Dennis Roth hopes team wins at Thunderbowl

Car Owner Roth Drives the World of Outlaws Sprint Series to Thunderbowl Raceway

Colorado Springs, CO -- February 21, 2005 -- Not only is World of Outlaws Sprint Series car owner Dennis Roth bringing a part of California on the road this year with driver Tim Kaeding, but he's also bringing the road back to California.

Roth, who hails from Fresno, put San Jose native Kaeding behind the wheel of his No. 83 Beef Packers machine for 2005 after the two found success together last season. Less than a week after taking over Roth's main car in October, Kaeding was in Victory Lane at State Fair Speedway.

Now Kaeding is hoping to reward Roth for his support by winning Feb. 25 at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif.--an event Roth is promoting--or Feb. 26 at Bakersfield Speedway in an event put together by Elite Racing's Mean 15 driver Jason Meyers.

Even though Roth and Kaeding won a couple of preliminary events in California last year, they are still seeking their first World of Outlaws Sprint Series victory in an A-Main feature in their home state.

"It'd be great to get Dennis his first California win," said Kaeding, a former track champion at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico and the son of California legend Brent Kaeding. "We won a couple last year in the Midwest and went home and won a couple of preliminary nights but had really bad luck the other couple of nights. Dennis has put a lot of faith in me and given me the opportunity of a lifetime to try to prove him and myself that I can run with these guys and be fast every night."

Roth knows that Kaeding has earned his way into the series by dominating the dirt tracks on the West Coast. But he also knows it won't be an easy leap from running regionally to competing with the Mean 15.

"I think it's been a long time coming that one of Brent's sons has been able to get in the World of Outlaws," Roth said. "They Kaeding family has been in sprint cars for a long time. I think Tim has a lot of talent and will go a long way.

"He's going to go through a learning curve. He's going to go to places that he's never raced and it's going to take a while to get used to them. He'll have to watch the other drivers and watch the track. In places that he has raced before, he's going to be very competitive."

One of those places is Tulare. Roth was determined to bring the series to the fans of California, showing off the best mix of sprint car racers anywhere in the world.

"It's always important to try to bring a race somewhere near your hometown, especially with the amount of people in California that enjoy racing," said Roth, who has been a car owner with the Outlaws for about 10 years. "Most of the main sprint car racing is always in the Midwest or on the East Coast, but I think as far as getting people more interested in it and getting sponsors I think it's important to be in a highly populated area where the television industry is big. It's important to get sprint cars back in here so people can go to and see what they're missing."

But winning Friday night at Tulare, or even Saturday night at Bakersfield, won't be easy because an influx of talented young drivers are trying to close the gap between them and the master of sprint car racing, Steve Kinser.

"These guys are so fast week in and week out," Kaeding said. "They run 100 races a year to where I was only running 50 races a year back home. We have to step up our program. Everybody has got to be on top of his game each night. We're more of a local guy when we go back home, but we still have to race against Steve Kinser and Craig Dollansky, all those guys that run different racetracks every weekend and are consistently fast."

In any case, it bodes well for the future of the series that the next generation of racers won't let the established drivers rest for a lap.

"Especially with names like Kraig Kinser and Kevin Swindell, when you have some chips off the old block together with the old guard I think the series is in strong hands," Roth said. "DIRT MotorSports wants to make this thing even more strong than it has been. I think it's going to get bigger and better."

For ticket information on the race Friday night at Tulare, call (559) 688-0909 or go to www.thunderbowlraceway.com. For information on Saturday night's event at Bakersfield, call (800) 801-ELITE or go to www.eliteracing.net.

-woo-