Bud Kaeding is Trophy Cup Champion!

by Ron Rodda, TULARE, Cal. (October 17, 2015) – Drama usually plays a big part during the 50 lap finale during Trophy Cup action, and the 22nd version of the event had plenty of that ingredient. A strong drive from 20th starting to a 4th place main event finish was enough to propel Bud Kaeding to the championship at Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway.

Kaeding survived attempts to take the title from him by Rico Abreu and Carson Macedo and delivered the 8th Cup title to the Kaeding racing family. His father, Brent, won 4 times and his brother, Tim, has 3 titles with Bud now claiming his first. His title pays a guaranteed $20,000 out of the $160,000 total purse.

The evening opened with 6 heat races for the top 48 in points, completely inverting the field by points. Heat points added to their best preliminary night total then moved the top 20 in points to the 50 lap finale. Four out of the B main were added with that quartet guaranteed of the first two rows in the fully inverted main by virtue of being the lowest point cars.

D. J. Netto, after recording a 19th to 2nd run in the B main, led 8 laps before a right rear failed, moving Travis Rilat to the lead. However, Rilat never officially led a lap after flipping in turn two on the restart, and now Cory Eliason had the lead. Again, Eliason never led a lap when his damaged wing came apart on the restart so three leaders were sidelined on the same lap.

Dusty Zomer became the beneficiary of the leader attrition and led before Sheldon Haudenschild and eventually Terry McCarl took turns at leading. After 50 laps it was McCarl winning the main with S. Haudenschild and Zomer filling the podium. McCarl’s win paid $3500 plus additional point fund money of $8000 for finishing 3rd in points.

While the race for the win is an important part of the 50 laps, the major focus is on the back of the pack starters who are racing for the most points and Cup title. Rico Abreu started 24th with 310 points while Tim Kaeding was 23rd starting with just one less point. Jason Meyers was 5 back of Abreu, Macedo was 7 behind, and B. Kaeding was 8 less than Abreu.

With 150 points to win and a 3 point drop per position, B. Kaeding needed to finish 3 places ahead of Abreu and T. Kaeding. By lap 10, B. Kaeding was in the point lead and a crooked nose wing on Abreu’s ride improved his chances of staying far enough ahead of the Thursday winner.

By lap 26 B. Kaeding was up to 4th, a place he would eventual claim after 50 laps, Abreu was still several spots behind him, and Carson Macedo, his other immediate challenger rode the backstretch wall and nearly took himself out of the mix. Macedo entered the main with just one more point than B. Kaeding so the driver that finished ahead of the other would win the title between those two.

With a dozen laps left, Abreu appeared to be mounting a charge to close the gap between himself and B. Kaeding, needing to pass a couple cars to take the point lead. However, contact coming out of turn 2 left Abreu’s ride with a smashed in tail tank and he became a DNF. That left the challenge to Macedo and he created a couple of the most thrilling laps of the event. A couple times Macedo nearly made the pass, once racing B. Kaeding out of turn 4 for a near dead heat at the line.

On lap 49, Macedo slid up the track a bit in turn 1 and the pressure was lessened on B. Kaeding, going on to a 4th place finish and Cup title. Macedo, McCarl, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Willie Croft filled the top five in points.

Saturday “A” Feature Finish: 1. 88-Terry McCarl (6), 2. 83-Sheldon Haudenschild (8), 3. 82-Dusty Zomer (4), 4. 0-Bud Kaeding (20), 5. 26-Willie Croft (11), 6. 2T-Carson Macedo (21), 7. 83sr-Jac Haudenschild (17), 8. 22k-Shane Golobic (19), 9. x1-Sean Becker (18), 10. 21m-Jason Meyers (22), 11. 3c-Jonathan Allard (10), 12. 00jr-Cory Eliason (2), 13. 56-Ryan Bernal (13), 14. 83sa-Tim Kaeding (23), 15. 3-Craig Stidham (14), 16. 31c-Justyn Cox (15), 17. 24-Rico Abreu (24), 18. 00-Jason Statler (12), 19. 88x-Tyler Walker (7), 20. 83jr-Kyle Hirst (9), 21. 7c-Andy Forsberg (5), 22. 37-Mitchell Faccinto (16), 23. 39c-Travis Rilat (3), 24. 88n-D.J. Netto (1).

Final Trophy Cup Points (Top 20):  1. Bud Kaeding, 2. Carson Macedo, 3. Terry McCarl, 4. Sheldon Haudenschild, 5. Terry McCarl, 6. Jason Meyers, 7. Shane Golobic, 8. Dusty Zomer, 9. Jac Haudenschild, 10. Sean Becker, 11. Tim Kaeding, 12. Jonathan Allard, 13. Rico Abreu, 14. Ryan Bernal, 15. Craig Stidham, 16. Justyn Cox, 17. Jason Statler, 18. Cory Eliason, 19. Kyle Hirst, 20. Tyler Walker.