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TULARE, Calif. — Tim Kaeding claimed victory during a wild night to open Abreu Vineyards Trophy Cup 31 benefiting the Rayce Rudeen Foundation on Thursday at Thunderbowl Raceway.
The three-time Trophy Cup champion took the lead on lap 18 and earned his second straight triumph at Thunderbowl Raceway aboard the Williams Motorsports No. 0 mount. Kaeding and Dylan Bloomfield battled tooth and nail coming down to the finish, which saw contact occur and Bloomfield get upside down.
“It is great to get another win, but I feel bad with what happened there with Dylan late in the race,” Kaeding said. “I definitely didn’t want it to end that way. We were racing really hard for that win, and he did a great job. I want to thank my entire team and all the people that put on this event though. Trophy Cup is a special race to a lot of people.”
Fifty-nine cars competed on opening night of Trophy Cup 31. At the waving of the Ed Entz green flag, it was Bloomfield blasting out front from the pole position. The 18-year-old set a torrid pace early on and held the field at bay over the first half of the race.
Kaeding began to hound the No. 33d machine in heavy lapped traffic and as noted carved his way to the point on lap 18. Bloomfield, however, kept pace with the veteran and made it a close battle right down to the wire.
With the laps ticking off Bloomfield got a great run on the leader as the crowd came to its feet. He pulled even with Kaeding and as the duo fought for the win contact ensued in turn four, resulting in Bloomfield getting upside down.
Kaeding was able to keep going with nose wing damage and would lead the one lap shootout to the checkered flag. Gauge Garcia gave a look to the inside of Kaeding on the final restart but had to settle for a solid runner-up finish aboard the Keller Motorsports No. 2k entry.
Kansas driver Jace Park rounded out the podium to open Trophy Cup 31 at the helm of the Clayton Snow Racing No. 17 machine.
It marked a career best finish at the Thunderbowl for Park. Completing the top five in the 30-lapper were Max Mittry and Trey Starks.
After one night of action at Trophy Cup 31, Kaeding is the high points driver over Gauge Garcia and Max Mittry.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 0-Tim Kaeding[4]; 2. 2K-Gauge Garcia[5]; 3. 17-Jace Park[3]; 4. 2XM-Max Mittry[6]; 5. 55-Trey Starks[7]; 6. 17W-Shane Golobic[8]; 7. 41-Dominic Scelzi[9]; 8. 21L-Landon Brooks[11]; 9. 29-Bud Kaeding[13]; 10. 73-Ryan Bernal[16]; 11. 21-Tanner Holmes[22]; 12. 88N-DJ Netto[12]; 13. 7C-Colby Copeland[10]; 14. 21P-Robbie Price[15]; 15. W-Spencer Bayston[19]; 16. 33D-Dylan Bloomfield[1]; 17. 14E-Mariah Ede[2]; 18. 2A-Austin Wood[20]; 19. 121-Caeden Steele[21]; 20. 42X-Justyn Cox[23]; 21. 15-Nick Parker[17]; 22. 10R-Tyler Thompson[14]; 23. 19-Joel Myers Jr[24]; 24. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt[18]
