Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

(Photo courtesy L&J Photography)

Tommy Tarlton Flips Friday; Wins Saturday at Chowchilla

By Gary Costa

Watsonville, CA - Chowchilla, CA (May 29-30, 2009) – Tommy Tarlton and the Tarlton Motorsports Team headed down to Ocean Speedway to race with the Golden State Challenge Series 410 Sprint Cars. Tarlton is coming off of an impressive performance with the GSC at Tulare May 16^th where he finished second. Then on Saturday, he would race at Chowchilla with a 360.

Tommy would pound the clay in the Paul Baines wrenched mount and timed in with a 12.096 qualifying effort. The time was good enough for eighth out of the 24 cars in attendance. Tarlton went onto win Heat No. 2 which put him in the all important dash. Things were looking good for Tarlton…. until the green flag came out. Tarlton proceeded to take a wild flip in the Tarlton & Son, Inc., No 21 Maxim on the opening lap.

Never ones to give up, the crew immediately went to work on the injured No. 21. Most of the bolt-on pieces were changed. The crew did a magnificent job to get the car back out on the speedway for the 30-lap main event. Unfortunately, lap-2 was as far as Tommy would go this evening, as another flip would bite him.

"I'm so frustrated right now. The team worked hard to fix the car, and we turned it over again," a dejected Tarlton said. "The worst part about it though, is that I wanted to put on a show for the fans. This is Sprint Car racing and I understand that these things do happen no matter how unfortunate they are. But we'll be back."

The next day the team towed to Chowchilla Raceway to run the 360 Winged portion of the event. With Greg Opinski Construction stickers adorning the front wing of the powerful mount, Tarlton was looking to redeem himself. And redeem himself he did. Tarlton was on a tear in the event. He garnered quick time and made the most of his pole position in the 30-lap event by leading every lap. The win marked Tarlton's third win in 360 Sprint Car competition this season.

"This feels great! I know that there are not a lot of cars here, but a win is a win. Hopefully we can get more cars here for the next few races," Tarlton said. "After last night, I had to redeem myself. I did what I set out to do this weekend and that was to win one of the races for Greg Opinski Construction. I'm also real proud of my crew and I want to thank all of our sponsors."

Tommy Tarlton will be back at it again this Friday for GLR Investments 360 Sprint Car competition at Ocean Speedway. Tarlton won the last GLR event contested at the speedway back on May 15^th.

Team Tarlton's efforts are supported by the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Ridgeline Framing, Shark Racing Engines, Matt & Glass, M & S Motorsports, Sharp Insurance, McLellan Equipment, Elite Racing, BG Products, Pro Signs, VMAC, Kaeding Performance, Pro Shocks, Sander Engineering, Astro Titanium, Simpson, BR Motorsports, Willwood and BRMS.