FEAR isn’t in Tim Kaeding’s vocabulary.
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The Californian captured the admiration of an 8500-strong Premier Speedway crowd with a death-defying Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic winning celebration in 2014.
For Kaeding, life has changed. But his desire to triumph in one of Australia’s most prestigious sprintcar races remains intact.
The 39-year-old revealed he relished tackling hometown hopefuls Jamie Veal and James McFadden this weekend.
“I’ve got a 14-month old little boy now. Hopefully someday he picks up the helmet and decides to go racing, but I wouldn’t mind if he wanted to pick up golf clubs because it’s a lot cheaper,” Kaeding laughed.
“But out here, I think we have a good chance of having some success. Racing comes down to luck more than anything, because everybody has a fast car these days.
“You’ve got guys like Veal and McFadden gunning for this and they race in Warrnambool week-in, week-out and probably have more seat time than me.
I just have to go out and drive the living daylights out of that car.
- Tim Kaeding
“But it definitely won’t be for a lack of experience on my part – I just have to go out there and drive the living daylights out of that car.”
Kaeding said he understood the ruthlessness of the three-night classic and was hoping for luck to fall his way. The San Jose native backed his car to perform.
“The first time I came out with the Krikke (Motorsport) team we ran fourth or fifth and we managed to win the next year,” he said.
“But the year after, we crashed and didn’t have any luck. It’s been two years now, and we have expectations of doing good.
“We’re a small team here. There’s a few people I haven’t seen for a while and that was kind of a big reason why I wanted to come back.
“It may be my last time for a while and after that we’d probably like to make it a yearly chore.”