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Collin Markle Photo
Shane Golobic earns second Ocean Sprints win of the year in a thriller on Friday night over Justin Sanders & Bud Kaeding
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – June 19, 2015…Another outstanding main event was presented to fans at Ocean Speedway on Friday night and in the end it was two-time Ocean Sprints champion Shane Golobic taking the lead on lap-25, en route to his second victory of the 2015 Taco Bravo campaign.
The win certainly didn’t come easy for Golobic, as lapped traffic created some of the best racing seen all year long with the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo. A number of cars battled up front through heavy traffic, but the 23-year-old drove an excellent race and got through it with precision.
“That was a great race tonight and I’m really happy to give my guys another win,” said a happy Golobic on the front stretch. “Awesome track once again tonight and lapped traffic sure made things interesting. I hope all the fans enjoyed that one. It was some great clean hard fought racing and that’s what we all love to see. We have this car rolling really well and I can’t wait for the King of the West show here next week. I think we’ll have as good of a shot as anyone going into it. Big thanks to my owner Keith Day and everyone that helps out on this car. I definitely couldn’t do it without them.”
The 30-lapper came to the line with dash winner Kyler Shaw on the pole alongside fellow Fresno racer Craig Stidham. It marked the second week in a row that Shaw claimed the dash, but when the green flag waved it was Stidham jumping into the lead. The first few laps would see Shaw locked into a great battle with Golobic, as the pair exchanged the runner up spot multiple times. Golobic would take the position on lap four and look to track down the leader. Stidham recently captured a victory with the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series and looked strong out front, but had a bevy of fast cars coming after him.
Another well prepared racing surface was given to competitors and they used it to full advantage, with multiple lines all over the speedway. A number of cars fought hard through lapped traffic at the front of the field and gave the crowd an epic display of racing. Ocean Sprints point leader Justin Sanders picked his way through traffic and diced it up with Golobic and Campbell’s Bud Kaeding among others, slicing his way by Kaeding into third on lap 23. At this time positions were changing regularly and Golobic finally got the opening he needed to scoop up the lead with 25-laps down. At that point Stidham dropped back to fourth, as Kaeding shot all the way into second, with Sanders following along for third.
A yellow flag on lap 27 brought the party to a stop and created a final three-lap shootout. The single file restart saw Sanders execute a slider on Kaeding in the first & second corners to grab the runner up spot. Golobic hit his marks though and despite one final charge from Sanders in the final corners he was able to take the Ed Entz checkered flag by 0.768 seconds for the win. The victory for Golobic gives him momentum heading into next Friday’s Pombo/Sargent Classic featuring the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series at Ocean Speedway. The reigning Taco Bravo champ will look to hold up local honors next week in the Keith Day Trucking 22.
The second place finish for Sanders continued his remarkably consistent 2015 season. With nine races down in the Ocean Sprints campaign he has stretched his point lead to 56-markers going into the Friday July 10 Howard Kaeding Classic. “Man I really wanted to win that one tonight, but lapped traffic just didn’t quite go my way and Shane did an awesome job. What a great race track again though, so I can’t say enough about how good this place has been. That was a lot of fun racing through lapped traffic like that with Shane, Bud and a bunch of other guys. I really want to thank everyone that helps out on this car and supports us. We want this championship bad.”
Kaeding made his second Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo start of the season pay off with a third place finish at the conclusion. He goes into next Friday ranking second in the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series standings. “I hope all the fans had a good time watching that one tonight, because it sure was wild out here on the track. I felt like we had a shot to win, but the driver made a few errors there in traffic. I sat back late in the race on that restart and hoped the top-two would get racing hard to give me a shot. I’m really excited for the Pombo/Sargent Classic here next Friday. Hope everyone comes back and brings a friend to the races.”
Gilroy’s Kurt Nelson had a great comeback after the hard crash last week to finish fourth in the feature. The veteran looked very solid in the main event and raced hard through lapped traffic at the front of the field. Kyler Shaw had another strong outing for the second week in a row and rounded out the top-five in the 30-lapper. The remainder of the top-10 was comprised of Stidham, Salinas’ Jeremy Chisum, Foresthill’s Ryan Robinson, Fresno’s Koen Shaw and Fremont’s Dustin Golobic. Jason Chisum earned the High Five Pizza Hard Charger Award coming from 20th to 13th. Nicholas Ringo earned the Beer Optics Hard Luck Award after tipping over in the feature.
As noted Kyler Shaw won the dash, with the three eight-lap heat races picked off by Brad Furr, Bud Kaeding and Carson Macedo. Macedo was making his first Ocean Sprints start of the year and had a strong run going in the feature early on, until getting into a spin while fighting for the second spot. Shane Golobic kicked-off the night by setting his fourth Ray Scheidts Electric Fast Time of the year with a clocking of 11.644 around the quarter mile. Full results are available at www.racepmg.com
A-main finish: 1. 22 Shane Golobic, 2. 17 Justin Sanders, 3. 0 Bud Kaeding, 4. 72w Kurt Nelson, 5. 92 Kyler Shaw, 6. 3 Craig Stidham, 7. 8 Jeremy Chisum, 8. 1r Ryan Robinson, 9. 88 Koen Shaw, 10. 9j Dustin Golobic, 11. 58 Jerry Bonnema, 12. 12 Scott Parker, 13. 25z Jason Chisum, 14. 2 Brad Furr, 15. 21x Carson Macedo, 16. 23 Ken Fredenburg, 17. 7 Nick Ringo Jr, 18. 83 Austin Liggett, 19. 6d Josh Chisum, 20. 55 Danny Malfatti, 21. 51 Anthony Espinosa, 22. 3t Nicholas Ringo
This coming Friday June 26 marks the first of two season appearances by the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series to Ocean Speedway. It will be the first ever Pombo/Sargent Classic held at the track and is the seventh race of the season for KWS. Fresno’s Dominic Scelzi leads the King of the West standings going into next weekend, following his victory this past week in Stockton.
The front gate at Ocean Speedway will open at 4:30pm next Friday night June 26 with hot laps at 5:30pm, qualifying around 6pm and racing to follow. The pit booth will open at 2pm. Adult tickets for the Pombo/Sargent Classic cost $25, with kids 6-12 $20. Children 5 & under are free. The Ocean Speedway is located on the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville, California with the physical address being 2601 East Lake Ave, Watsonville, CA 95076.
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Justin Sanders had another strong run in the main event on Friday to charge forward and claim second after starting from the fourth row. The Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo point leader stretched his lead to 56-markers going into round 10 on Friday July 10. Photos by Collin Markle Photography
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