This message was edited on
June 30, 2012 at
03:53:56 AM by stevenblakesley
TARLTON LOCKS HIMSELF INTO JOHNNY KEY CLASSIC WITH DECISIVE WIN
WATSONVILLE,
CALIFORNIA (June 30, 2012) – Tommy Tarlton scored his third win of the 2012 Ocean Sprints
presented by Taco Bravo campaign, winning Friday's Johnny Key Classic qualifier
feature at Ocean Speedway Watsonville in a dominating performance. Tarlton inherited the lead in the #21 Tarlton
& Son entry after trouble struck points leader Shane Golobic and dominated
the second half of the event for the convincing victory.
Tarlton has
assured himself a position in the 52nd Johnny Key Classic for Saturday night
August 25, which will pay $10,000 to the winner and is presented by DDNi.
"You
know the 9j (Golobic) was fast," Tarlton said. "It was getting ready to be a crazy race
for the fans and I was thinking it was going to be his turn tonight. He caught the wall there in lapped traffic
and gave us the lead."
San Jose's Wayne Katen led the field to
green for the 30 lap feature in a field that was minus 2011 champion Ronnie
Day. Day, with three wins in 2012, was
unable to compete due to a back injury suffered during the week.
Katen led
the opening five laps while Golobic charged forward from sixth starting
position. Riding the cushion, Golobic
swept by Katen in turn two to take the lead for lap six and brought Tarlton
with him to the second spot.
On lap 10, Stockton's Brad Furr climbed past Katen for
the third position and the chase was on with Tarlton and Furr trying to reel in
Golobic. Golobic looked comfortably in
the lead before having to slow in lapped traffic.Tarlton drove up to the rear bumper of
Golobic before also engaging with the lapped car.
Golobic
tagged the wall down the backstretch and lost steering into turn three as the
caution came out on lap 14 for San Jose's Michael Twitchell spinning in turn
two. Golobic immediately went to the
pits with a broken tie rod and lost several laps in the pits.
With
Golobic out of the picture, the attention turned to a Tarlton vs. Furr battle
but Tarlton was able to get a good restart to take off to a straightaway
advantage over Furr.
"Cowboy"
Craig Smith of San Martin and last week's new track recorder holder Justin
Sanders of Watsonville put on a great side-by-side duel for the fourth
position, halted shortly when Carter Train stopped in turn one.
On the
restart, Tarlton again pulled out to an advantage over Furr.Tarlton dodged a bullet when he narrowly
avoided the stalled Twitchell on the backstretch to bring out another yellow on
lap 18.
Another
brief yellow on lap 20 for a stalled Ryan Rusconi set the stage for Sanders to
take the third position from Smith. Sanders closed within a car length of Furr in the closing stages of the event for the second position, but at
the finish it was Tarlton with a three-second win over Furr, Sanders, Smith,
and Petaluma's Jason Toft.
Lemoore's
Carson Macedo finished sixth from 14th starting to earn the DDNi Hard Charger
Award worth $100 while Ray Scheidt's Electric fast-time honors went to Furr
with an 11.561 second lap around the quarter-mile speedway. Heat race wins went to Tarlton and Rusconi.
The Ocean
Sprints presented by Taco Bravo return to Ocean Speedway on Friday night June
20, with next weekend's events including the USAC Western Classic Sprints on
Friday night and the King of the West Sprints on Saturday night as part of the
"Howard Kaeding Classic" weekend.
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.
June 29,
2012 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo - Watsonville, California
QUALIFYING:
2 Brad Furr: 11.561
HEAT RACEONE: 21 Tommy Tarlton
HEAT RACE TWO: 98 Ryan Rusconi
30 LAP
FEATURE: 1) 21 Tommy Tarlton, 2) 2 Brad Furr, 3) OB1 Justin Sanders, 4) 39
Craig Smith, 5) 27 Jason Toft, 6) 21x Carson Macedo, 7) 41w Joshua Williams, 8)
99 Wayne Katen, 9) 98 Ryan Rusconi, 10) 2x Carter Train, 11) 9j Shane Golobic,
12) 37 Michael Twitchell, 13) 72w Kurt Nelson, 14) 58 Jerry Bonnema DNS: 37x
Conley Scott
www.stevenblakesley.com
|
