The Abreu Vineyards 29th Annual Trophy Cup Presented By Rudeen Racing has it’s usual lengthy entry list for October’s record purse at Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway.
The 90 entered cars have 14 showing TBA for driver name, which makes it interesting with the usual speculation of who will fill those seats.
This being the 29th year of the unique event, the champion will be earn $29,000 for accumulating the most points over the three-day period. A record purse of $225,000 will be paid out this year over the three days of racing.
The Saturday main event pays $6,000 guaranteed to start. The $6,000 guarantee is the total over the three-day event.
Last year, $25,200 was added to the payout for the Saturday main event to reach the 2022 guarantee of $5,000 as 15 of 24 teams had not reached $5,000 total.
Also increased this year is the payout for both B and C mains on Saturday.
Entry List Highlights
Entered this year are six prior Trophy Cup champions with TIm Kaeding being the veteran of the group. Kaeding’s wins came in 2002, 2006 and 2009 and one more would tie his father, Brent Kaeding, with his wins coming in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2005.
Another driver that could reach the four championship level is Shane Golobic. The wins for the Fremont, Calif. driver scored wins in 2016, 2017 and last year. One-time champions entered this year include Jonathan Allard, Willie Croft, Bud Kaeding and 2019 winner, Rico Abreu.
Four years ago Abreu accomplished something that was considered impossible when he won all three main events. One feat that will never be matched was champion Tim Kaeding winning the Saturday main event from 24th position. Now the Saturday main event inverts the top 20 in points, so matching Kaeding’s stellar drive is not possible.
One driver who is not yet entered but likely will be on hand owns two Trophy Cup records which are the most difficult to match. Buddy Kofoid is the youngest to win a Trophy Cup main event, accomplishing the remarkable win at age 14.
Then five years later he became the youngest Trophy Cup champion, winning the point battle at age 19. Kofoid may wind up driving one of the TBA cars.