From The Grandstand

by Ron Rodda
October 28, 2008


Lincoln, CA…There have been 15 of them, but the one held last Thursday through Saturday at the Tulare Thunderbowl seems to have eclipsed all others. This reference is, of course, to the Annual Trophy Cup, an event that fixed all mistakes from last year and put on the best racing all year that most of us have seen. Most, if not all, of us who have witnessed all 15 Trophy Cup events feel this one was the best ever.

While the move to a 3 day format had detractors, it really made it nice with the usual pressure packed pace of opening night of the two day schedule missing. While the continuation of the 3 day format will be discusses by parties involved, I hope it continues with only a little tweaking needed. Adding a day but increasing the purse by $22,500 seems like a decent tradeoff to me.

Friday opened with qualifying and Tim Kaeding had the misfortune to set fast time. I say misfortune as the fastest qualifier has never won the Trophy Cup. Roger Crockett was 2nd quick and Cup champion, Brad Sweet was 3rd fastest over a 59 car field. Eyebrows raised with the car count for a $112,500 purse, but there were enough on hand and the quality of teams was top notch. A racing event is not successful on car count but actual racing, a measure at which the event wildly succeeded.

By his own account of “waiting for the right time”, Sweet took over the overall point lead by good on lap 45 by moving into 4th, two spots behind Sammy Swindell. To win the title, Swindell needed two cars between himself and Sweet, but the lap 45 pass by the champion made it one, and Sweet moved on Swindell’s tail one lap later to give him a cushion.

Sweet, driving the Rod Tiner 83, was the car owners 2nd Cup title in 3 years as Tim Kaeding won the 2006 edition in his car. Sweet added to his amazing year of wins with this huge title, coming from 24th in the fully inverted field to finish 3rd after 50 intense laps. A superbly prepared Thunderbowl led to fantastic mains on Friday and Saturday, and Thursday’s was pretty good, too.

Tyler Walker looked as if he might set an event record as the lowest ranked qualifier to win the title when he overcame a 33rd quick time to be 3rd in points entering the final main. Walker won both preliminary nights and added points with strong drives in heats and the Saturday scramble, but when he got into the turn two wall on lap 23 his drive ended.

Tim Kaeding flipped both Thursday in the main and again Saturday in the scrambles but still managed a 3rd overall behind Sweet and Swindell. Brent Kaeding flipped hard into the turn 3 wall with 22 laps done on Saturday to end his attempt at a 5th title. After Tommy Tarlton had troubles, that left only the eventual top 3 that escaped mishaps in the main out of the top 7 in points going in to the 50 laps.

The last car in the point payout, a 24th place overall, still earned $1880 for the weekend for all racing finishes. The other 23 went up from there and everyone was paid for every main as well as the scrambles. The two scrambles on Saturday, for the top 20 in points, fully inverted in an odd and even alignment, were a bit uneventful but helped widen the track for later thrills.

Besides the fans and drivers, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is also a big winner as every penny of entry fees is donated to the organization. Also given to them are many dollars raised by a golf tournament, raffling off donated merchandise, and generous donations. It was the latter category that allowed this year’s total to reach $50,000 to make it $500,000 overall that has been given to Make-A-Wish for the 15 Trophy Cups.

There are always disappointments in an event such as this one and two drivers that lead the tough luck list are Randy Hannagan and Jonathan Allard. Hannagan won the Saturday main from 10th after leading the Friday main before taking a DNF due to a very small piece breaking. Hannagan had taken over on lap 23 of Friday’s 30 lap test and I really think he was on his way to a win when the part broke.

Jonathan Allard had a sour engine for time trials on Thursday and a 42nd quick was the result. He missed the Thursday main as a result and had to drive from 18th starting to 3rd in the Friday B main to make the A. His 24th to 7th run got him a 3rd starting spot in Saturday’s B main, but he was not able to make the A despite his valiant comeback from Thursday’s engine woes.

Three teenagers had excellent weekends with Kyle Larson, a 16 year old from Elk Grove, showing his steady and mature driving style to finish 4th in Saturday’s main and 6th in overall points for the 2nd year sprint car driver. A year older at 17, Shane Golobic was 7th in the Saturday A and 9th in overall points and made some great moves in the three days. Also 17, Cory Eliason from nearby Visalia missed the Saturday A main but was still impressive for only having raced a handful of times this year.

Not quite as young but someone who I really enjoyed watching for the first time was Mark Dobmeier, the 12th place point finisher in his first ever California event. The Grand Forks, ND star has won 26 mains this year, but only 25 of them came from his efforts in a sprint at Knoxville, Husets, and River Cities Speedway in his home town. His other win was in a legend on a night at River Cities than a car was available, he started 15th and won.

With sprint wins totally 12 at River Cities, 10 at Husets, and 3 at Knoxville all in the 410 division, the 27 year old has obviously had a very successful season. He sees a similar schedule for next year while he stays even busier with his Forx Radiator business as well as helping his father with the bail bond and insurance business.

Dobmeier started racing like so many northern California drivers did by racing go karts from age 8 to 16. The following two years he was a sometimes driver in his father’s sprint, and became a full time driver at age 18. Mark says his driving schedule increased when his father challenged him to make the school honor roll. A self-described “C” student, he met the challenge, took over the driving chores, and went on to earn a degree from University of North Dakota.

Getting a chance to meet the North Dakota star and all the other things that goes into the Trophy Cup made this event very special. I am already waiting for the 16th annual version to see how this one can be topped.