Tarlton Tops ASCS SoCal at Tulare, Murphy Wins West Coast 360 Main

By Lonnie Wheatley and Lance Jennings

TULARE, Cal. (April 30, 2011) – Tarlton raced to his second checkered flag in a row in front of Peter Murphy, with Cory Eliason, Ronnie Day and Justin Sanders rounding out the top five.

Kevin Pylant was sixth, with Craig Smith, Steven Kent, Rico Abreu and Trey Starks completing the top ten.

Mike Faria, Eliason and Kent won Saturday night’s heat races.

ASCS Southern California Region Results from Thunderbowl Raceway:

Heat One (10 Laps): 1. 4F-Mike Faria, 2. 21-Tommy Tarlton, 3. 89-Rico Abreu, 4. 17-Justin Sanders, 5. 4j-Andy Ferris, 6. 9j-Steve Osborne, 7. 20x-Tommy Laliberte.

Heat Two (10 Laps): 1. 00-Cory Eliason, 2. 55-Trey Starks, 3. 14-Nick Green, 4. 39-Craig Smith, 5. 17m-Nick McColloch, 6. 72w-Kurt Nelson.

Heat Three (10 Laps): 1. 7-Steven Kent, 2. 21m-Peter Murphy, 3. 15-Eric Humphries, 4. 22-Ronnie Day, 5. 20-Kevin Pylant, 6. 98-Ryan Rusconi.

“A” Feature (30 Laps): 1. 21-Tommy Tarlton, 2. 21m-Peter Murphy, 3. 00-Cory Eliason, 4. 22-Ronnie Day, 5. 17-Justin Sanders, 6. 20-Kevin Pylant, 7. 39-Craig Smith, 8. 7-Steven Kent, 9. 89-Rico Abreu, 10. 55-Trey Starks, 11. 9j-Steve Osborne, 12. 98-Ryan Rusconi, 13. 20x-Tommy Laliberte, 14. 15-Eric Humphries, 15. 17m-Nick McColloch, 16. 4F-Mike Faria, 17. 4j-Andy Ferris, 18. 14-Nick Green. DNS: 72w-Kurt Nelson.

ASCS Southern California Points (Top 10): 1. Tommy Tarlton 300, 2. Cory Eliason 270, 3. Ronnie Day 260, 4. Trey Starks 252, 5. Steven Kent 235, 6. Mike Faria 223, 7. Nick Green 216, 8. Eric Humphries 215, 9. Nick McColloch 208, 10. Andy Ferris 202.

USAC WEST COAST 360 SPRINT RACE RESULTS: April 30, 2011 – Tulare, California – Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. T.J. Smith, 14, LeGras-15.181; 2. Wes Gutierrez, 007, WG-15.214; 3. Ryan Bernal, 11D, Olmstead-15.336; 4. Richard VanderWeerd, 10, VanderWeerd-15.492; 5. Dennis Howell, 62, Howell-15.577; 6. Greg Alexander, 72, Tyler-15.683; 7. Jace VanderWeerd, 88, VanderWeerd-15.696; 8. Danny Faria Jr., 2, Bowman-15.755; 9. Rusty Carlile, 51, Carlile-15.815; 10. Justyne Hamblin, 8, JH-15.844; 11. Peter Murphy, 4, Eberhardt-16.090; 12. Jared Little, 25, Little-16.178; 13. Ricky Kirkbride, 87, Van Meter-16.182; 14. Dave Knott, 28, Knott-16.259; 15. Marty Hawkins, 3M, Hawkins-16.343; 16. Andrew Murray, 18, Murray-16.694; 17. Geoffrey Strole, 09S, Strole-17.231; 18. Jeff Miller, 5X, Swaim-17.330; 19. Nico Russo, 3N, Russo-17.341; 20. Cole Peard, 58, Peard-NT; 21. Matt Day, 97, Day-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kirkbride, 2. R. VanderWeerd, 3. J. VanderWeerd, 4. Smith, 5. Hamblin, 6. Murray, 7. Russo. NT.

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Gutierrez, 2. Murphy, 3. Howell, 4. Faria, 5. Knott, 6. Strole, 7. Peard. NT.

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hawkins, 2. Bernal, 3. Carlile, 4. Alexander, 5. Little, 6. Miller, 7. Day. NT.

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Peter Murphy, 2. Dennis Howell, 3. Richard VanderWeerd, 4. Greg Alexander, 5. Jace VanderWeerd, 6. Jared Little, 7. Wes Gutierrez, 8. Rusty Carlile, 9. Marty Hawkins, 10. Justyne Hamblin, 11. Ricky Kirkbride, 12. Nico Russo, 13. Jeff Miller, 14. Matt Day, 15. Ryan Bernal, 16. Cole Peard, 17. Danny Faria Jr., 18. T.J. Smith, 19. Dave Knott, 20. Geoffrey Strole, 21. Andrew Murray. NT.

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**Knott flipped during the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 R. VanderWeerd, Laps 2-26 Bernal, Laps 27-30 Murphy.

NEW WEST COAST 360 SPRINT POINTS:

NEXT WEST COAST 360 SPRINT RACE: May 14 – Groppetti Automotive Tulare (CA) Thunderbowl Raceway – “Pombo/Sargent Classic”

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