7/8/2023
Ocean Speedway
Bud Kaeding wins with the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo
Bud Kaeding returns to Ocean Speedway victory lane on Friday
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA…Bud Kaeding used his veteran experience to take advantage of a lap 18 restart, getting by Caeden Steele and setting sail to his first Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo win of the season on Friday.
Kaeding was joined in victory lane by Trevor Clymens with the IMCA Sport Mods, point leader Jason Lazzerini with the Four Bangers, Roy ller with the Police N Pursuit and Shawn Jones in the South Bay Dwarf car feature.
Fresno’s Caeden Steele set fast time to begin the night and captured the Gizdich Ranch Dash for the second consecutive event at Ocean Speedway. The youngster charged into the lead and held command early. Kaeding showed that he had immense speed all evening long and made a pass of Steele at one point, only to have a caution negate the pass.
Several restarts were seen in the 30-lap contest and Kaeding made the winning move by carving his way to the inside of Steele following a lap 18 double file opportunity. As the race wound down Steele tried to make something happen with the leader, but Kaeding hit his marks en route to the Ed Entz checkered flag.
Steele crossed the stripe in second with Chase Johnson third, Mitchell Faccinto fourth and Ocean Sprints point leader Rickey Sanders rounding out the top-five. Johnson and Sanders put on an excellent back and forth battle that delighted the crowd on hand. The top-10 was filled out by Michael Pombo, 19th starter Caleb Debem, Tanner Carrick, Gauge Garcia and Dominic Gorden.
Ocean Sprints results: 1. 69-Bud Kaeding[2]; 2. 121X-Caeden Steele[1]; 3. 28-Chase Johnson[5]; 4. 22-Mitchell Faccinto[3]; 5. 121-Rickey Sanders[8]; 6. 37-Michael Pombo[12]; 7. 3D-Caleb Debem[19]; 8. 83T-Tanner Carrick[4]; 9. 2K-Gauge Garcia[17]; 10. 10-Dominic Gorden[7]; 11. 88A-Joey Ancona[15]; 12. 18-Grant Champlin[6]; 13. 7P-Jake Andreotti[9]; 14. 61-Travis Labat[18]; 15. 5R-Ryan Rocha[13]; 16. 72W-Kurt Nelson[20]; 17. 72S-Bradley Dillard[16]; 18. 56Z-Don Hart[22]; 19. 88N-DJ Netto[10]; 20. 50-Bryce Eames[11]; 21. 25Z-Jason Chisum[21]; 22. 72JR-Chris Nelson[14]
Brentwood’s Trevor Clymens started from the outside of the front row and battled Bo Crebs early, before fending off a late challenge from Adriane Frost to snag the IMCA Sport Mod victory on Friday. Previous event winner Jason Ryan Jr. also battled his way forward while making some beautiful moves on the bullring.
Ryan Jr. ultimately ended up in third, as Clymens crossed under the checkered by just under a second ahead of Frost. Crebs finished fourth with Steven Allee in fifth. Clymens’ first win of the year also allowed him to close within two points of leader Chuck Golden in the standings.
IMCA Sport Mod results: 1. 2C-Trevor Clymens[2]; 2. 22-Adriane Frost[4]; 3. 52-Jason Ryan Jr[6]; 4. 168-Bo Crebs[1]; 5. 39-Steven Allee[3]; 6. 3G-Chuck Golden[5]; 7. 19C-Tommy Clymens[7]; 8. 22W-Charlie Hunter[9]; 9. 33-Mike Gil[8]
A strong turnout of 19 Four Bangers was seen on Friday and they were awarded with a 20-lap finale on this night. Amaya Flowers led the first handful of laps until Jason Lazzerini marched his way to the front of the field. Once in front that was all she wrote, as Lazzerini pulled away for his fifth triumph of the 2023 campaign.
DJ Keldsen came home in second, with Flowers, 17th starting Nicole Beardsley and Bill Beardsley completing the top-five. The remainder of the top-10 was comprised of Peter Vannerus, 14th starter Thomas Cumming, 18th starting Ryder Greene, Matt Hill and Shelbie Freeman.
Four Bangers results: 1. 0-Jason Lazzerini[12]; 2. 66-DJ Keldsen[5]; 3. 10-Amaya Flowers[2]; 4. 2-Nicole Beardsley[17]; 5. 25-Bill Beardsley[3]; 6. 37-Peter Vannerus[4]; 7. 8-Thomas Cumming[14]; 8. 54-Ryder Greene[18]; 9. 810-Matt Hill[1]; 10. 50F-Shelbie Freeman[10]; 11. 333-Sarah Ayers[19]; 12. 720-Kenny Stragalinos[15]; 13. 3RD-Eddie Humphrey III[8]; 14. 84-Austin Sprague[6]; 15. 11-Shawn DePriest[13]; 16. 5-Charlie Cole[9]; 17. 50-Tony Smith[11]; 18. (DNS) 43-Kate Beardsley; 19. (DNS) 112-Travis VanGilder
The 15-lap Police N Pursuit feature was all about point leader Roy Iler, who dominated the contest to get the win over Jackie Yeung, Ben Standen, Kevin Elliot and Jerry Ogg.
Police N Pursuit results: 1. 805-Roy Iler[1]; 2. 520-Jackie Yeung[2]; 3. 13-Ben Standen[3]; 4. 36-Kevin Elliott[4]; 5. K9-Jerry Ogg[5]; 6. 134-Pat Sullivan[6]
Dwarf Cars: San Jose’s Shawn Jones returned to the seat of a Dwarf Car on Friday and did what he often does, win the main event. Danny Wagner hopped into the early lead but soon had to deal with intense pressure from Jones.
With Jones out front he steadily pulled away and claimed the checkered flag in the 20-lap contest over Wagner, Travis Day, Mark Biscardi and Trafton Chandler.
Ocean Speedway returns to action this coming Friday and Saturday with the annual Howard Kaeding Classic. Friday night’s program is headlined by the Ocean Sprints while Saturday showcases the NARC 410 Sprint Cars.
Image courtesy of Top Dawg Photos
Article Credit: Gary Thomas
Submitted By: Gary Thomas