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Contact Richard Day
Emotional ‘TK’ Runs Third at Thunderbowl
TULARE, CA (October 13) – Despite suffering the
loss of each of his grandmothers several days before World of Outlaws
events at Thunderbowl Raceway this season, Tim Kaeding made his car owners proud.
Kaeding raced to an emotional victory for “King of the
Outlaws” Steve Kinser in the “A” Feature at Thunderbowl Raceway on February 24th, within
a week following his maternal grandmother’s passing. Kaeding
drove the #10 Tom Rolfe Trucking Maxim into third
place in Saturday’s Dave Helm Memorial at Tulare ’s 1/3-mile oval, one day after attending his paternal
grandmother’s funeral.
“Yes, I lost both of my grandmas before the
Outlaws’ shows there this year,” Tim said. “I don’t know if it was a sign
or what. I wish it was a sign that I was going to win again, but I’m
content with where we finished for how rough and narrow the track was. I
feel good about finishing third, and I’m going to take it and run with it.
“We had the funeral Friday afternoon. My dad
(13-time Golden State Challenge King of California Series champion Brent Kaeding) was going to race, but he ended up not racing
that night. It was different not having him there. He’s always good at Tulare .”
It’s getting to the point where Tim “is always
good at Tulare ,” too. After qualifying 13th-quick, he
finished second in the First Heat Race and his seventh-place finish in the
Crane Cams Dash gave him the privilege of starting the 35-lap main event
inside the fourth row.
“In qualifying, where we went out is about
where we ended up. I don’t think the track was to anybody’s liking. It was
still really greasy, so a lot of guys who are usually fast in qualifying
didn’t qualify that well.”
Kaeding battled Californians Jason Meyers and Ronnie
Day as well as two drivers who raced for Helm – Kerry Madsen and Tim
Shaffer – en route to his seventh top-five finish in a World of Outlaws “A”
Feature this season.
“We had a top-five car no matter how you look
at it,” Tim said. “I think we would have been good no matter how things
came down. As narrow and rough as the track was, you were going to be in
trouble if you messed up at all. We know how California dirt works; it holds moisture
better than it does out east. We just set up for the end of the race and we
were right there. We just didn’t get the traffic we needed (to win).
“We had a lot of good battles. We battled with
Kerry Madsen some before he bicycled and Ronnie Day did the same thing. We
just snuck by guys and kept going forward.”
Kaeding couldn’t be happier driving for Tom Rolfe Racing, the team he joined after running only
four 410 sprint car races in 1997 and returned to earlier this summer.
“I’d like think Tom Rolfe
for the opportunity, and the whole team for giving me a great car tonight,”
Tim said. “We’ll go on the next few weeks and have a little fun and try to
get some more good finishes. I want to say thank you to everyone who came
out to support us tonight, and we’ll see you all at the Trophy Cup.
“Tom was happy and Joel and Diane McCray were
happy and so were Duke and Scotty (McMillen).
Everybody was happy all the way around; I just wish we could have gotten
two more spots. But, for how rough and narrow the track was, we ended up
with a great finish.”
Tim Kaeding
drives the #10 Tom Rolfe Trucking Maxim through
traffic during
Saturday’s Dave Helm Memorial
at Thunderbowl Raceway. Photo by John Meirhofer
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