For the first half of Saturday night’s Golden State Challenge 30-lap feature at Petaluma Speedway it looked as though legendary sprint car driver BrentKaeding would turn the 3/8-mile adobe oval into his personal playpen. But the second half of the event had all the earmarks of a classic finish as Chico’s Jonathon Allard, fearless in his pursuit of Kaeding, rabidly hounded the 12-time GSC champion through lapped traffic looking for a sliver of an opening and hoping for a chance to get by him.

“It’s all about how to play the traffic. You try to watch for an opportunity. It’s a lucky chance and you do the best you can, fortunately we picked the right line,” Allard explained, after winning his third GSC feature of the year and third in four races at Petaluma since last year. “I made a mistake and got pinched on the bottom when BK got back by me but I recovered and took back the lead,” said Allard of the late race dicing that had the packed grandstands riveted to the frontrunners.

With one lap to go Kaeding’s “ignition quit”, dropping the series points leader to a disappointing seventh place finish but it was all in a night’s work for the 25-year racing veteran who earlier broke his own track record in qualifying with an explosive 12.125-second spin around the track, erasing the old mark of 12.607 seconds set last year.

“We gave him an early birthday present,” Kaeding quipped afterwards. “We were fast that’s the good part. We’ll try and beat him at the next one.”

Kaeding had climbed from fifth starting to first place in just 10 laps and led for 18 circuits before Allard, who clocked second-fastest among the 27 qualifiers, took charge. Ronnie Day, a heat winner along with Allard and Kaeding, finished second, Sean Becker was third, Jason Statler fourth, and trophy dash winner Willie Croft was fifth. Brett Miller, Kaeding, Evan Suggs, Bill Cornwell, and Brent Bjork rounded out the top 10.

Gary Paulson led all 12 laps to win the B-main and transfer to the feature along with Mark Workentine, Jeff Parady, Richard Bailey, Ric McCormick, Arvo Backholm, and Pat Harvey. Missing the cut were Brett Rollag, Mike Mossi, and Alissa Geving.

In the companion dwarf car feature Sonny Calkins led for all but one lap of the 25-lap feature to snare the victory over Dan Williams, David Teves, heat winners Adam Johnson and Dustin Coffee, Mark Ramirez, Roger Ingalls, Robert Mesloh, Martin Whittingham, and John Peters.

GOLDEN STATE CHALLENGE

Fast time—Brent Kaeding 12.125 NTR.

Heat 1—Kaeding; Jason Statler; Sean Becker; Evan Suggs; Ricky Wright Jr.; Jeff Parady; Alissa Geving; Mike Mossi; Arvo Backholm.

Heat 2—Jonathon Allard; Brett Miller; Willie Croft; Brent Bjork; Tyler Spath; Gary Paulson; Mark Workentine; Pat Harvey; Dan Simpson.

Heat 3—Ronnie Day; Jon Maiwald; Kirk Simpson; Bill Cornwell; Jason Botsford; Brett Rollag; Richard Bailey; Ric McCormick.

Dash—Croft; Becker; Allard; Day; Kaeding; Miller; Statler; Botsford.

B-main—Paulson; Workentine; Parady; Bailey; McCormick; Backholm; Harvey; Rollag; Mossi; Geving.

A-main—Allard; Day; Becker; Statler; Croft; Miller; Kaeding; Suggs; Cornwell; Bjork; Workentine; K. Simpson; Backholm; Harvey; McCormick; Wright; Maiwald; Paulson; Bailey; Parady; Botdford; Spath.

DWARF CARS

Heat 1—Adam Johnson; Roger Ingalls; Dan Williams; Martin Whittingham; Randy Coffee; John Peters; Kurtis Craig; Mark Ramirez.

Heat 2—Dustin Coffee; Sonny Calkins; Russ Roy; Robert Mesloh; Mark Lankhorst; David Teves; Austin Roy.

Main—Calkins; Williams; Teves; Johnson; D. Coffee; Ramirez; Ingalls; Whittingham; Peters; R. Coffee; Lankhorst; Mesloh; Craig; R. Roy; A. Roy DNS.