By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – August 23, 2010…Continuing to ride the wave of momentum this past weekend Easton, California’s Tommy Tarlton put together another strong two night’s of racing and was able to extend his current Ocean Sprint Car Series point lead on Friday, before picking up a win at the Giant Chevrolet Speedway on Saturday.
Tarlton went into this past Friday sitting atop the Ocean Sprint Car Series presented by Taco Bravo standings by 13-markers and used a runner up finish to Tim Kaeding in the main event to stretch that advantage out to 20-points, with just four events left in the season.
“It was a pretty good run for us on Friday and was nice to add on some points to our lead since the year is winding down,” said Tarlton after the race. “We had a good battle with Brad Furr for second and got by with about 10-laps left so that was good, but we just didn’t have enough to get Tim. We’re excited to come back for the Key next week to try and defend our win from last year.”
The defending Ocean Speedway 360 sprint car champion kicked off the night on Friday qualifying 11th fastest in the field and then brought home a runner up finish in his heat race to transfer into the main event aboard the Corporate America Lending, Tarlton & Son Inc., Sharp Insurance No. 21 machine.
Tarlton then lined up on the inside of the second row in the 30-lapper and settled into third after a couple laps behind early leader Tim Kaeding and second running Brad Furr. The Easton veteran proceeded to close in on the second position and began to apply pressure on Furr, until finally getting a break in traffic to grab the spot on lap 19. He then tried to move in on Kaeding for the lead, but had to settle for second at the checkered flag.
On Saturday the Tarlton Motorsports team then made the short trip to Hanford’s Giant Chevrolet Kings Speedway for another winged 360 sprint car event and opened the night by setting fast time with a clocking of 13.778 around the 3/8 mile clay oval. After scoring a fourth place finish in the heat race Tarlton eventually led all 30-laps in the main event to score his second victory of the year at the track.
“I definitely have to give a big thanks to my whole crew, my family and all of our sponsors for supporting us this year,” said the driver of the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Ridgeline Framing, Elite Racing Maxim. “It’s great to get sprint car racing back in Hanford and we really hope the track continues to grow and be successful, because it will be awesome to have another quality track down here in the Central Valley.”
Tarlton will now get set for one of the biggest races of the year this coming Saturday night with the 50th running of the Johnny Key Classic at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway. The race will pay $5,000-to-win and features a 50-lap main event that is broken up into a pair of 25-lap segments. Last season Tarlton held off the strong charges of Kyle Larson early in the main event and withstood a late-race fight with Bud Kaeding to claim his first career Johnny Key Classic victory.
Tarlton is also one of six drivers that are already locked into the dash for cash and the feature this weekend, due to his win on July 30. “Winning the Johnny Key Classic last year with the history and prestigious behind it was pretty cool,” Tarlton commented. “We’ve had a strong year so far and winning big races like this is always one of your goals, so we’ll be giving it a strong shot Saturday and hopefully everything falls into place.”
For more on Tommy Tarlton and Tarlton & Son Inc. log onto http://www.tarltonandson.com/