Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave and his dog Lacy
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave with the secret Wagsdash trophy
Trophy Dave
Trophy Cup labeled bottle of wine
Trophy Dave with a special Trophy Cup poster
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave at Tulare
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave's hot rod's
Trophy Dave drives this beauty to work
Trophy Dave and Muriel
Trophy Dave and Muriel
Trophy Dave and Muriel
Trophy Dave and Muriel
Trophy Dave and Muriel with Mrs Wags in the Knoxville t-shirt behind them
Muriel always made the barbeques special with the colorful set-up and the yummies avaiable to everyone. Trophy Dave's Teriyaki Sticks were famous and delicious and to die for, still are!
Trophy Dave is cooking the Teriyaki sticks. I happen to be around on some occasions when the meat got put on a stick the night before and then Muriel fed us all!
Trophy City Barbecue sign with Mrs Wags at San Jose Speedway
Steve Faria brought this buggy by for Trophy Dave to use, nice!
Trophy Dave gives rides sometimes
Trophy Dave and Muriel
Trophy Dave and Muriel
Trophy Dave and his daughter Karen
Trophy Dave at the Trophy Cup sign in booth
Trophy Dave and Muriel with Lacy and granddaughter Jessica
Trophy City sign
Trophy Dave and Mike Andretta
Trophy Dave visiting in the grandstands
Trophy Dave with Mike Spencer
Trophy Dave and racing journalist Ron Rodda
Trophy Dave Trophy Dave and Karlee
Trophy Dave and Muriel's sister Marilyn
Trophy Dave and Wags
Trophy Dave and Wags at the last Ascot race
Trophy Dave and Muriel at Ascot at the first Mrs Wags Chili Feed
Trophy Dave with Wags
Trophy Dave interviewed by the announcer George
Trophy Dave with Mrs Wags and Stevie Gomez
Trophy Dave with Mrs Wags and Stevie Gomez
Trophy Dave with Brent Kaeding and a Make a Wish youngster
Trophy Dave with grandaughter Jessica and Muriel's sister Marilyn
Trophy Dave with promotor Steve Faria and his race director Mike Andretta
Here is a photo of some heavy supporters of the Trophy Cup
Here is a picture of the helmets of Howard, Tim, Brent and Bud Kaeding that were auctioned off for big money. They were won by Kyle Larson and Rico Abreu
Willie Croft the 21st Trophy Cup winner
Shane Golobic winner of the 23rd Trophy Cup
Bud Kaeding wins 22nd Trophy Cup
Brad Sweet 15th Trophy Cup winner
Jac Haudenschild won the 18th Trophy Cup
Jonathan Allard, the 17th Trophy Cup winner
Kyle Larson won the 20th Trophy Cup and perhaps the most exciting of all the Trophy Cups I ever saw
Brent Kaeding won the Trophy Cup 4 times
Tim Kaeding won the Trophy Cup 3 times
Here is Tim again
Shane Golobic Golobic won the Trophy Cup twice
Craig Stidham won the 8th Trophy Cup
Steve Kent won the 10th Trophy Cup
Jac Haudenschild won the 11th, 18th and 25th Trophy Cups
Jac Haudenschild
Craig Stidham
Jac Haudenschild wins
Jason Meyers won 2 Trophy Cups
Bud Kaeding won the 16th Trophy Cup
Kyle Larson
Brent Kaeding
Tim Kaeding
Tim Kaeding
Shane Golobic
Willie Croft with Colby Copeland and Ryan Bernal
Buddy Kafoid wins a prelim Trophy Cup
Kyle Hirst wins a prelim Troph Cup
Jason Solwold wins a prelim Trophy Cup
Howard Kaeding has a nice plaque
Kyle Larson with Trophy Dave
Trophy Dave's girls
They are his granddaughters and the Gomez girls
Trophy Dave with Jessica and Karlee
Trophy Dave with his girls
Trophy Dave's girls pose with the Make a Wish Sprinter
Looks like Karlee wants to drive
Trophy Dave and Karlee
Trophy Cup photo
Trophy Cup line-up
One of the early Make a Wish checks. This year it was $150,000. That's beyond impressive!
Front wing signed by all the drivers and auctioned off
Another front wing for auction
The Trophy Cup 25th anniversary logo
A poster honoring Trophy Dave and his Trophy Cup success
20th logo
Trophy Cup feeds were always packed with plenty of food for everyone
Trophy Dave and Muriel working in the cooking area
Trophy Dave and Ray Williams with Jessica heating up something
Trophy Dave stands next to the man who owns Taco Bravo and provides most of the food served at the annual feeds. Thursday hot dog night, Friday Taco and Burrito night and Saturday at noon Spaghetti for everyone. All donations, like everything that happens at the Trophy Cup, goes into the Make a Wish Coffers.
Trophy Dave is always involved in the feeds and he and his family and friends work very hard to make it happen each eyar.
Trophy Dave is having fun at the spectacle he created 25 years ago. The Make a Wish total donation is nearly 2 million dollars now, so think about that for a minute. That is in addition to the $200,000 purse he pays the racers. All this for 360 winged cars and their drivers who come from all over to compete.
Jessica is always the bartender for Trophy Dave and she gets a little help from another granddaughter Tracy here.
Muriel gets into the act with her Make a Wish apron.
This is just a small group of the many many people who voluteer and get involved.
Trophy Dave with Pat Williams and Stevie Gomez
Trophy Dave with Stevie Gomez and his dog Lacy
Trophy Dave with two helpers
Trophy Dave talking with one of the Gomez brothers
Trophy Dave talking with Andy Forsberg
Trophy Dave with Brent Kaeding, another person who has been a major helper over the 25 years
Trophy Dave's right hand man is Rich, left, who has worked tirelessly to get things done.
Here Rich is enjoying himself in between jobs
Trophy Dave with his race director Mike Andretta
Trophy Dave with who I use to call Seat Saver Stevie because he was always putting the blankets down in the grandstands for many others
Pat and Ray Williams have always been there for Trophy Dave. They owned the Payless Rockery sprinter that Doug Wolfgang ran on the WOO tour.
Marilyn and Muriel were always decorating the feeding barn for the next feed or tearing down the decorations and clean up. They had a lot of help, but all of the decoration were really cool and unique
The large room saw a lot of different decorations and people who came to eat and make a mess
Another look
And here is what it looks like with the hungry crown inside
The Pusateri house is decorated each year with thousands of lights all over the beautiful home and even the roof. They have Santa and Mrs Clause on Saturday and Sundays to visit with the kids and each gets a gift. This is the start of the collecting for the 2019 Trophy Cup.
The sign tells the story
Just put your money in the box!
Santa showed up
The countdown until Xmas
The Pusateri home all lit up! Imagine the time it takes to put it all up each year. Dave created and engineered it all
The side view of the house
Another view
Need a helicopter? The blades actually spin!
A motorcyle coming from the North Pole
Trophy Dave lights up the wall at the end of his block
A close up of the sprinters
The crowd posed
Frosty the snow man at the front door
Their Christman tree is amazingly beautiful
Here are some of the many beautiful trophies that Trophy Dave has created over the years. They include every Wagsdash trophy that I presented in the 20 years we ran that race. Thanks so much for all your help!
Jimmy Boyd
Sorry, I don't recognize him
Jimmy Sills
Another Jimmy Sills
Jimmy Boyd
Chuck Gurney
Tim Green
2014 Trophy Cup overall champion
1991 Ron Didonato - (The first Wagsdash trophy that Trophy Dave made before I even asked him to make me one).
1992 Steve Ostling
1993 Bobby Michnowicz
1994 Rodney Argo
1995 Troy Newsome
1996 Mike English
1997 Jimmy Voitel
1998 Marc Hart
1999 J Hicks
2000 Marc Hart
2001 Jarrett Chaney
2002 Danny Sheridan
2003 Alan Ballard
2004 Ronnie Case
2005 Blake Miller
2006 Alan Ballard
2007 Blake Miller
2008 Austin Mero
2010 Brody Roa
2011 Brody Roa the last Wagsdash
Here are some more of the great work Trophy Dave did for me over the years and closeups of some of the above Wagsdash versions
My favorite trophy is this one that has all the Wagsdash winners and Grand Marshals listed on it for the Wagsdash events.
Here is Steve Stroud accepting the trophy for his Arizona Racing Museum that is now closed after his passing
Here's that trophy in the museum when it was open
The Don Blair Cup that only had one race to honor him before the promotor retired
David Cardey received the small one at the first and last Don Blair Classic, the large one was planned to continue on and is in limbo
Here's Jim Naylor receiving the Wagtimes Promotor of the year award
Jim's trophy is one of the best!
The first Wagsdash trophy 1991
1992 Wagsdash
1993 Wagsdash
1994 Wagsdash
1995 Wagsdash
1996 Wagsdash
1998 Wagsdash
1999 Wagsdash
2002 Wagsdash
2007 Wagsdash
2008 Wagsdash
The last Wagsdash 2011
Trophy Dave is a very unique and complex person with a good heart and his eye on making the Trophy Cup better each year. I met Trophy Dave back in the early 80's at Baylands Raceway during a WOO show. He was cooking those Teriyaki Sticks that are famously delicious and we became friends to this day. He guided me when I decided to start the 20 year Wagsdash race for the low buck guys. All the money I collected went to the drivers. After 3 years of watching my event grow, he decided he would create his own race, but his goal was to make money for Make a Wish and still pay the racers well. He picked the 360 wing cars as he could see the future of 410 racing was not so hot in California at the time and it's still dwindling now.
Trophy Dave decided he would invert his race by points earned, thus getting rid of the outlaw format of starting the best in the front of his race. The result was a highly entertaining event each year where the overall winner didn't always win the race, but put on a great show trying to get to the front. It didn't look like a wing race since it didn't string them out nicely! Dave works hard on his race year round to collect the money to keep it going. His wife Muriel is right beside him as she does much of the presentaion process making the side events successful and well arranged. This 2018 edition of the Trophy Cup, the purse was $200,000 and the Make a Wish donation $150,000 with the overall winner getting $25,000 to win. His contribution to the Make a Wish foundation will go over the two million dollar mark in 2019.
Trophy Dave has said for many years he didn't know how long he would keep doing it, but next year is already scheduled with the same astounding numbers and the winner getting a $1000 increase to $26,OOO. I am proud of what he has accomplished. Recognition for the Trophy Cup has earned him some special awards as well as making it one of the highest paying 3 day events in the nation. Even though I am not a wing fan, his race is the best of the best because there is plenty of passing, not just lapping of cars, and that's what racing is supposed to be. Congratulations Trophy Dave, Muriel and all your helpers, keep the good times going with the Trophy Cup.
Here are the 25 winners of this amazing race: 1994 Ronnie Day, 1995 Kevin Pylant, 1996 Brent Kaeding, 1997 Mark Kinser, 1998 Brent Kaeding, 1999 Brent Kaeding, 2000 Tom Tarlton, 2001 Craig Stidham, 2002 Tim Kaeding, 2003 Steve Kent, 2004 Jac Haudenschild, 2005 Brent Kaeding, 2006 Tim Kaeding, 2007 Jason Meyers, 2008 Brad Sweet, 2009 Tim Kaeding, 2010 Jonathan Allard, 2011 Jac Haudenschild, 2012 Jason Meyers, 2013 Kyle Larson, 2014 Willie Croft, 2015 Bud Kaeding, 2016 Shane Golobic, 2017 Shane Golobic, 2018 Jac Haudenschild.
Created 12/3/18
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