By Gary Costa, Johns Racing photo
Watsonville, CA – Petaluma, CA – Santa Maria, CA (April 16-17, 2010) — It was a busy weekend for the Tarlton Motorsports team. Tommy Tarlton would drive a 360 and 410 Winged Sprint Car over the course of his weekend. Tommy’s busy weekend would begin at Ocean Speedway, where he is the defending Ocean Sprint Car champion. As soon as the race was over in Watsonville, the team would make the haul to Petaluma Speedway to compete with the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car series. While Tommy was battling it out under the wing, Peter Murphy would compete with the West Coast 360 Non-Wing group and look to continue their climb to the top of the point’s ladder.
Tommy would glide the potent Corporate America Lending, Tarlton & Son, Inc No. 21 around Ocean Speedway and time-in with a 12.318. His time was good enough for tenth-quick out of the 31-cars that were assembled in the Ocean Speedway pit area. Tommy would line-up next to Ricky Wright, Jr. in the second row of his heat race. When the field went green, Tarlton promptly moved into second and would stay there for the duration of the event.
Tarlton would slide the Paul Baines wrenched machine into his ninth starting spot on the grid foe feature event action. Cinching his belts tight for the last time before taking the green flag in the 30-lap feature, Tarlton knew that he would have his work cut-out for him. When the amber lights went off and turned green, Tommy began his charge and would finish in the seventh spot, 30-laps later.
It was off to Petaluma Speedway Saturday, a track that Tommy hasn’t seen for sometime. The night would start with Tommy being the 15th car out for qualifying, and he circled the 3/8-mile speedway to a fourth-quick qualifying effort on the field by cutting a 13.258 lap. Tommy finished fourth in his heat race and fifth in the 30-lap ‘A’-main. Tommy hasn’t finished out of the Top-10 in the last four events that he’s ran.
“Our results may not show it, but we were fast during both nights of racing. We had a decent night at Ocean, so we will just keep building from there,” Tarlton said. “It was good to go back to Petaluma and we will be back at it again this Saturday at Ocean. I need to thank all of our sponsors for sticking with us. Without them, our racing wouldn’t be possible.”
Peter Murphy was up in the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Tarlton & Son, Inc. No. 21 for West Coast 360 Non-Wing action. After the car was unloaded, Blaine Steele and Jason Wheelock went to work on the KPC chassis. Peter would qualify seventh with a 15.460. Murphy would then finish fifth in his heat race, which would put Peter fourth on the grid for the 30-lap feature.
At the drop of the green flag, Murphy was able to move from his fourth position and jump out into the lead. As the race wore on, it looked as if Murphy was well on his way to score his first victory of the season, as he kept extending his lead over the field. An open red flag would allow teams to make adjustments to their cars, and a lap-15 restart would change the complexion of the race, with Danny Sheridan taking the point and eventual win.
Murphy would drop back one spot, but still managed to finish third. In the last three races the team has scored one second, and two third place finishes, as they are still in the hunt for that elusive first win. Murphy was able to move into third in the West Coast Sprint Car standings, only five points away from Davey Pombo, who sits second in the point standings.
“We will win one of these races here real soon. The car tightened-up a little, and we lost a couple of spots, but we will be okay,” Murphy commented. “We are slowly gaining points and before it’s over, I think that we will be right there.”
Up Next For Tarlton Motorsports!
Tommy Tarlton will return to Ocean Speedway to race with the Golden State Challenge Series this Saturday.
For schedule information, please go to www.tarltonandson.com
Special thanks to: The Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Ridgeline Framing, Corporate American Lending, Shark Racing Engines, Matt & Glass, M & S Motorsports, Sharp Insurance, Elite Racing, BG Products, Pro Signs, VMAC, Kaeding Performance, Pro Shocks, Sander Engineering, Astro Titanium, Simpson, BR Motorsports, Willwood, and Brown & Miller Racing Solutions.