This message was edited on
September 24, 2011 at
03:24:11 PM by stevenblakesley
GOLOBIC TOPS OCEAN SPRINTS VS CIVIL WAR IN FRIDAY
NIGHT THRILLER
WATSONVILLE,
CALIFORNIA (September 24, 2011) – Fremont’s Shane Golobic out-dueled “Cowboy” Craig Smith
of San Martin to win a hard fought Ocean Sprints vs. Civil War feature on Friday
night at Ocean Speedway.The victory is
Golobic’s second of the year at Ocean to go along with a win in May.
30 cars lined
the pits for action on the Santa Cruz Fairgrounds quarter-mile with the race
marking the penultimate round for the California Sprint Car Civil War and the
third to last race for the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo.
Greg
DeCaires, winner of the Pacific Sprint Cup during the Gold Cup, led the 22 car
starting field to green.Golobic, from
fourth, jumped up to second early on and challenged DeCaires for the lead.
Golobic
took over the top spot on lap four with Smith following him through for second
on lap five.A red flag came out on that
lap when Corralitos’ Jerry Bonnema had a minor tip-over in turn three.
Smith and
Golobic engaged in a back-and-forth battle for the lead with Smith taking it on
lap 10 to the approval of the crowd.The
next caution of the race flew on lap 11 when Justin Sanders of Prunedale
stalled in turn one.
On the
restart, Rico Abreu and Civil War points leader Andy Forsberg battled hard for
fifth.Abreu continued his charge from
tenth on the grid to pass Forsberg when the caution came out again on lap 16
for Sanders spinning out in turn three.
Sanders’
night was done, and the restart saw Tim Kaeding, who started 11th,
move past both Forsberg and Abreu into the top-five.
The yellow
flag came out again on lap 17 for Nick Ringo, Jr. spinning in turn one setting
up an electric final 13 laps that brought the fans to their feet.DeCaires fell out of the top-five on the
restart due to a damaged front wing which set the stage for the finish.
Golobic and
Smith traded blows for the next 10 laps, while points leader Ronnie Day had a
thrilling three-wide race with Abreu and Kaeding for third.
Golobic
finally wrestled away the lead from Smith on lap 27, with Smith defending Day
for second to the finish.Kaeding
narrowly edged out Abreu for fourth at the line.
Kyle Hirst,
DeCaires, Forsberg, Jeremy Burt, and Alissa Geving rounded out the
top-ten.Hirst made up small ground on
Forsberg in the Civil War championship with the title to be decided Saturday
night at Placerville Speedway.
On the
Ocean Sprints side, Day pulled away from Tommy Tarlton in the standings after
Tarlton flipped in the semi to miss the feature.Day now leads Tarlton by 32 with just two
races left to go in the series.
Heat race
wins went to Burt, Koen Shaw, Geving, and Jason Statler.Day used his teammate Jeremy Chisum’s car to
get the Ray Scheidt’s Electric fast-time award with an 11.500 second lap around
the speedway.The DDNi Hard Charger was
Kaeding.
The Ocean
Sprints presented by Taco Bravo will go dark next Friday night but return for
two consecutive races to wrap up the season on October 7 and October 14.
For more
information on the Ocean Sprint Cars presented by Taco Bravo log onto http://www.oceansprints.com
and for more on the Ocean Speedway visit http://www.oceanspeedway.com
www.stevenblakesley.com
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