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Defending two-time USAC K & N Silver Crown Champion Bud Kaeding of Campbell, Calif. headlines the entries for this weekend’s Budweiser/Sands Chevrolet “Copper on Dirt” events at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, Ariz. The “tripleheader,” also featuring the USAC/CRA Sprint cars and USAC National/Western Midgets, opens the 2008 USAC K & N Silver Crown campaign with a 50-lap feature on Saturday night following Friday preliminaries.
Kaeding opened last year’s Silver Crown series with a fourth-place finish at Manzanita and is bidding to become the first driver to win three consecutive titles in the 38-year history of the series.
Bud is no stranger to Manzanita’s victory lane, having claimed the 2002 and 2004 “Western World Championships” in Sprint cars. He’s also no stranger to victory lane in Silver Crown competition, although he did not win a race during 2007. His initial Silver Crown victory came at Tulsa, Okla. in 2003 and he added wins in 2006 at Sparta, Ky., Richmond, Va. and Terre Haute, Ind.
Friday night’s preliminaries include a 10-lap “Copper Bowl Shootout” which will determine starting positions at the front of Saturday night’s 50-lap feature field.
Kaeding’s Silver Crown challengers include 2000 series champion Tracy Hines, 1997 titlist Dave Darland, plus Shane Cottle, Mat Neely, Brian Tyler, Aaron Pierce, Jerry Coons Jr., Wayne Reutimann Jr. and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., all of whom have tasted victory in the series previously. It was Stenhouse who surprised many with his spectacular victory in last year’s “Copper on Dirt” Silver Crown race after also winning the Sprint car feature.
The “Copper on Dirt” also features USAC/CRA Sprint racing and the USAC Mopar National & Western Midgets on the track’s lightning-fast 1/2-mile dirt oval. A 25-lap Midget feature will be followed by a 30-lap Sprint race and the 50-lap Silver Crown feature.
This weekend’s Phoenix races are a salute to Arizona racing legends Roger McCluskey and Gene Brown.
