This message was edited on
March 30, 2013 at
01:23:55 PM by stevenblakesley
BRAD FURR WINS OCEAN SPRINTS OPENER WITH LAST LAP PASS
WATSONVILLE, CALIFORNIA (March 30,
2013) - Stockton's Brad Furr led only the final lap of Friday's Ocean
Sprints presented by Taco Bravo opener to claim the victory, reeling in
Watsonville's Justin Sanders from a half-lap advantage for the first
win of 2013. The stunning finish in lapped traffic brought a strong
crowd to its feet at John Prentice's Ocean Speedway Watsonville.
"It feels real good
and the guys had the car real good," Furr said. "I started to see
(Sanders) a little bit and I said 'hey it's time to give it a shot.
Now or never.'"
Furr set the
standard in qualifying with an 11.897 second lap around the heavy
quarter-mile oval. A zero pill put Furr on the pole position for the
30 lap feature.
Sanders started the
18 car feature on the outside pole in Clayton Snow's #7 entry and
charged into the lead into turn one. Fresno's Koen Shaw and San
Martin's "Cowboy" Craig Smith tangled on the opening lap, forcing Shaw
to stop and bring out a caution.
A series of short
cautions included Pleasanton rookie Nathan Washam stopped in turn two
and Gilroy's Kurt Nelson spinning in turn one. The only multi-car
crash of the evening was a large dust-up on lap four.
Des Moines, IA
teenager Chris Martin, driving a Kaeding Performance-fielded entry,
made contact with Jeremy Chisum entering turn three. Martin came to a
stop with front end damage and collected San Jose's Ryan Rusconi,
former Micro 600 champ Tomas Bray of Hollister, and Nelson. Rusconi
was the only car able to continue after the incident.
The race went
non-stop from there, with great battling going on for the second
position. San Jose's Nick Green went back-and-forth with Furr for many
laps in traffic. Furr finally got the best of Green on the inside of
turn three on lap 15 with Smith moving past on the top-side one lap
later.
Furr had his sights
set on Sanders, who had accumulated a half-lap lead at that point but
was in the midst of heavv lapped traffic. Slowly but surely, the lead
evaporated. As the white flag flew, Furr slid to the outside and swept
past Sanders out of turn two to the approval of the large crowd.
The 2012 Ocean
Sprints runner-up took the victory ahead of Sanders, Smith, Green, and
Jeremy Chisum of Salinas in a career-best effort.
"Yeah I want to
congratulate Brad Furr; he did a great job even though I'm pissed off,"
Sanders said. "I tried to get under the lapped cars for about four
laps straight. Didn't want to wreck into them because the track was so
fast. Better to be second sometimes.
"It's better that we didn't tear up the car but I can't believe what happened!"
San Jose's Nick
Foster, Jr. drove Wayne Katen's #199 entry from 16th starting to finish
eighth and claim the DDNi Hard Charger Award. Furr won the Ray
Scheidt's Electric Fast Time Award. The two heat races on the night
were won by Smith and Shaw.
The Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo return to action on Friday April 5.
For more information on the Ocean Sprints 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, Nobel
Construction, Get Som Sports, Ray Scheidt's Electric, Hoosier Tires
West, and Kaeding Performance for their support.
March 29, 2013 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo - Watsonville, California
RAY SCHEIDT'S ELECTRIC QUALIFYING: 2 Brad Furr 11.987
HEAT 1: 39 Craig Smith
HEAT 2: 88k Koen Shaw
30 LAP FEATURE: 1) 2 Brad Furr, 2) 7 Justin
Sanders, 3) 39 Craig Smith, 4) 14 Nick Green, 5) 8 Jeremy Chisum, 6) 11
Nick Rescino, Jr., 7) 98 Ryan Rusconi, 8) 199 Nick Foster, Jr., 9) 9j
Steve Osborne, 10) 4 Nathan Washam, 11) 88k Koen Shaw, 12) 25z Jason
Chisum, 13) 3t Nicholas Ringo, 14) 39c Carson McCarl, 15) 23f Ken
Fredenburg, 16) 44 Chris Martin, 17) 72w Kurt Nelson, 18) 23 Tomas Bray
LAP LEADERS: 7 Justin Sanders 1-29, Brad Furr 30
www.stevenblakesley.com
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