WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Sean Becker took home $6,900 for winning the 11th annual Howard Kaeding Classic at Ocean Speedway on Saturday night.
Becker drove the bright yellow No. 83v sponsored by Morrison Concrete to his biggest NARC Fujitsu King of the West 410 Series career win.
In a race which saw a lot of chaos and carnage in just 30 laps, Tanner Carrick finished second ahead of Mitchell Facintto. Blake Carrick and Ryan Bernal rounded out the top five.
The race saw three red-flag stoppages which involved more than half the field, and, in some cases, the same driver was included more than once.
The first red flag occurred on lap nine when the previous week’s winner Tim Kaeding got sideways in turn two in front of a pack of cars. The worst wreck of the night included no less than nine cars and saw Justin Sanders and Dominic Scelzi on their sides and the car of Willie Croft sandwiched between an upside-down Sanders and Ryan Bernal. The drivers involved also included defending race winner Kyle Hirst, Shane Golobic and Kalib Henry.
Keding’s car apparently wasn’t completely repaired as he flipped on the front stretch on the restart, bringing out another red flag, the second of the race.
The race’s third and final red flag stoppage occurred just short of the halfway distance when Austrian driver who was running as high as second got pinched into the wall by Blake Carrick and spun into the first turn as a result of no steering. His spin set off a chain reaction of collisions and a flip by J.J. Ringo. The six-car pile up saw Joey Ancona, Kurt Nelson, Bud Kaeding, Sanders along with Ringo all parked in the turn 1 area. All these driver’s race ended shy of the halfway point.
Once restarted Becker who started in the second row was mildly challenged by Tanner Carrick but only when the leader was having to deal with lapped cars.
Twenty-eight cars supported the popular Ocean Speedway event and 89-year-old Kaeding paced the 24-car starting field in the No. 3 car the Campbell Comet made famous up and down the California coast during his career.
Howard Kaeding’s famous son, Brent, was in attendance and his two grandsons, Bud and Tim, both made the feature event.
The finish:
Sean Becker, Tanner Carrick, Mitchell Faccinto, Blake Carrick, Ryan Bernal, Billy Aton, Keith Day Jr., Kyle Hirst, Shane Golobic, Kalib Henry, Dominic Scelzi, Kurt Nelson, D.J. Netto, Corey Day, Sean Watts, Kenny Allen, Jessie Attard, Bud Kaeding, Joey Ancona, Justin Sanders, J.J. Ringo, Tim Kaeding, Willie Croft, Jeremy Chisum