From Steve Blakesley
Watsonville, CA — (September 22, 2012) — Brad Furr made his first career Ocean Sprints feature win a big one, leading all 30 laps and taking a narrow victory in Friday night’s feature at Ocean Speedway Watonsville. Furr won after a thrilling race-long duel with Tommy Tarlton. Furr, in the Ray Scheidt’s Electric #2 entry, now finds himself in position to challenge Fremont’s Shane Golobic for the championship with just two points races to go.
“It feels really good man; I really thought I was going to give it away a couple of times. I could see the cameras going off and I could hear him,” Furr said. “You know I’ve been wanting to win a race and dedicate it to my mother so I’m really happy to do that finally. I’ve let one or two go this year and I really want to thank my dad for all of his support over the years.”
Lemoore’s Carson Macedo was originally slated to start on the pole alongside San Jose’s Ryan Rusconi. A series of first lap incidents saw Macedo and Rusconi set back to the second row., allowing Furr to take the green from the pole position.
Furr drove away from Tarlton on the initial restart but the race was stopped for Rusconi and Fresno’s Dominic Scelzi tangling in turn four, sending Scelzi up on his side. Neither driver was able to continue on in the feature.
During the red flag period as many as seven cars went to the work area for various problems marking a big change-up in the running order. When the race finally got going the battle was between Macedo and Golobic for the third position in a back-and-forth duel that eventually included 2012 Placerville Speedway champion Andy Forsberg as well.
The three cars went at it for third in an entertaining race before a red flag on lap 14 for Salinas’ Jeremy Chisum going upside down in turn two from sixth place. On the restart, Orval Zane Burke, Jr. rode over San Jose’s Michael Twitchell, with Twitchell stalling in turn two to stop the race again.
Tarlton started making his presence felt as he raced aggressively on the cushion behind Furr for the next six laps with Forsberg and Golobic in close pursuit as well. The closely wound racing in lapped traffic took a break when Salinas’ Carter Train stopped in turn two on lap 21.
Furr had a strong restart to pull away by several car lengths but eventually Tarlton reeled him in to again pursue the lead from the cushion. Forsberg successively fought off several cross over attempts by Golobic to maintain third when the caution came out for the final time on lap 27 for rookie Tomas Bray spinning.
The three lap shootout to the finish turned out to be one of the best races this season, with Tarlton working the cushion and Furr running down low. The pair ran side-by-side over the final three laps in dramatic fashion with Furr pulling off the narrow victory at the stripe to the approval of the fans. Forsberg finished third ahead of Golobic and Macedo.
“I’ve been racing next to Brad for at least 15-20 years,” Tarlton said. “He could have crashed me three times there but he chose to race me clean. I hope you fans enjoyed that because I had a great time!”
Forsberg was satisfied with his third place effort despite limited appearances at Ocean.
“It was really good and we’re in one piece so that’s half the battle. I come down here really sporadically so it’s hard to know what the track’s going to do. Coming from the fourth row we got rolling on the bottom good but I knew we were in trouble because we were a little too loose.”
The DDNi Hard Charger award went to Morgan Hill’s Nicholas Ringo, who finished ninth after starting 21st. The Ray Scheidt’s Electric Fast Time went to Shane Golobic after he topped the 23 car turnout with an 11.695 lap around the speedway. Heat race wins were claimed by Forsberg, Scelzi, and Jerry Bonnema of Corralitos.
The Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo have two races remaining with events on October 5 and October 12 at John Prentice’s Ocean Speedway. For more information on the Ocean Sprints 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.
September 21, 2012 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo – Watsonville, California
RAY SCHEIDT’S ELECTRIC QUALIFYING: 9j Shane Golobic 11.695
HEAT 1: 92 Andy Forsberg
HEAT 2: 41 Dominic Scelzi
HEAT 3: 58 Jerry Bonnema
30 LAP FEATURE: 1) 2 Brad Furr, 2) 21 Tommy Tarlton, 3) 92 Andy Forsberg, 4) 9j Shane Golobic, 5) 21x Carson Macedo, 6) 72w Kurt Nelson, 7) 58 Jerry Bonnema, 8) 88k Koen Shaw, 9) 3t Nicholas Ringo, 10) 2x Carter Train, 11) 8 Jeremy Chisum, 12) 99x Chris Martin, 13) 23 Tomas Bray, 14) OB1 Orval Zane Burke, Jr., 15) 4s Nick Ringo, Jr., 16) 99 Wayne Katen, 17) 37 Michael Twitchell, 18) 21s Dave Stover, 19) 11 Nick Rescino, Jr., 20) 39 Craig Smith, 21) 41 Dominic Scelzi, 22) 98 Ryan Rusconi
LAP LEADERS: 2 Brad Furr 1-30