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Photos courtesy Dave Spencer TDS Shots
Former Taco Bravo champ Brad Furr comes out on top of an entertaining Ocean Sprints main event on Friday at Ocean Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – April 24, 2015…A wide & slick surface at Ocean Speedway on Friday night provided some great action during what was round three of the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo season. In the end it was 2013 track champion Brad Furr of Stockton coming out on top after 30-laps of hard fought racing for his first win of the year.
Furr’s victory was aboard the familiar Kenny Thorp wrenched Brad Furr Racing/ Price Rite Restaurant Equipment No. 2 Sprinter and came over the relentless pursuit of Fresno’s Dominic Scelzi & Watsonville’s Justin Sanders. It was a great rebound for Furr, who had struggled in the feature during the most recent Ocean Sprints event on April 10.
“Tonight we really focused on going back to the basics and it really worked all night long,” Furr commented on the front stretch. “We had a great car and it was a fun race tonight. Getting through traffic was tricky, but luckily I pretty much made all the right moves to get by guys at the right time. I really want to thank my whole team for working so hard and thank everyone that makes racing possible at Ocean Speedway. We’ll be back next week hoping to do the same.”
Fremont’s Dustin Golobic & Morgan Hill’s Nicholas Ringo Jr. drew the front row for the feature, but Furr wasted no time charging to the high side of the speedway and claimed the lead on lap-one. A well prepared surface made for great racing all throughout the field during the 30-lap contest. Dominic Scelzi soon showed his muscle climbing into second after a great tussle with Golobic. Justin Sanders would then also follow suit, jumping into the third spot on a restart around lap 10.
Lapped traffic in the main event kept things very interesting, as the lead trio had to be on their toes all race long, even splitting the slower cars from time to time. Scelzi looked for a way by Furr on numerous occasions, but the former World of Outlaws regular worked traffic expertly. As the race wound down Sanders was able to carve his way by Scelzi into the runner up position, prior to a yellow coming out on lap 24. When the green waved for the final time Dustin Golobic made a tremendous move on the double file restart to slice passed Sanders & Scelzi into second.
With Furr out front an intense battle for the runner spot waged on and it was ultimately scooped up by Scelzi, who was able to get back by Golobic. He tried his best to track down the leader, but ran out of time and Furr crossed the Ed Entz checkered flag by 1.014 seconds for the victory.
Although disappointed with the outcome it was a solid night for Scelzi, who celebrates his 18th birthday next week. “I feel like this was our race tonight and I just made a couple mistakes on restarts and in traffic,” said the driver of the Scelzi Enterprises/ Red Rose Transportation No. 41 mount. “Traffic was definitely wild. A few of the cars were racing side by side like they were going for a win at the Knoxville Nationals, so we really had to pick our passes wisely. We’ve got speed in this car though, so that gives me lots of confidence and hopefully we can knock off a win soon.”
Sanders was able to get by Golobic to earn the final spot on the podium aboard his North County Plastering/ Lancaster Locksmith No. 17 machine. “The race track was great tonight so I really have to tip my hat to the whole track prep crew,” commented Sander’s, who unofficially takes over the points lead. “That was a really fun race tonight being able to dice it up like that in traffic. We’ve had a great start to the season and the consistency we have put together has been something I’ve definitely focused on. We really want to get a win here though and hopefully that can happen next week. We’ll be trying hard for it.”
Dustin Golobic crossed the line in fourth to earn his best career Ocean Sprints finish. The younger Golobic was impressive all night long and continues to improve as the weeks go on. Gilroy’s Kurt Nelson also made some great moves in the feature to round out the top-five for the second race in a row with the Ocean Sprints. Fremont’s Shane Golobic accepted the Back Row Challenge during the main event and ended the race in sixth. That however, came after he had suffered a flat tire while having already charged to sixth by lap 10, which forced him to the rear for a second time. His efforts earned him the High Five Pizza Hard Charger Award.
Tracy’s Austin Liggett was impressive, running in the top-five, before earning his career best Ocean Sprints finish in seventh. Nicholas Ringo and Fresno’s Koen & Kyler Shaw completed the top-10 in the feature.
Shane Golobic started off the night by earning the Ray Scheidts Electric Fast Time Award with a clocking of 11.763 to beat out the 19-car field. Three eight-lap heat races were needed and were captured by Liggett, Ringo and Scelzi. Full results will be found at www.racepmg.com
A-main finish: 1. 2 Brad Furr, 2. 41 Dominic Scelzi, 3. 17 Justin Sanders, 4. 9j Dustin Golobic, 5. 72w Kurt Nelson, 6. 22 Shane Golobic, 7. 83 Austin Liggett, 8. 3t Nicholas Ringo, 9. 88 Koen Shaw, 10. 92 Kyler Shaw, 11. 8 Jeremy Chisum, 12. 25z Jason Chisum, 13. 58 Jerry Bonnema, 14. 7h Jake Haulot, 15. 55 Danny Malfatti, 16. 51 Anthony Espinosa, 17. 6d Josh Chisum, 18. 23 Ken Fredenburg, 19. 34 Darrell Taylor
The Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo will return to action next Friday night May 1 with round number four on the season. It will be a PMG Double Down Bonus weekend event, paired with Saturday’s Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial at Silver Dollar Speedway. If a driver wins both nights they’ll take home a $3000 bonus.
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