By Gary Jacob
Calistoga, CA -- The annual two day Memorial Day weekend of Golden State Challenge winged 410 sprint car racing at Calistoga Speedway saw Tim Kaeding put on an outside groove exhibition on Saturday night to win the Walt Ross Memorial. T Kaeding started 9th in his winning drive and season point leader Jason Statler finished 2nd. Brad Furr returned to Golden State action and set fast time both nights, finishing third on Saturday night. The victory was T Kaeding's fourth in the ten appearances that he has made in the 13 completed races here in 2004. Sunday night saw a very emotional win as Sparky Howard from Santa Rosa achieved a 20 year dream of winning a feature race at his home track. Howard started on the pole for a second straight night and led every lap to win the Gary Patterson Memorial. Over the years, he has been fast qualifier at the lightning quick half-mile several times and once led a feature for 17 laps before losing his muffler. Third starting Blake Robertson and 12th starter Brent Kaeding put a lot of pressure on Howard in the closing laps, but settled for 2nd and 3rd. Howard has only made four appearances in the 13 races for the traveling series, but the win was his third top five finish as he ran fourth on Saturday night. T Kaeding had a tough Sunday night as he broke a motor in hot laps. After changing motors, he timed in 11th quick, but continued problems forced him to start last in the 23 car feature. He made it all the way to 6th before the new engine threw a rod with six laps to run.
The second car to run, Furr posted quick time on Saturday night with his 17.162 lap. That nipped the 17.249 that T Kaeding had posted as the first car out the gate. They easily outran third quick Andy Forsberg, who timed in at 17.507. With Dennis Moore Jr ready to return to action, the Morrie Williams team fielded two cars, one for Iowa's Moore and the other for Australian Trevor Green. Moore was fourth quick at 17.512 and Blake Robertson ran a 17.534. Jim Skinner, Brian Coelho and Statler rounded out the top 8 times in the 23 car field. Green won the first heat race from the pole with Calistoga's own Mike Benson second ahead of Coelho and Moore. Outside front row starter Jason York won heat 2 with T Kaeding charging from 6th to 2nd ahead of Statler and Robertson. Steve Kent also turned an outside front row start into a win in heat 3 as Sean Becker ran second ahead of Kevin Pylant, who won the previous Calistoga race. The fact that both Skinner and Johnny Key failed to finish top five in their heat races put 12th quick Howard on the pole for the 30 lap feature when a ten car inversion came up. B Kaeding won the B Main ahead of Key, Skinner and Craig Stidham, but all 23 cars on hand lined up for the 30 lap feature. Howard and Benson shared the front row ahead of Pylant, Statler, Coelho and Robertson. At the drop of the green flag, T Kaeding made a quick charge from 9th to fifth using the inside line. With the field racing nose to tail on the bottom line, T Kaeding decided to leap up high and it only took him four more laps to race into the lead. Statler was startled to see T Kaeding race around him up high, but he changed lines and hung on to finish second. Furr raced from 10th to finish third and pole starter Howard was fourth. Benson got his first top five of the season and Pylant ran sixth ahead of Forsberg, B Kaeding, Coelho, Kent, Skinner and York.
The track was quicker on Sunday night and Furr dipped into the 16's as the fourth car to time. His quick time was a 16.808. Kent had earlier posted a 16.815 and Coelho ranked third with his 16.842 run. The only other car in the 16's was Moore at 16.962. Andy Gregg appeared for the second day, but broke in hot laps to end his night. York was fifth quick ahead of Statler, Benson and B Kaeding. T Kaeding managed to get the car running long enough to time in 11th quick at 17.488. Outside front row starter Trevor Green won the first heat race ahead of pole starter Skinner and Benson. Pylant turned a pole start into a win in heat 2 ahead of B Kaeding, sixth starter Kent and York. Sean Becker won heat 3 from the pole as Howard ran second ahead of Robertson and Forsberg. Howard had timed in 15th quick, but problems for five teams in the heat action allowed him to be on the pole for the 30 lap feature for a second straight night. Coelho won the B Main ahead of Stidham, Wayne Williams and Key. The feature lineup had Howard, Green, Robertson, Forsberg, Benson and Statler in the front 3 rows and T Kaeding started dead last after failing to race in the heat or B Main. Howard was never headed in his charge from the pole this night. Third starter Robertson and 12th starting B Kaeding put heavy pressure on Howard as the laps ran down, but Howard was able to use a lapped car as a pick as they came off the final corner. The excited winner leaped from his car on the front stretch and ran up and down the track as he drew a standing ovation for the crowd. Robertson ran second and B Kaeding was disappointed that he was unable to pull off a win for his long time crew chief Billy Albini who was unable to be at the track due to a battle with cancer. Forsberg finished fourth ahead of Statler, Kent, Furr, Green, Moore, Becker, Pylant and Stidham. T Kaeding turned a lot of heads in his feature drive from 23rd to 6th before throwing a rod out of the new powerplant for the Beef Packers team.
The busy series sees two nights of racing at action filled small tracks to open June as they make their only visit to Watsonville Speedway on Friday, June 4th and then make their final 2004 visit to Placerville Speedway on Saturday, June 5th. With 9 top fives in the 13 races, Statler has built his point lead to 43 points over Forsberg. Robertson is another 31 points back in third, just 12 ahead of Becker. Pylant is just one point behind Becker and just 4 ahead of B Kaeding. Seventh ranked Stidham is 105 behind leader Statler and just 8 ahead of York. Williams and Skinner round out the top ten.
Summary
Saturday Fast Time-Brad Furr 17.162 Heat 1-Trevor Green, Mike Benson, Brian Coelho, Dennis Moore Jr, Furr. Heat 2-Jason York, Tim Kaeding, Jason Statler, Blake Robertson, Wayne Williams. Heat 3-Steve Kent, Sean Becker, Kevin Pylant, Sparky Howard, Andy Forsberg. B Main-Brent Kaeding, Johnny Key, Jim Skinner, Craig Stidham, Ivan Worden, Doug Lippincott, Rich Vant. A Main-T Kaeding, Statler, Furr, Howard, Benson, Pylant, Forsberg, B Kaeding, Coelho, Kent, Skinner, York, Becker, Stidham, Green, Moore, Williams, Lippincott, Key, Worden, Robertson, Vant.
Sunday Fast Time-Furr 16.808 Heat 1-Green, Skinner, Benson, Moore, Furr. Heat 2-Pylant, B Kaeding, Kent, York, Stuart Krum. Heat 3-Becker, Howard, Robertson, Forsberg, Statler. B Main-Coelho, Stidham, Williams, Key, Lippincott, Worden, Vant, T Kaeding. A Main-Howard, Robertson, B Kaeding, Forsberg, Statler, Kent, Furr, Green, Moore, Becker, Pylant, Stidham, Benson, Skinner, York, Coelho, Lippincott, Key, Worden, T Kaeding, Krum, Williams, Vant.