This message was edited on
May 12, 2012 at
05:01:18 AM by stevenblakesley
OCEAN SPRINTS ROUND THREE GOES TO
RONNIE DAY
WATSONVILLE,
CALIFORNIA (May 12, 2012) – 2011 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo champion Ronnie Day of
Salinas won Friday night's feature at Ocean Speedway Watsonville after roaring
past Stockton's Brad Furr on the 20th lap. Day's win came against a 23 car turnout during the third round for the series.
Day, who
also claimed quick-time, made a tremendous comeback from a broken engine in
last Friday night's competition. Day won
the first heat race of the night before drawing an eight invert for the 30 lap
feature held on a heavy race track.
"It
was pretty wild," Day said. "It
was hard to see because there was so much mud.I was going through tear-offs but trying to save as many as I
could. We ran Brad (Furr) down and he
was a sitting duck in traffic. The guys
did a great job. That's a brand new Gaerte
motor and the thing's awesome and runs hard!"
Young Jake
Haulot of Cotati started on the outside front row and led the field out of turn
two to take the initial lead over 18 year-old Austin Stone of Visalia. Gilroy's Kurt Nelson retired early from
the race with damage to the right front of his car but the race stayed green.
The first
caution of the night was on lap 12 when Jeremy Chisum of Salinas spun while being lapped by Haulot,
collecting Haulot and 16 year-old Cole Wood of Auburn. Haulot suffered minor front wing damage but stayed on the gas and
maintained the top spot.
Furr swept past
Haulot on the restart but the race was red flagged when 15 year-old Dominic
Scelzi went upside down in turn four. The Fresno Micro Sprint champion, son of NHRA champion Gary Scelzi, made
some new fans when he won his heat race earlier in the evening but his feature
was over prematurely.
Furr
finally took over the lead on the 13th lap before the caution came out again,
this time for Stone making hard right side contact with the turn three wall.
The pace
picked up after lap 13 with Day turning up the heat from the cushion.Day leapt to second and began to reel in Furr
in traffic. Traffic finally allowed Day
to roar past Furr on the top shelf on lap 20.
While Day
pulled away from Furr, action was intensifying behind them as 16th starting
Shane Golobic and 18th starting Justin Sanders marched through the field. Golobic took over the third position on lap
20 but at that point trailed the top-two by a straightaway.
The race
stayed clean and green to the finish allowing Day to take the victory over
Furr, Golobic, Haulot, and San Jose's Ryan Rusconi."Cowboy" Craig Smith of San Martin
successfully held off Sanders for the sixth spot as well.
Golobic won
the $100 DDNi Hard Charger award and the Ray Scheidt's Electric Fast Time award
went to Day with a time of 12.014 seconds in qualifying. Heat race wins went to Day, Stone, and
Scelzi.
The Ocean
Sprints presented by Taco Bravo will return to action next Friday night at
Ocean Speedway Watsonville.
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
Ocean
Speedway would like to thank Taco Bravo, Digital Delivery Networks, Get Som
Sports, Ray Scheidt's Electric, Hoosier Tires West, and Kaeding Performance for
their support of the 2012 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo.
www.stevenblakesley.com
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