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Watsonville, Ca - July 16, 2006... Former Campbell resident and current USAC National Silver Crown point leader Bud Kaeding subbed for father Brent in the Al’s Roofing Supply 69 at Ocean Speedway on Saturday night and picked up an exciting 30 lap Golden State Challenge Series feature. Bud Kaeding, a former NARC Rookie of the Year and winner of Perris’s Oval Nationals, Chico’s Fall Nationals and the Western World Championships at Manzanita among countless others, started on the outside of the front row and only led about 1/4 lap of the race, however, it was the most important part.

The 30 lap feature started out with pole sitter and current Golden State Challenge Series points leader Jonathan Allard on the pole. Allard, the driver of the GT Trends 0 had earlier won his second dash of the season to gain the pole position and used it to take command at the waving of Jake Vickers green flag.

Early on it looked like Allard had the field covered as he worked through slower traffic and kept the rest of the competitors at bay. That was until the Pheasant Run Shopping Center 00 of Jason Statler made his move. Statler started sixth and around lap eight began running the bottom to perfection and made beautiful passes of Ronnie Day, Kevin Pylant and Bud Kaeding to go from fifth to second in just a few laps. Statler then set his sights on leader Allard who was running the high side and losing ground rapidly to the 00 machine. Lap 16 saw the two front runners nose to tail and lap 17 saw Statler make the move under Allard to take the lead in turns three and four. Allard didn’t give up and powered to the outside in the first and second corners to get side by side with Statler off of turn two. The slicked off surface bit Allard in turn three, however, as he got in a bit hot, clipped the wall and flipped upside down to bring out the red flag. The Williams Motorsports team with help from various other crews were able to get the current point leader back out for the restart. Officially 18 laps were down when the incident with Allard occurred and the top five was now compromised by leader Statler followed by Bud Kaeding, Ronnie Day, Brad Furr and Kevin Pylant.

The restart saw a stack up on the front stretch which ended with Garrett Ishii being the victim and stopped at the edge of the infield in turn one to bring out a caution. The next restart saw another caution, this time for Mark Workentine who slowed to a stop. After that, the green flag waved again for the final time and things began to heat up out front. Kaeding had found new life after Allard’s flip and began to run the high side in turns one and two and looked to be much faster than Statler who was still running the bottom. It was obvious Kaeding was quicker than Statler, but what wasn’t was if he’d be able to get around him. Traffic was the deciding factor and the leaders caught it with just a few laps remaining. Laps ticked away and the white flag was unveiled from starter Jake Vickers. Statler ventured away from the bottom groove in turns one and two and tried to go high around a couple of lapped cars. As this was happening Kaeding and Day closed in on the super slippery surface and the three front runners ran nose to tail into the final set of corners. Thick and heavy lapped traffic greeted them and Kaeding used it to slip underneath Statler in an exciting move off of turn four to steal the win away on the very last corner! Statler tried to drive around a lapped car up high but didn’t clear the lapper’s right rear and bounced off it killing his momentum and ending his shot at driving back around Kaeding.

After the win Kaeding executed some victory donuts reminiscent of brother Tim’s ultra entertaining victory celebrations. The win for Bud is his third career with the Golden State Challenge Series and first this season in just three starts with GSC. It is also the first time that the Kaeding Performance 69 has been in victory lane this season in Golden State Challenge competition.

Statler’s second place finish in the DF Rios Construction 00 was a season best for the 2004 King of California. Statler has been one of the hottest drivers as of late and has gotten back to the hard charger we know. Although it was a disappointing end for Statler it was still one of the most impressive performances of the season by any driver.

Ronnie Day drove the Elite Landscaping, Pacific Union Homes 1 to a solid third place finish, his seventh top five of the year. Day looked very fast but had to settle for third as we head to the Pombo/Sargent Classic next weekend, an event he is the defending champion of.

The Big O Tires, Brad Furr Racing 2 of Brad Furr finished a season best fourth. Furr, a former World of Outlaws event winner at the Ocean Speedway looked better than he has all season on Saturday night coming from the ninth starting spot.

Kevin Pylant ended up fifth in the Riley Collins Body Shop, Airtec 14p. Pylant has made only seven starts this season but the fifth place finish at Ocean Speedway is his fourth straight top five with GSC.

Brian Coehlo came back from a flip in the dash to post a sixth place finish in the Central Valley Meat 5c. Dennis Moore Jr. ended up seventh in the Katie’s Country Kitchen 0k followed by the Brad Johnson Trucking 3 of Craig Stidham who came from the 16^th position, the Tachi Palace 21 of Tommy Tarlton and Robert Ballou in the Tom Rolfe Trucking 10. Ballou was running third when he spun under caution on lap four. After restarting at the rear he worked his way back up to around seventh before falling back a couple spots in the last few laps.

The dash was won by Jonathan Allard who led all six laps from the pole. Following Allard across the line were Bud Kaeding, Robert Ballou, Kevin Pylant, Ronnie Day, Jason Statler, Tommy Tarlton and Brian Coehlo.

The night’s first of three ten lap heat races was captured by Fresno driver Craig Stidham. Local veteran Jerry Bonema held off a fast approaching Bud Kaeding to win the second heat. The third final heat race was all Cowboy Craig Smith who dominated from his outside front row starting spot.

Quick time was set for the eighth time in 15 races by Jonathan Allard who toured the tight 1/4 mile in 11.971 seconds.