By Gary Thomas
Santa Maria, CA – May 2, 2010…When it comes to dramatic finishes few have come close to Friday night’s Ocean Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo main event at the Santa Maria Speedway, where race-long leader Tommy Tarlton lost the top-spot to Bud Kaeding with just a couple laps remaining, yet regained the advantage at the checkered flag when Kaeding got together with a lapped car and flipped down the front stretch.
The event marked the first appearance for the Ocean 360 Sprints outside of Watsonville and was also the opener of the second annual Doug Fort Memorial weekend at the 1/3 mile clay oval, located just north of the city of Santa Maria.
When the number four pill was drawn for the inversion by fast qualifier Evan Suggs it put Kerman’s Davey Pombo and Tarlton on the front row of the 30-lap feature. As the green lights came on Tarlton powered into the lead as the rest of the field tried to shake things out on the very treacherous surface, which had dried out considerably and began to get black in spots. Pombo’s hopes at a solid finish turned sour on the opening lap as he looped the car in turn four to bring out a yellow and make for a complete restart.
With Pombo restarting at the tail it moved Visalia’s Cory Eliason up to the pole position and when the green lights back on Tarlton would once again charge into the lead aboard the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Corporate America Lending No. 21, with Suggs immediately moving up to second. When the racing got into a flow drivers used every inch of the Santa Maria Speedway, putting on a great show for the solid Friday night crowd on hand. Current Ocean Sprints point leader Bud Kaeding would step up his challenges early on and make a text book slide job in turns one and two to claim second from Suggs, before trying his best to chase down the leader.
As the race progressed and traffic came into play Kaeding was able to get within a couple car lengths of Tarlton’s rear bumper, but the Easton driver navigated his way through the slower cars with perfection to keep the three-time & defending USAC Silver Crown champion at bay. With the race winding down things seemed to heat up throughout the field as Suggs, Salinas driver Ronnie Day, Eliason, Eric Rossi, Peter Murphy and a host of others began to slice and dice amongst each other, trading positions with regularity on the speedway.
Lap 21 then saw Eliason slow to a stop and have a possible top-five run cut short when he and Suggs made contact, which resulted in front end damage on Eliason’s sprinter and also left Suggs with a broken shock. On the restart things continued to be hectic as positions changed hands, but would soon come to a crawl after contact left Suggs’ No. 33e machine stopped on the inside of the second corner to bring out another caution with 22-laps complete. When the racing got back underway for the final time Tarlton continued to lead the field, but when traffic appeared yet again Kaeding would make his move aboard the Sala/Matherly Racing, M&M Powder Coaters No. 19.
Rounding the fourth corner to complete the 28th lap Kaeding was able to find some bite down low and slipped underneath Tarlton to grab the top-spot. With the white flag waving next time by Tarlton wasn’t done just yet and made a valiant charge to the outside of turns three and four on the final go-around, but appeared to get a bit too high and it looked to be Kaeding’s race to win. Just when the Campbell driver had less than a straightaway to go till victory, he tried to get under a lapped car, but contact was made and it sent his No. 19 mount flipping down the front stretch.
As Kaeding was flipping and getting closer to the finish line Tarlton took advantage of his loss of momentum and just barely crossed the checkered ahead of him to claim the unbelievable win. While most weren’t even sure who had gotten to the line first, things turned even crazier when officials deemed that Kaeding didn’t quite get to the start-finish-line where he had came to a stop, therefore was placed 14th in the initial rundown. However, after reviewing the video Kaeding was placed second in the order as it was deemed his front wheels were over the finish line at the checkered flag.
The dramatic triumph was Tarlton’s first of the season after coming off his Ocean Sprints championship year where he scored four victories with the series. “This was a pretty amazing finish and I don’t even really know what to say about that one,” said an excited Tarlton in victory lane. “I thought we lost this one there in the last couple laps and when I crossed the finish line I didn’t know if we got him or not, but this is just awesome to get a win here for my whole team.”
Coming home in third after the video review and having a fine run in the main event was the Keith Day Trucking, El Camino Machine and Welding No. 22 of Ronnie Day. “This was a real good run for us tonight and we’re pretty happy to get up here on the podium in my second race driving for my brother,” said the former King of California. “I have to thank this team and also Jonathan Allard for giving us some tips on the set-up because I think it paid off in the feature. Most importantly I want to thank all you fans for coming out and spending your hard earned money and supporting us here tonight.”
Scoring fourth and earning the “Fully Charged” hard-charger award from Sun Electric was the Buster and Ziggy Enterprise, Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino No. 11 of Clovis’ Peter Murphy, who started 20th on the grid in the feature. “It’s pretty awesome to be up here after the way the night started for us,” said Murphy, who began the evening by qualifying just 23rd fastest out of 26-cars. “We had a great car in the main event and it was pretty wild out there racing with a lot of guys through traffic so I hope the fans enjoyed the show.”
Completing the top-10 in the main event were Campbell’s Brent Kaeding, Gilroy’s Eric Rossi, Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson, Morgan Hills Devon Ostheimer, West Linn, Oregon’s Zach Zimmerly and Corralitos’ Jerry Bonnema. The three eight-lap heat races were picked off by Rossi, Morgan Hill’s Ricky Wright Jr. and Brent Kaeding. Evan Suggs began the event by setting fast-time with a clocking of 12.987 around the 1/3 mile clay oval.
Full results from the night are available at http://www.oceanspeedway.com
The Ocean Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo will return to action this coming Friday night May 7 at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway. For more news on the series stay logged to http://www.oceansprints.com