HammerDownUSA.com
Positivity by Bobby Gerould – February 25, 2007
Zach Chappell had a rude welcome to California. The former ASCS Nation Champion
flipped hard on consecutive nights. His Friday barrel rolls were painful to
watch, and his Saturday crunch happened after a wicked ‘bicycle’ that ended
with a wall pounding. …Joey Saldana
raced as well as I’ve ever seen him run with the exception of his first Kings
Royal win in 2002. A couple weeks shy of his 35th birthday, it says
here that Saldana is in for his finest season. …Tim Kaeding was a huge part of the show all weekend. “T.K.” drove a
bent Maxim in the feature Friday night after being smushed into the wall by Mike Faria’s backwards sliding #4
during heat race action. Faria admitted he ‘lost it’ at the start of the heat.
Kaeding admitted he ‘lost it’ when he marched to Faria’s car to confront him
after the incident. Saturday night, Kaeding was brilliant in traffic, splitting
cars on two occasions that basically won the race for him. Just 13 days ago Tim
wasn’t sure if he would be racing the #11k at Tulare. Car owner Steve Kinser told Tim on the Monday following the Florida season opening weekend that the car
would be parked. 24 hours later – Kinser reconsidered and everything was back
on. The car and Kaeding remain unsponsored. With television in the future for
the WoO – someone needs to step up and sponsor this team. Tim Kaeding is too
entertaining, and the car is too fast to not have considerable backing. Tim
would be the perfect pitch man for an energy drink, or something extreme. …Tim
and Bud Kaeding both paced memorial
laps for their Grandmother. “Grandma Soap” passed away very unexpectedly last
Sunday. …Bud raced Friday only. The
newlywed married the former Jennifer
Azavedo in late January. Bud ran a second Rick Wright #35 that will be steered by Ricky Wright in California in 2007. Ricky has been practicing
at the Salinas home track of Orville
Burke. …Justin Henderson was
extra impressive again. In his first two runs at Thunderbowl Raceway – the South Dakota 27 year-old finished eighth, and
fourth respectively. His wife Heather
is serving as a roving reporter with a wireless microphone at all 2007 WoO
events. Heather spent six months in Iraq serving in the National Guard prior
to this gig. …Brooke Tatnell is
running a Schnee chassis to start the 2007 season. His deal with car owner Larry Woodward came about late in the
off-season so crew chief Troy Renfro
put together the Schnee that the he and Tatnell were running for Rush racing at
the end of 2006. …Brad Sweet planned
to run the event but he said his team just wasn’t ready to race this weekend so
the car stayed home in Loomis, CA. Sweet was one of a few drivers walking
around the Tulare pits. We also saw Kody Swanson, Brent Kaeding, Nick Green,
Mike Henry, Jason Statler, Quinton Crye,
and Ryan Kaplan. …In the stands we
saw the one and only Burt Foland Jr.
…Steve Turnross & I had a chance to shoot the breeze with Terry Kniss the former big cheese at Baylands Raceway
Park. Kniss was looking closely at the Thunderbowl track surface on
Saturday afternoon when we started chatting. Many folks compare Tulare’s configuration with the now
defunct Baylands layout. Kniss said Baylands turns were wider, and longer. …Kasey Kahne is a freakin’ superstar.
Kasey rolled to Tulare with an entourage of seven. While
he was being interviewed trackside – I saw women and children ‘losing it’
trying to catch a glimpse. Kahne, earlier in the day, mentioned on live
national TV that would be attending a sprint car race in Tulare later in the night. We were told –
the Tulare box office phone started ringing
off the hook following Kahne’s endorsement. …It was good to see Sam Hafertepe Jr. race in California for the first time. The ASCS Sooner
region champion showed potential. …Jon
Allard and the Morrie Williams
#0 team switched to J&J chassis
for 2007. …Word is that Brian Coelho
is done with sprint car racing. The Coelho Meat logo was on the side of Bud
Kaeding’s car as well as Mike Faria’s. …Jason
Sides – the current Racer’s
Racing Series points leader - pointed out to me
that this website’s new look homepage is not presently compatible with the
Firefox browser. I will try to remedy that but I admit I am not really sure how
to do it. …Jason Meyers ran well all
weekend – scoring a pair of top fives at the track closest to his Clovis home. He and teammate Ronnie Day, along with Tim Kaeding,
Henderson, and Jac Haudenschild were
the rim riders of the week at the Thunderbowl. …Tyler Swank is now spinning wrenches for Chad Hillier. Swank says he likes Hiller because “he has heart”. …Robert Ballou switched his number from
12 to 81. Ballou plans to run USAC National Sprint Car races in 2007 with Jimmy Jones tuning. …Five time National
karting champion Evan Suggs made his
winged sprint car debut at Thunderbowl. Suggs raced non-wing stuff last season.
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