From Ocean Speedway
Watsonville, CA — (May 12, 2012) — 2011 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo champion Ronnie Day of Salinas won Friday night’s feature at Ocean Speedway Watsonville after roaring past Stockton’s Brad Furr on the 20th lap. Day’s win came against a 23 car turnout during the third round for the series.
Day, who also claimed quick-time, made a tremendous comeback from a broken engine in last Friday night’s competition. Day won the first heat race of the night before drawing an eight invert for the 30 lap feature held on a heavy race track.
“It was pretty wild,” Day said. “It was hard to see because there was so much mud. I was going through tear-offs but trying to save as many as I could. We ran Brad (Furr) down and he was a sitting duck in traffic. The guys did a great job. That’s a brand new Gaerte motor and the thing’s awesome and runs hard!”
Young Jake Haulot of Cotati started on the outside front row and led the field out of turn two to take the initial lead over 18 year-old Austin Stone of Visalia. Gilroy’s Kurt Nelson retired early from the race with damage to the right front of his car but the race stayed green.
The first caution of the night was on lap 12 when Jeremy Chisum of Salinas spun while being lapped by Haulot, collecting Haulot and 16 year-old Cole Wood of Auburn. Haulot suffered minor front wing damage but stayed on the gas and maintained the top spot.
Furr swept past Haulot on the restart but the race was red flagged when 15 year-old Dominic Scelzi went upside down in turn four. The Fresno Micro Sprint champion, son of NHRA champion Gary Scelzi, made some new fans when he won his heat race earlier in the evening but his feature was over prematurely.
Furr finally took over the lead on the 13th lap before the caution came out again, this time for Stone making hard right side contact with the turn three wall.
The pace picked up after lap 13 with Day turning up the heat from the cushion. Day leapt to second and began to reel in Furr in traffic. Traffic finally allowed Day to roar past Furr on the top shelf on lap 20.
While Day pulled away from Furr, action was intensifying behind them as 16th starting Shane Golobic and 18th starting Justin Sanders marched through the field. Golobic took over the third position on lap 20 but at that point trailed the top-two by a straightaway.
The race stayed clean and green to the finish allowing Day to take the victory over Furr, Golobic, Haulot, and San Jose’s Ryan Rusconi. “Cowboy” Craig Smith of San Martin successfully held off Sanders for the sixth spot as well.
Golobic won the $100 DDNi Hard Charger award and the Ray Scheidt’s Electric Fast Time award went to Day with a time of 12.014 seconds in qualifying. Heat race wins went to Day, Stone, and Scelzi.
The Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo will return to action next Friday night at Ocean Speedway Watsonville.
For more information on the Ocean Sprint Cars presented by Taco Bravo log onto http://www.oceansprints.com and for more on the Ocean Speedway visit http://www.oceanspeedway.com
Ocean Speedway would like to thank Taco Bravo, Digital Delivery Networks, Get Som Sports, Ray Scheidt’s Electric, Hoosier Tires West, and Kaeding Performance for their support of the 2012 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo.