HammerDownUSA.com
Meyers wins Cotton Classic from 7th
starting
By Gary
Thomas
Hanford, Ca - October 22, 2006... Throughout his career Clovis, Ca’s Jason Meyers never had much success at Hanford’s Kings Speedway. Most drivers have
one track that for some reason they can’t catch a break at, and for Meyers, it
was the speedway he called home. Last season, however, he was finally able to
get the monkey off his back and quietly pick up his first ever win at Kings
Speedway while subbing for Ronnie Day during a Rebel Cup 360 race in late
March. This year all the past struggles were put behind him and on Saturday
night at the Cotton Classic Meyers used a stellar performance aboard
his Elite Landscaping, Pacific Union Homes, Lafferty
Homes No. 14 to score his biggest career victory at Kings Speedway. A well
prepared track greeted competitors and they used it to put a great show in the
feature.
The initial start of the 30 lap, $4,000 to win Cotton Classic feature turned
out disastrous for outside front row starter Jonathan Allard of Chico. While going into turn one Allard’s
No. 0 machine got sideways and the right rear dug in which sent him for a nasty
set of barrel rolls. He was done for the night and it moved Salinas’s Ronnie Day up to the front row
for the complete restart. It was pole sitter Jason Statler
of San
Jose, however, jumping out to the lead when the green flag was unveiled
again. He led one lap before a spin in turn one by Tim Kaeding brought out a
caution. This wasn’t the last we’d hear from Kaeding though as he proceeded to
put on a brilliant charge from the back.
Statler led the single file restart back to the green
and would hold a comfortable lead in the early stages until traffic came into
play around lap nine. Day closed in and put heavy pressure on the back of the Pheasant Run Shopping Center 00 and made his move on lap 11.
While Statler was struggling getting around a lap car
Day seized the opportunity and made a hair raising move down low in turn one to
slide up in front of Statler and the lap car to take
the lead of the race. Just as soon as that happened a yellow flag appeared on
lap 12 for a spin by Mark Workentine. The lap 12
order saw Day, Statler, Meyers, Bud Kaeding and Brad
Sweet compromising the top five. T. Kaeding had already made his way back up to
11th in just 12 laps.
Day had clear track ahead of him on the restart and he used it to pull away
from Statler as the green flag waved. Meyers clearly
had the fastest car on the track prior to the caution as he had made up a lot
of ground on the leaders. The driver known as "Hotfoot" began to
hound Statler a couple laps after the restart and
began to show his muscle as soon as traffic came back into play. On lap 17
Meyers gave Statler a super slider in turn one to
clear the 00 machine by just inches and move into second. At this point Day was
having major issues in traffic and all it took was one slip up to allow Meyers
a shot at the lead. That slip up occurred in turn two on lap 19 and Meyers took
advantage by getting underneath his teammate to take the lead as they went down
the back stretch.
The only thing slowing Meyers the rest of the way was a caution for Peter
Murphy that came out on lap 22. Murphy was filling in for Craig Stidham in the Brad Johnson Trucking No. 3 for
the night and ran in the top ten till he slowed with mechanical issues. Murphy
stated in the pits that he will be back behind the wheel of his own car for the
Trophy Cup.
Meyers led the last eight laps without any problems to pick up his first career
Cotton Classic victory. It is Meyers third win on the
season going along with his Golden State Challenge win at Tulare in April and a National Sprint Tour
win in Attica during May. The momentum has
definitely swung Meyers way for the upcoming Trophy
Cup which he is sure to be a factor in.
Day ended up finishing second aboard the Elite Landscaping, Don Berry
Construction, Country Builders No. 1. The runner-up finish amazingly continued
the winless season for the 2000 Golden State Challenge Series King of California champion. Nobody at the start of
the season could have predicted that the hard charging Day would be winless
this far into the year. Only the Trophy Cup is left for the veteran to try and
get a victory.
Indianapolis, In’s Bud Kaeding had a torrid battle
with Jason Statler in the final few laps and
prevailed on the last turn to claim third in the Main Motorsports, HAM
Construction, Caseywood Corp No. 35a. The 2006 USAC
Silver Crown champ looked extremely comfortable driving a car he’d never previously
driven.
San Jose’s Tim Kaeding put on one of his patented Kings Speedway charges in the
waning laps to get all the way back up to fourth at the finish. TK was driving
the Tiner Motorsports, Wright One Construction, Swimming Pool Perfections No. 83 for the second time this
year and ended the night on a good note after suffering engine issues early on
that forced him to take one lap at the end of qualifying. The former winner of
the Cotton Classic and countless other races at Kings Speedway then had a
spectacular run from the rear of the field reminiscent of his 2002 Trophy Cup
charge when he came from 23rd to 2nd on the Saturday
night portion of that weekend. TK will be back in the Tiner
83 at Trophy Cup looking for his second career TC win.
A week after finishing third with the National Sprint Tour in Tulare, Grass Valley’s Brad Sweet turned in another
solid performance aboard the Tom Rolfe Trucking, GP
Development, Platinum Powder No. 10 to round out the
top five in the Cotton Classic feature. Sweet has been performing very well in
big races this season. Among his impressive runs in 2006 have been a $10,000
win at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas driving a wingless car in August , a fourth
place finish in his preliminary night feature at the Gold Cup Race of Champions
in Chico, a third with the NST in Tulare and now a fifth at the Cotton Classic
in Hanford. The 20 year old driver has been impressive this season to say the
least and will surely be a contender at the Trophy Cup.
San
Jose’s Jason Statler traded the third position
with Bud Kaeding a couple times on the last lap, but while trying to fend him
off, Statler put his DF Rios Construction No. 00 a
little too hot into turns three & four and got over the cushion and fell to
sixth in the final set of corners. Other than that it was a nice run for Statler who battled hard with a host of drivers. 12 time
Golden State Challenge Series champ Brent Kaeding of Campbell had a sub par qualifying effort and
was forced to start in row seven of the feature. He then moved forward to
finish seventh in his Al’s Roofing Supply No. 69. Former Placerville Speedway
track champion Billy Wallace of Grass Valley ended up eighth in the CRV Racing
Products No. 83v with Fresno’s Tommy Tarlton ninth in the Tachi
Palace No. 21 and Fairmount, In’s
Brandon Wimmer completing the top 10 in the Winchester Welding No. 15k.
Three 10 lap heat races were held and they were picked off by Brent Kaeding,
Garrett Ishii and Andy Gregg.
Brandon Wimmer set the night’s fastest lap in qualifying.
We’d like to thank Frank Dias and Scott Woodhouse of Kings Speedway for holding
the Cotton Classic and hope it will continue as an annual event. Everyone
agreed it's great to have Kings Speedway back and running.
Full results will be available on http://www.kingsspeedway.net
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