterprise No. 41 mount. The 16-year-old Fresno young gun has been extremely impressive in his first season of racing a Winged 410 Sprint Car. “This is pretty awesome to be up here on the podium tonight, but I just wish I could have got Kyle for second,” said a pumped up Scelzi in the front of the crowd. “It’s been a really good season so far but I really want to get some wins. I know they’re going to come and we’ll keep trying hard to get them. I want to thank everyone that helps us out and makes this possible.”

Three-time USAC Silver Crown Series champion Bud Kaeding made his second start of the King of the West 410 season on Saturday and brought home a nice fourth place finish in the feature aboard the Buster & Ziggy Enterprise No. 29 mount. It’s always nice to have the veteran on hand whenever possible. Former Golden State/ King of the West 410 champion Jason Statler picked up his best series finish of the season by crossing the line in fifth aboard the DF Rios Motorsports No. 00 Sprinter. The “Big Guy” made some great moves in the main event to gain spots as the race went on.

Easton’s Tommy Tarlton came home sixth, Fremont’s Shane Golobic carved his way from 16th to seventh to earn the Pit Stop USA Hard Charger Award, Campbell’s Brent Kaeding scored eighth, Fresno’s Carson Macedo was ninth and Sydney, Australia’s Peter Murphy rounded out the top-10. The 12-lap Last Chance Qualifier was won by Australian Michael Cunningham, the six-lap Dash went to Jonathan Allard and the four very exciting 10-lap Kaeding Performance Heat Races were picked off by Tommy Tarlton, Willie Croft, Jason Statler and Bud Kaeding.

The King of the West 410 Sprint Series will now get ready for its second event of the season at John & Donna Soares' Antioch Speedway this coming Saturday July 20. The night of competition will also be the final visit of the year to the one-third mile clay oval that always provides thrilling moments. The KWS 410 Winged Warriors kicked off the season at Antioch on April 20 with Willie Croft coming out on top over Rico Abreu & Kyle Hirst.

The Antioch Speedway is located at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds on the corner of 10th & L Streets in Antioch, California. Take SR-4 East (Highway 4) to the Somersville Road North Exit. Follow Somersville Road to 10thStreet. Turn Right on 10th Street. The address for the track is 1201 W. 10th Street Antioch, CA 94509.

------------

For the second consecutive year Chico's Jonathan Allard stood atop the box at the "Howard Kaeding Classic" in Watsonville. Current KWS point leader Kyle Hirst came home second & 16-year-old Dominic Scelzi scored his first ever King of the West podium by finishing third. Photo by S and S Pics

www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com

King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series Results – “Howard Kaeding Classic” Ocean Speedway July 13

30-cars

Fast time: Jonathan Allard 13.499

Heat one: 1. 21 Tommy Tarlton, 2. 0 Jonathan Allard, 3. 121 Shane Golobic, 4. 41 Dominic Scelzi, 5. 26 Sean McMahan, 6. 69c Chad Compton, 7. 4d Tim Decarlo, 8. 6 Chase Wood

Heat two: 1. 3c Willie Croft, 2. 1nz Peter Murphy, 3. 21x Carson Macedo, 4. 25 Bobby McMahan, 5. 8 Jeremy Chisum, 6. 17 Doug Gandy, 7. 74 Michael Cunningham

Heat three: 1. 00 Jason Statler, 2. 83jr Kyle Hirst, 3. 69 Brent Kaeding, 4. 88n DJ Netto, 5. 21j Richard Brace Jr., 6. 12 Scott Parker, 7. 78 Mark Barroso

Heat four: 1. 29 Bud Kaeding, 2. 33e Evan Suggs, 3. 3 Craig Stidham, 4. 3d Carl Droivold, 5. 11r Nick Rescino Jr, 6. 09s Geoffrey Strole, 7. 15 Pat Harvey

Dash: 1. Jonathan Allard, 2. Kyle Hirst, 3. Bud Kaeding, 4. Tommy Tarlton, 5. Willie Croft, 6. Dominic Scelzi, 7. Craig Stidham, 8. Jason Statler

LCQ: 1. Michael Cunningham, 2. Chad Compton, 3. Geoffrey Strole, 4. Sean McMahan, 5. Doug Gandy, 6. Jeremy Chisum, 7. Nick Rescino, 8. Richard Brace jr, 9. Mark Barroso, 10. Tim Decarlo, 11. Chase Wood, 12. Pat Harvey, 13. Scott Parker

A-main: 1. Jonathan Allard, 2. Kyle Hirst, 3. Dominic Scelzi, 4. Bud Kaeding, 5. Jason Statler, 6. Tommy Tarlton, 7. Shane Golobic, 8. Brent Kaeding, 9. Carson Macedo, 10. Peter Murphy, 11. Willie Croft, 12. Michael Cunningham, 13. DJ Netto, 14. Chad Compton, 15. Evan Suggs, 16. Craig Stidham, 17. Carl Droivold, 18. Sean McMahan, 19. Jeremy Chisum, 20. Geoffrey Strole, 21. Doug Gandy, 22. Bobby McMahan

www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com

Wasn't really all that bad of a race considering it rubbered in. Considering what the track was like in qualifyin I think the night turned out great. The heat races were awesome! Golobic's ride through the field was awesome. Scelzi was awesome too. I think if it would have stayed green it would have been even better. The top 4 were nice and bunched up through traffic. It would have been a mess of a dust hole had they not tried something. Racing would have been good but think we in the stands would have had a rough go of it LOL. Cant wait for Antioch.....

Finally livin the dirt dream.

I agree the 1st half of the main was pretty good for a rubbered in track...but as the track took more rubber the 2nd half got a little single file...just need to get rid of the early start and maybe one support class IMO..

Completely agree on the start time and coulda done without one, dare I say 2 other classes .Had that lap like 22 caution not come out the racin in traffic woulda been good I think.

Finally livin the dirt dream.

I've never attended a race at Watsonville where the track acted like that. It was weird from qualifying through the main event but was somehow entertaining. It was kind of fitting that the Howard Kaeding Classic would resemble a night at the old asphalt San Jose Speedway with tires squealing into and out of the corners. I still have vivid memories of Howard Kaeding splitting two cars at the end of the back straight and diving into turn three. He was always spectacular and the super modified racing there was the best asphalt racing anywhere!

I am so impressed with young Dominic Scelzi. This is another youngster that seems to have the ability to adapt and drive anything. The move he put on Kyle Hirst in 3 and 4 was just short of spectacular in that it came up nano seconds short of stealing the runner up spot. With the track taking rubber half way up all the way around, he seemingly had the awareness to save his tires for a late race run which impressed the heck out of me. He ain't just a gasser folks. It was a shame to see that last yellow come out 'cause it was going to be a brawl in that traffic going for the checkers.

Overall I'm glad I made my yearly trip to Ocean Speedway. The place has great fans, a good atmosphere, cool weather in hot summers and darn good race track food. I just wish they'd lighten up on that no "in/out" access once you enter the place. Kinda makes you feel like a captive when a live band is playing at the car show just outside the gate and you see two cars you'd really like to take a look at, while the modified's are spinning out at both ends of the track. I look forward to seeing you next year Ocean Speedway!

Could it be that maybe with usac racing on friday have something to do that caused conditions for saturday? In my opinion the track should have been ripped up and watered right after friday nights race then watered again early saturday morning. I'm no pro so maybe they did do that. They did do a pretty good fix though after T.T. and between races so it would not become a dust bowl and the racing tuned out good.. I guess alot of people know and still remember the Campell Comet because the crowd was Huge.. I also do not know why they have that no in an out rule, they have booths selling shirts, jackets etc: Dennis Mattish selling history books about certain speedways and you can't go out and put them in your car, makes no sense to me.. Otherwise i must say John does a pretty darn good job at Ocean.