Kaeding And Howard Share Calistoga Honors

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.

Clean Sweep For Rock Degele As Montana Tour Visits Great Falls

By Gary Jacob

Great Falls, MT -- Rock Degele from Glasgow drove his Eugene's Pizza and Rock's Auto Plaza sponsored Rayburn to a $600 win as the Montana Outlaw Late Model Tour ran leg 2 of it's 17 race 2004 schedule Friday night at 3/10 mile clay Electric City Speedway. Degele also drives a dirt modified painted exactly like his dirt late model. He enjoyed a perfect night as he also won his heat race. He was chased to the checkered flag in the dirt late model feature by Molt's Mike McCord, Great Falls own Jim Zaremski and previous week Billings winner Josh Adams from Helena. McCord won $450, Zaremski $350 and Adams $300.

Nine of the 14 dirt late models that checked in for the race had run the Billings event the previous weekend. Bob Scott broke before the heat action. The cars were divided into a pair of heat races with wins going to Degele and 30 year racing veteran Ron Fuller from Whitehall. McCord and Russ Wolfe gained the second place finishes, but Wolfe was unable to start the main event leaving a dozen cars in the feature action. Zaremski and the Fegers chassis of Rory Minster gained third place heat runs. Degele was chased to his feature win by McCord, Zaremski, Adams, Minster, Darryn Waldo, Pee Wee Drazich, Rick Herman, Fuller and John Dowson. Adams is off to the fastest start with a win and a fourth while McCord has combined a 2nd and a 4th. Degele was 8th in the Billings opener.

The tour returns to BMP Speedway in Billings for a May 22nd race. The first two race weekend of 2004 will find them in Belgrade on June 11 and back here at Great Falls on June 12.

Summary Heat 1-Rock Degele, Russ Wolfe, Jim Zaremski, Tim Ames, Pee Wee Drazich. Heat 2-Ron Fuller, Mike McCord, Rory Minster, Josh Adams, Jody Kropp. Main-Degele, McCord, Zaremski, Adams, Minster, Darryn Waldo, Drazich, Herman, Fuller, John Dowson, Ames, Kropp.

Two Wins In The Same Day For Dan Fitzgerald

By Gary Jacob And Rich Baum

Fallon, NM -- Having won the IMCA Modified feature at Summit Raceway in Elko six hours earlier in the day, Dan Fitzgerald from Las Vegas NV tagged the field Saturday night at Rattlesnake Raceway's season debut event and drove to victory by passing the field. The busy Fitzgerald team wants to use 2004 as a year to do things that they missed while chasing points for so many seasons, but the lure of a four race weekend drew them to Northern Nevada. Fitzgerald maintains the Summit Raceway web site in addition to his racing and the Las Vegas school teacher won that track's 2004 season opener on Friday night. He stayed in the area to capture the Saturday daytime Founder's Cup race and then made the 250 mile dash across the state to Fallon. He arrived five minutes after the IMCA Modified heat races finished so he had to tag the ten car grid. He drove his Bellville Motorsports car to the feature win ahead of young Steve McGee and John Hill. On Sunday afternoon, Fitzgerald made it four wins in 48 hours as he ventured to Winnemucca's season opener and won again. Mike Darnall combined a heat and feature win in the street stock action with dash winner Rob Grace second ahead of Reno's Scott Deutsch. Kevin Boles from Minden took the bomber main event honors ahead of Ken Mayes and Wes Washburn. Rusty Baglin picked off heat and feature wins in the Gen X class. A special incentive I-80 Challenge Series has been established in 2004 to get drivers in Northern Nevada to visit other tracks and Jerry Roseland has shown his commitment to do that by racing to second in the Rattlesnake season opener after finishing 3rd at Reno-Fernley Raceway just minutes earlier on Saturday night.

Fitzgerald collected his trophy and money at Elko at 4:15 on Saturday afternoon and then made the high speed dash across the state, but fell five minutes of being able to tag heat 2. McGee beat Bill Smith III in heat 1 and Shawn Marlow outraced Robert Smotherman in heat 2. McGee and Smotherman were 1-2 in the dash. The opening night track was very rough in the heat action and the officials reworked the surface with the grader before the main event action. A better track resulted and the tacky quarter-mile found McGee and Marlow battling for the lead when both Bill Hiney and Smith spun off turn 4. Fitzgerald raced through the field into third. Racing between McGee and Marlow saw both briefly vacate the bottom groove and Fitzgerald ducked underneath to race into the top spot. Marlow had to pit with a flat tire and Smotherman's left front flat had slowed his pace. Fitzgerald paced the remainder of the race to win ahead of McGee, Hill and division rookie Dan Edgington. The flying Fitzgerald nearly lapped fourth place and Hiney ran fifth ahead of Smotherman and Allen Boles.

The street stocks split 9 cars into a pair of heat races. Mike Darnall outraced Brian Kerby in heat 1 and Rich Baum put his MoPar in the winner's circle of heat 2 ahead of Deutsch. Grace took dash honors after a third place heat run. In all the divisions besides the IMCA class, the track used the finishing order of last November's Kris Kringle Charity race to set the main event lineup order. Baum was on the pole, but Darnall turned his outside front row start into a big early lead on a wet track. Baum settled into second ahead of Grace. A huge oil leak ended up sidelining Baum and the flying Grace was able to cut Darnall's full straight lead down to just a car length. Darnall maintained his cool and picked off the feature win with Grace right behind. 2003 champion Deutsch was third ahead of ageless Willie Ferrier, Tom Haynes and Bob Fish.

The Bomber class had 13 cars and double division racer Ken Gotchal won heat 1 with his Dodge Dart over former street stock racer Bill Boucher. Brian Milburn outraced Lovelock's Mike Ellison in heat 2. Gotchal and Milburn ran 1-2 in the dash. Teammates Wes Washburn and Chris Jimenez had the front row for the feature due to their placings last November and Washburn raced into the lead. Wheeling a new GM Metric, Ellison overtook Washburn for the top spot. Running an outside line, Gotchal chased down Ellison and they briefly dueled side by side for the top spot. Both ended up with flat tires and Boles drove by both Washburn and Ken Mayes with his Chevy Nova for the opening night win. Mayes ran second ahead of Washburn, Boucher, Wade Lumsden, Jimenez and Ed Muise.

The track was very encouraged to attract 15 cars for the Gen X season debut. First time racer Randy Sharp won heat 1 over Steve Singley. Former Sprint 100 racer Baglin took heat 2 ahead of Ken Gotchal's Ford Escort. Gotchal beat Sharp in the dash. Gotchal also appeared to have the main event in hand, but a flat tire took him out of contention and Baglin paced the remainder of the race. Roseland had tagged the field after making the quick tour from Fernley. Roseland won opening night in Fernley and placed third there earlier tonight. Roseland worked his way through the 13 car pack to challenge for the lead with Dodge 2.2 Charger. Baglin did lead lap 29, but Baglin retook the lead on the final lap for the win. Sam Cox ran third ahead of Sharp, Alex Thunder, Tori Edgington, Authrum Thunder and Cody Thunder. Both Brandon Thunder and David Vanzant were feature scratches.

May 15 will see not only a full night of racing, but Mud Bog action in addition. The track races twice on the holiday weekend with a destruction derby added to the Sunday night card.

Summary Gen X Dash-Ken Gotchal, Randy Sharp, Steve Singley. Heat 1-Sharp, Singley, Authrum Thunder, David Vanzant. Heat 2-Rusty Baglin, Gotchal, Sam Cox, Tori Edgington, Alex Thunder. Main-Baglin, Jerry Roseland, Cox, Sharp, Alex Thunder, Edgington, Authrum Thunder, Cody Thunder, Kevin Jeppsen, Gotchal, Todd Foreman, Patty Hish, Singley. Bomber Dash-Ken Gotchal, Brian Milburn, Bill Boucher. Heat 1-Gotchal, Boucher, Ken Mayes, Wes Washburn, Chris Jimenez. Heat 2-Milburn, Mike Ellison, Kevin Boles, Ed Muise, Wade Lumsden. Main-Boles, Mayes, Washburn, Boucher, Lumsden, Jimenez, Muise, Ellison, Silver Lovett, Gotchal, Ray Martz, Frankie Smith, Milburn. Street Stock Dash-Rob Grace, Scott Deutsch, Mike Darnall. Heat 1-Darnall, Brian Kerby, Willie Ferrier, Curtis Elliott. Heat 2-Rich Baum, Deutsch, Grace, Tom Haynes, Bob Fish. Main-Darnall, Grace, Deutsch, Ferrier, Haynes, Fish, Baum. IMCA Modified Dash-Steve McGee, Robert Smotherman, Heat 1-McGee, Bill Smith III, Bill Hiney, John Hill. Heat 2-Shawn Marlow, Smotherman, Dow Lazenby, Dan Edgington. Main-Dan Fitzgerald, McGee, Hill, Edgington, Hiney, Smotherman, Allen Boles, Smith, Marlow, Lazenby.

Pylant Wire To Wire From Pole

By Gary Jacob

Calistoga, CA -- Veteran Golden State Challenge Series competitor Kevin Pylant from Santa Cruz turned a pole position start into a feature win Saturday night as the Calistoga Fairgrounds Speedway half-mile opened it's 2004 season. Pylant became the sixth different winner in 8 races on the Golden State Challenge schedule in 2004 as only the absent Tim Kaeding has more than a single victory with three. Pylant outdueled fellow front row starter Andy Forsberg for the win with series point leader Jason Statler finishing 3rd after starting third. Fifth starter Brian Coelho and 7th starting Brent Kaeding rounded out the top five finishers.

Wheeling the Henderson mount, Steve Kent was quickest of the 24 cars on hand with a 16.893 clocking. The only driver to break into the 16's was Kaeding at 16.985. Friday night Chico winner Blake Robertson stood third at 17.082 and Coelho ran a 17.154. Jim Skinner was fifth at 17.160 and the top 8 was rounded out by Jason York, Statler and Forsberg. Pylant ranked ninth. Series point challenger Dennis Moore Jr had to race with a special arrangement on the car after a four wheeler accident during the week and he timed in 10th quick. The cars were divided into three invert six, take five heat races. Mike Benson won the first from the pole as fellow front row starter Sparky Howard ran second ahead of 4th starter Statler and Coelho. John Gray turned an outside front row start into a win in heat 2 as 4th starter Forsberg battled to 2nd ahead of fifth starter Skinner. Outside front row starter Doug Lippincott from Nevada won heat 3 with 4th starter Pylant second ahead of Craig Stidham. When York struggled to a sixth in this event, that allowed 9th quick Pylant to gain the pole for the feature race when the inversion option came up 8. Front row starters York and Moore ran 1-2 in the B Main ahead of Rob Johnson, Stuart Krum and Andy Gregg.

The A Main started all 24 cars and the 8 car inversion put Pylant, Forsberg, Statler, Skinner, Coelho, Robertson, Kaeding and Kent in the front four rows. Calistoga has dramatically improved it's lighting system for 2004 and turn 3 is no longer the black hole that it was. Pylant charged to the win with fellow front row starter Forsberg second. Statler's third place run allowed him to improve his point lead to 18 points over Moore Jr who ran to 15th place. Forsberg moved up into a tie with Robertson for third in points, just 22 tallies behind Moore Jr. Coelho was fourth in the feature ahead of Kaeding, Kent, Robertson and 9th starting York. The top 12 were rounded out by Stidham, Benson, Howard and Gray. With a 23rd place finish, Sean Becker dropped back into a tie with York for fifth in points, 15 behind the tied Robertson and Forsberg. Pylant is now 9th in points behind Stidham and the departed Tim Kaeding, who is now racing on the World of Outlaws series.

Next up for the Golden State Challenge Series is the prestigious Dave Bradway Memorial race in Chico which pays $4000 to win and $50 a lap to lead in the 40 lap main event. Many of the teams will also run the regular Friday night point show at Silver Dollar Speedway on May 7th before racing the Bradway event on May 8th.

Summary Fast Time-Steve Kent 16.893 Heat 1-Mike Benson, Sparky Howard, Jason Statler, Brian Coelho, Kent. Heat 2-John Gray, Andy Forsberg, Jim Skinner, Brent Kaeding. Heat 3-Doug Lippincott, Kevin Pylant, Craig Stidham, Blake Robertson, Shain Matthews. B Main-Jason York, Dennis Moore Jr, Rob Johnson, Stuart Krum, Andy Gregg, Ricky Richardson, Josh Blakely. A Main-Pylant, Forsberg, Statler, Coelho, Kaeding, Kent, Robertson, York, Stidham, Benson, Howard, Gray, Williams, Matthews, Moore, Lippincott, Blakely, Rob Johnson, Krum, Gregg, Richardson, Skinner, Sean Becker, Carl Enns.

Wheeler And Bordwine Open Grants With Feature Wins

By Gary Jacob

Grants, NM -- Former Duke City Raceway competitor Kenny Wheeler won the street stock main event ahead of John Baron and Cotton Gerald as the Uranium Capital Speedway opened it's 2004 season Saturday night. In the hobby stock class, Clyde Bordwine was the feature winner ahead of a pair of former Albuquerque racers Dan Harmon and Phil York. Buddy Allen beat Thomas Hunter in the thunder bomber action. The Duke City Raceway competitors were forced to find a new track to compete at after that facility and sold and closed as a racing venue this winter.