TULARE, Calif. — Buddy Kofoid couldn’t help but grin as he described why he emerged as the high-point driver following two nights of Trophy Cup preliminary action.
“First off, I drive a great car,” Kofoid said with a wide smile, patting the right-rear tire of the Works Limited No. 57. “This is the best car I’ve been in at Trophy Cup by far and probably one of the best sprint cars that I’ve ran in my career.”
Following his opening night Trophy Cup victory in his first start in the Finley Farms sponsored machine, Kofoid put together an even better night on Friday.
The 19-year-old kicked off the evening by setting quick time in his group.
He then charged from sixth to second in his heat race, enough to tally the highest point total after heat race action and slot him 12th on the feature grid.
Ahead of the A-main, Kofoid was a little uncertain of what to expect.
“With how the track was, I wasn’t too sure how it was going to pan out,” Kofoid said.
Even with the Thunderbowl Raceway’s tricky conditions throwing him a pre-race curveball, Kofoid’s race car enabled him to begin a charge to the front.
“I could maneuver wherever I wanted,” Kofoid said. “I could run the top or the bottom in (turns) one and two. Three and four was pretty much around the top. There really wasn’t much of a bottom.”
While the one end of the race track became one lane, Kofoid still managed to take advantage of his Paul Silva-prepared car on the other end, helping compensate for the lack of a second groove in turns three and four.
“Toward the end I found the bottom again,” Kofoid reflected. “It was really good in (turns) one and two, and it helped me down the straightaway, and I could set myself up to slide someone in three and four.”
When the checkered flag waved, Kofoid had taken his potent ride all the way to second place, gaining an impressive 10 spots during the 30-lap race.
His performance was enough to give him a six-point cushion over second-place Rico Abreu, who won the main event.
Now, Kofoid heads into tomorrow’s Trophy Cup finale with perhaps his best chance to claim one of the most coveted races of his native region.
“I’ve wanted to win Trophy Cup for as long as I’ve been coming here,” Kofoid said, who won a prelim race at Trophy Cup when he was only 14. “This event is really special to me because of what this race is. It’s at Tulare, one of my favorite tracks. And now that I’m not living in California anymore, to come back to this event in my home state and to drive this car makes it even more special.”
The task will not be an easy one. Kofoid may have been the strongest car over the first two nights, but he’ll have plenty of stout competition looking to erase his lead tomorrow night.
On top of having to defeat many talented drivers, Trophy Cup dreams can end in an instant even for the best of driver-car combinations due to factors outside of their control.
The highest seeded teams will start eighth in their heat races, so a single mishap in front of Kofoid or any of the fastest cars can completely derail a strong weekend.
Kofoid hopes that sticking to a similar plan that’s led him to his current position will pave the path to a complete, strong night and one of the biggest wins of his career.
“We’ll have to try and get out of the gate good again in hot laps,” Kofoid said. “We’ll have to keep communicating well, see where our qualifier puts us and try and get through that good and put ourselves in the best possible position going into the main event. And then we’ll try to carve our way to the front again like we did tonight.”