This message was edited on
October 15, 2011 at
12:36:23 PM by stevenblakesley
GOLOBIC WINS THIRD STRAIGHT OCEAN SPRINTS MAIN, DAY CHAMPION
WATSONVILLE,
CALIFORNIA (October 15, 2011) – The Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo closed its 2011
campaign with a thrilling night of action as Fremont’s Shane Golobic won his
third consecutive feature event while Salinas’ Ronnie Day was crowned series
champion. Golobic’s last lap pass
allowed him to become the only driver in the series to win three straight
races, while Day’s fourth place finish was good enough to hold the title over
Tommy Tarlton.
The last
lap pass on Tarlton was reminiscent of Golobic’s win last Friday night when he
passed Bud Kaeding with just two laps to go.
“It was a
great race between Tommy and I and I’m glad we came out with the win,” Golobic
said. “It felt good to get it done on
the last lap and it seems like that’s how I’ve been doing it these days.”
After an
eight car invert, Prunedale’s Justin Sanders started on the pole. A series of incidents in the first two laps
slowed action and led to an open red flag so teams could top off their sprint
cars with fuel.
Outside
pole sitter Ryan Rusconi tagged the wall early on and fell outside the
top-five, and the first caution came out when St. Helena’s Rico Abreu stalled
in turn four with steering problems.
Several
attempts at a restart saw Jerry Bonnema and Jeremy Chisum spun in turn four and
then Chisum flipping hard in the successive restart. The lengthy open red flag allowed Abreu time
to make repairs and he rejoined the field at the rear.
Once racing
got going sixth starting Tarlton jumped up to the lead passing both Golobic and
Sanders on lap eight. The next yellow
came out when Nick Rescino, Jr. and Carter Train spun in turn four. On the restart fifth starting Bud Kaeding
drove the Werbach Motorsports #20 up to third past Golobic while Sanders
challenged Tarlton for the lead.
Golobic
took third back on lap 12 and went back-and-forth with Sanders for several
laps.On lap 21 Sanders jumped the
cushion in turn three sending him hard into the wall.His night was over.
A pair of
cautions came out again on lap 22 and 24 both involving Tommy Laliberte to end
his night and with six laps to go the battle was on up front.
After a
brief tussle with Kaeding, Golobic had second place in hand and coming to the
white flag he seized the opportunity to challenge Tarlton. In turns three/four Golobic swept past
Tarlton on the outside to take the checkered flag in a close finish.
The balance
of the top-five saw Kaeding finishing third ahead of Day and Abreu in a
comeback drive.The DDNi Hard Charger
award went to Wayne Katen who advanced 12 positions from 19th to
seventh.
The Ray
Scheidt’s Electric fast-time honors went to 2011 Civil War champion Andy
Forsberg with a 12.090 lap around the quarter-mile oval.Forsberg retired to the pits on lap 11 of the
feature with mechanical problems. Heat
race wins went to Golobic, Abreu, and Rusconi.
Ronnie
Day’s championship comes in a season where he won his first career Ocean
Speedway feature and followed it up with a win at the 51st “Johnny
Key Classic”. The driver of the #22
Keith Day Trucking car won the championship by 37 markers over Tarlton with
Abreu, Sanders, and Golobic unofficially rounding out the top-five.
“It’s been
a great year and I think we finished out of the top five only twice this year,”
Day said. “We’ve had probably the best
year of my career.”
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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