From The Grandstand

by Ron Rodda
June 3, 2008

Lincoln, CA I was able to work out the last Saturday in May to get to the Placerville special event with Golden State Challenge series 410 sprints and BCRA midgets. This rather unique combination of divisions drew an overflow crowd to the foothill fairgrounds quarter mile. The health of the high banked oval seems as strong as ever and the history of large and enthusiastic crowds in Placerville continues.

Andy Forsberg was quick time at 10.285, the 23rd and final qualifier in the sprint car field. While the number of teams was far from overwhelming, the quality of what Golden State brings to the track is as strong as ever. The track’s 360 sprint division is around 3 to 5 tenths of a second slower than 410s, although comparison is flawed by the wonderful fact that dirt tracks are not always the same week to week.

GSC officials run an efficient show and good behavior by both sanctioning groups in heat race action saw their shorter races done by 8 pm. Dan Simpson, Andy Gregg, and Kyle Larson won heats, ten lap affairs that inverted six and took five due to the three heat format. The B main was correctly judged to be unneeded and the main was scheduled for one additional starter.

The dash involves the fastest 8 that earn a transfer in a heat and with one of the top 8 not transferring, the 9th fastest joined the short event. Tim Kaeding won the dash from 4th., speeding through an opening on the bottom in turn 3 for the winning pass. This earned him the pole for Kaeding as the dash sets the first 4 rows. Never liked the dash concept, never will.

Outside front row starter Mike Henry got the better start and led 2 laps before Kaeding sped past him for the lead along the backstretch on lap 4. That mostly ended the drama for who would win. The 4 yellows and 3 reds only delayed the obvious. Jonathan Allard, starting 4th after the dash results, was 3rd until lap 23 when he ran the bottom of turns 3 and 4 to take 2nd.

The podium held Kaeding, Allard, and Henry when the 30 laps were scored as the short dash basically decided the main event before the call to staging had even been given. This is the basis of my anti-dash attitude, why run a few laps with the first 4 rows of the main event field, then bring the cars back later with more added to the back of the 4 rows and race more laps? Why not make the dash 30 laps, the tack on 14 more cars, and run the final six laps?

Well spaced yellows kept the hope of traffic making the main more intense from becoming a reality. Every 4 to 6 laps the field would see something other than green and any anticipation of Kaeding having to deal with traffic with Henry or Allard in pursuit was dashed.

The BCRA midgets brought 19 with Bud Kaeding and Kyle Larson competing in both divisions. While Kaeding has a long history in midgets, this was, I believe, Larson’s 3rd career start, the others being at Manzanita and indoors at Tulsa. The 15 year old Elk Grove driver’s evening in sprints produced a DNF due to front end problems, a far different outcome than his thrilling Civil War win six days prior. Larson’s midget effort was smooth and he moved from 14th to 6th in that main. Bud Kaeding went from 13th to 4th in midgets and 12th to 8th in sprints.

BCRA ran a pair of draw heats, the results of which along with some point averaging thing most of which I failed to comprehend were used to set the lineup for their 30 lap main. Jimmy Christian and Justin Grant won heats from 4th and 6th respectively before their main pushed off for main which had sort of only two delays.

Putting 19 midgets on a high-banked quarter is not necessarily a recipe for flag free racing, but the well behaved drivers only created 2 yellows with another 2 appearing on subsequent restarts before a lap was complete, so sort of double yellows. Showing a much more competitive main, the midgets saw Danny Parker lead the first 9 from the pole before Christian drove under him for the lead in turn 2.

Christian, Parker, and Quintin Crye ran some excellent laps and Crye made his winning pass on lap 26 on the bottom of turn 4. Starting 11th, Crye claimed the win over Chnstian and 9th starting Justin Grant in a very positive display of midget racing. No question which group had the more competitive main on this particular night.

I was fortunate to be able to make Placerville’s show considering a 3 day softball tournament was crowding the weekend. It all worked out when a return to Reno for the Sunday championship games saw my Fremont based team, Prime Time, win the title over a 16 team field. Now there’s a bit of a coincidence my primary team this year is based in Fremont, once the home of the long shuttered Baylands Raceway Park, a place that still invokes memories of cold nights and great action on the 3/8. A good night of racing, a team title, and lots of I-80 miles made for a very full weekend.