From Steven Blakesley
Watsonville, CA — (May 4, 2013) — After going winless despite dominating all three Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo features this season, Watsonville’s Justin Sanders took advantage of Shane Golobic’s misfortune to take a well-deserved win in round four on Friday night. Sanders led the final seven laps of the 30 lap contest at John Prentice’s Ocean Speedway Watsonville, taking a narrow victory over Tommy Tarlton.
Sanders had led 70 of the first 90 laps of competition heading into Friday’s feature event in Clayton Snow’s #7 entry.
Fremont’s Golobic, the 2012 Ocean Sprints champion, scored the Ray Scheidt’s Electric Fast Time Award and drew a zero invert to start the feature from the pole. Golobic led the 22 car field to green and led throughout the opening 19 lap green flag run.
Sanders and Tarlton worked past outside pole sitter Bud Kaeding on lap three to take second and third respectively. As the leaders made their way into lapped traffic, Tarlton spun in turn three but kept rolling and continued on from seventh.
The caution came out on lap 19 for Morgan Hill’s Nicholas Ringo stalled in turn four, and by that point Golobic had lapped up to eighth place and Tarlton had raced back to fifth.
Golobic restarted with four lapped cars between himself and Sanders. Tarlton used some power moves to move past both points leader Brad Furr and Kaeding to get back into third position.
In just four short laps, Golobic stretched his lead out to a half lap advantage over Sanders. The race unraveled for Golobic in an instant, when he spun while negotiating lapped traffic. Golobic was able to get restarted but the caution handed the lead to Sanders.
With seven laps remaining, Tarlton had to move past several lapped cars to get clear track against Sanders. By lap 26, Tarlton was clear and on the charge. Sanders encountered a batch of traffic with two laps to go, allowing Tarlton to close down on his tail tank.
Coming to the finish, Sanders slipped up the race track and Tarlton dove underneath. Sanders held on for the crowd-pleasing, narrow .136 second victory. Kaeding finished third ahead of Furr and Tarlton’s nephew Carson Macedo of Lemoore. Golobic was only able to work his way back to eighth at the line.
“It’s too bad for Shane. I mean he was so fast,” Sanders said. “But I guess you don’t always have to be the fastest car to win as I have figured that out this year. I wouldn’t have this if it wasn’t for (my car owner Clayton Snow).”
Heat races were won by Hanford’s DJ Netto, Macedo, and Tarlton. Riverdale’s Landon Hurst won the semi. Salinas’ Jeremy Chisum drove from 15th to seventh to win the DDNi Hard Charger.
The Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo return this Friday night, May 10th for the fifth race of their 2013 campaign.
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, Nobel Construction, Get Som Sports, Ray Scheidt’s Electric, Hoosier Tires West, and Kaeding Performance for their support.
May 3, 2013 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo – Watsonville, California
RAY SCHEIDT’S ELECTRIC QUALIFYING: 22 Shane Golobic 11.596
HEAT 1: 88 DJ Netto
HEAT 2: 21x Carson Macedo
HEAT 3: 21 Tommy Tarlton
12 LAP SEMI: 179 Landon Hurst
30 LAP FEATURE: 1) 7 Justin Sanders, 2) 21 Tommy Tarlton, 3) 29 Bud Kaeding, 4) 2 Brad Furr, 5) 21x Carson Macedo, 6) 88n DJ Netto, 7) 8 Jeremy Chisum, 8) 22 Shane Golobic, 9) 88k Koen Shaw, 10) 39 Craig Smith, 11) 72w Kurt Nelson, 12) 98 Ryan Rusconi, 13) 23f Ken Fredenburg, 14) 11 Nick Rescino, Jr., 15) 199 Nick Foster, Jr., 16) 4f Bert Foland, Jr., 17) 25z Jason Chisum, 18) 4x Tim Decarlo, Jr., 19) 179 Landon Hurst, 20) 4 Nathan Washam, 21) 33h Eric Humphries, 22) 3t Nicholas Ringo
LAP LEADERS: 22 Shane Golobic 1-23, 7 Justin Sanders 24-30