Kaeding is Knoxville USAC winner
Sunday, August 8, 2010
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (August 8) Bud Kaeding of Campbell, California nearly led the entire twenty-six lap distance as he claimed the USAC (United States Auto Club) non-wing Knoxville Sprint Nationals. “I’m so excited! Winnin’ at Knoxville….I don’t care if it’s a rental car,” Kaeding shouted to the crowd. The win paid the animated driver $5,000 for his efforts.
After the first lap fell to pole sitter Scotty Weir, Brady Bacon was then in control for three laps. On that fourth lap, Kaeding pulled alongside Bacon as they roared down the backstretch and when Bacon dove to the bottom he stayed on the cushion and took the lead as they entered into and out of turn four. Bacon then went through the process of chasing the fleet Californian for the rest of what was effectively a two-car race.
Behind them Weir, Daron Clayton and Levi Jones put on a show for third place.
By lap ten Kaeding could claim a 15 car-length advantage on this big half-mile oval. Five laps later he came up his first backmarker and that is when Bacon began to catch him again. Lap 17 saw only a two car-length distance separating those two as more lap traffic lay ahead.
With both front running cars on top and following the cushion, Bacon began experimenting with different lines. Most of those routes involved diving low in turns three and four. As many times as he tried he came up empty when he exited turn four.
In the end Kaeding shot across the start/finish line with a cushion of nearly 25 car lengths ahead of Bacon. Clayton claimed third, Weir was fourth and Dameon Gardner who started eleventh was fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Bryan Clauson, Robert Ballou (from 15th), Chris Windom, Casey Shuman and Dave Darland (from 18th). The unusual 26-lap event went non-stop.
A companion 305 winged sprint class shared the raceway on this night. That 12-lap feature event went to Rager Phillips who claimed his fourth such career win on this night. He was followed at close range for the duration by Travis Cram who finished in the runner-up spot.
A lap five incident saw Mitch Alexander spinning in turn three in an effort to thwart a Cram pass at that point in the race. Coming upon the hapless Alexander was Jamie Ball who had nowhere to go except into the Alexander machine. Neither driver was hurt. Marty Stephenson was third, Chad Huston took fourth and Matt Stephenson finished fifth.
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