World of Outlaws head for bullring competition at Ocean Speedway this Friday night

World of Outlaws head for bullring competition at Ocean Speedway this Friday night

By Gary Thomas

Watsonville, CA – October 13, 2008…Bullring mania will be on tap this Friday night October 17 when the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series invade the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, CA for the first time since 2002. The evening of competition will mark the beginning of a California double-header in which the series will make its way down to the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare the following night.

The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaw Sprint Series stars should be at their best on the tight quarter-mile bullring as traffic will come into play on countless occasions, forcing competitors to be on their heels lap after lap. It will mark the fourth time that the word’s best sprint car drivers have competed at the track after holding events there in 2000, ’01 & ’02. Those races were won respectively by Joey Saldana, Andy Hillenburg and Brad Furr, with Mark Kinser setting the track record of 10.049 during the first visit in ’00.

Leading the way for the local talent will be two-time and current Ocean Speedway track champion Brent Kaeding from nearby Campbell. The 13-time King of California started off the year slowly by his standards, but has picked up the pace rapidly and drove to four victories in his last four Ocean Speedway Wright One 360 Series starts, including a big win at the 48th running of the Johnny Key Classic in late August. Kaeding also had a great showing at the 55th Gold Cup in Chico where he raced his Al’s Roofing Supply No. 69 to a third place finish on his prelim night and a fourth place result during the 40 lap finale on Saturday.

Another driver coming into the Ocean Speedway with momentum on his side is two-time and current King of California Jonathan Allard of Chico. The 32 year-old driver recently picked up his first career Fall Nationals title at Silver Dollar Speedway with a thrilling charge from the 13th starting position aboard his Williams Motorsports No. 0. Like Kaeding, Allard also had a very solid showing at the Gold Cup in Chico where he was the top local driver by finishing runner-up during his prelim main event and came back to score a very strong third place finish on Saturday night. Earlier this year he wrapped up his second King of California title, becoming just the third driver in GSC history to win multiple championships.

Los Angeles racer Tyler Walker has had a strong season at the Ocean Speedway and is sure to be a contender while driving the NMI Industrial Contractors No. 24. The always exciting driver captured a pair of Golden State Challenge Series victories at the Watsonville based track this season and came back last month to dominate a California Civil War Series event at the speedway, en route to leading all 30 laps to pick up the win. Walker also made one appearance with the Wright One 360 Series at Ocean Speedway this year and brought home a third place finish in the main event. He has put together a very solid season overall and also finished runner-up in the Golden State Challenge Series points, tallying five wins with the club.

Former King of California Tim Kaeding has had another great season and will look for a good showing when the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Series convenes at the Ocean Speedway on Friday. The locally based San Jose driver led the Golden State Challenge Series in the win category by scoring six wins this year, with three of those since rejoining the Roth Motorsports team in Mid-July. Included in those victories this season was his second career Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial win in May, as well as a third place finish at the Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup in Skagit during the month of June. The 30 year-old racer hasn’t found victory lane at Ocean Speedway yet this year, but has always been strong at the track and his previous two starts netted podium finishes after starting in the fifth row each time.

Other locals sure to be in the thick of things will include Campbell’s Bud Kaeding, Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs, Los Gatos’ Jason Statler, Easton’s Tommy Tarlton and Fremont’s Shane Golobic. Ocean Speedway regulars Bud Kaeding, Statler and Suggs have all picked up Wright One Series wins this season and ran top five in points at the track as well, with Statler finishing third and Suggs & Kaeding tying for fourth.

Young Golobic has put together a good season, which includes making the Gold Cup Saturday night main event in Chico and a Golden State Challenge Series victory at Ocean Speedway in May, where he just missed out on a clean sweep by finishing second in his heat race. Tarlton comes into the event with momentum on his side after runner-up finishes at the track during the Johnny Key Classic, the Civil War Series event last month and is also coming off an impressive $4,000 win at the Kings Speedway less than a few weekends ago.

The Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Series is coming down to its final handful of races and two-time defending champion Donny Schatz is in position to join Steve Kinser & Sammy Swindell as just the third driver in WOO history to win three driving titles. The Fargo, ND racer has had another outstanding year and has claimed 20 overall wins this season aboard the Tony Stewart Racing, Armor All No. 15, which includes claiming his third straight win at the Knoxville Nationals, joining Kinser as only the second driver to win the event on three consecutive occasions. If he were to win the WOO championship this season, Schatz would also join Kinser as just the second driver in history to win the Outlaw title three straight times.
Clovis, CA’s Jason Meyers will look for redemption following his last California visit, which left him with much disappointment after being taken out by a spun lapped car while leading the main event at the 55th Gold Cup Race of Champions. “Hotfoot” will have extra motivation at the Ocean Speedway as GLR Investments, one of the main supporters of Meyers’ No. 14 racing team, will be the presenting sponsor of the event on Friday. Earlier this season Meyers made a visit to Watsonville during a Golden State Challenge event and proceeded to win his heat race, the dash and lead all 30 laps in the feature to pick up his 12th career series victory. The defending Trophy Cup champ comes into the Ocean Speedway sitting second in World of Outlaw points with eight wins with the series.

The inaugural World of Outlaw event in Watsonville was captured by Brownsburg, IN’s Joey Saldana, who at the time was driving the Hemsaw No. 17 sprinter, but this time around will return to the quarter-mile bullring aboard the potent Kasey Kahne Racing, Budweiser sponsored No. 9 machine. “The Brownsburg Bullet” comes into the Ocean Speedway sitting third in WOO points with five wins, but has had a handful of other possible victories cut short by bad luck, including cutting a tire while sitting out front at the Kings Royal in July at Eldora.

Twenty-time World of Outlaw champ Steve Kinser has won at a large amount of the tracks that the series visits, but has yet to find victory lane at the Ocean Speedway and will be looking to change that on Friday. The Bloomington, IN driver currently ranks fourth in WOO points and has raced his Q-Oils No. 11 to six main event wins this season. Fellow veteran driver Jac Haudenschild has seen resurgence this season while driving the Carnahan Motorsports No. R19. “The Wild Child” recently scored his third career Gold Cup Race of Champions victory and is always at his best on tight-bullrings, much like the one seen at Ocean Speedway.

Other top World of Outlaw Sprint Series drivers expected on Friday night include former California driver Paul McMahan who now resides in Nashville, TN; as well as Findlay, Ohio’s Chad Kemenah; St. Mary’s NSW, Aust’s Kerry Madsen; Terry McCarl of Altoona, Iowa; Owasso, OK’s Daryn Pittman, Bloomington, IN’s Kraig Kinser and more.

The front and back gates will both open at noon this Friday at the Ocean Speedway with tickets being $45 at the front gate. Qualifying is expected to get underway around 6pm with racing to follow. The Ocean Speedway is located on the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville, California. For more info on the track visit http://www.oceanspeedway.com