PETERSEN MEDIA
Making his season debut at the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, CA on Friday night, Tommy Tarlton made a late race charge and came up just short of the win, as he settled for a second place finish.
“We had a great racecar, and were right there for the win,” Tarlton said. “Driver made a mistake early, but the car was there, and I had a blast.”
The Easton, CA driver started his Friday night off by timing his Corporate Lending America/Tachi Palace and Casino/Tarlton and Son entry in with the third fastest lap, putting him in the second row of his heat.
As luck would have it, the front row of his heat jumped the start, so Tarlton found himself on the front row, and went on to pick up a very convincing win.
With the ‘0’ invert pill being pulled for the 30-lap feature event, Tarlton lined his Bandy and Associates/Pro Signs/BG Lubricants backed machine up in the second row.
Running in the third spot early in the feature, ‘the terminator’ nearly lost the handle of his machine, but was able to save it, though he lost several spots, and dropped back to eighth.
Back in eighth, Tarlton was hard on the loud pedal, as he was the fastest car on the track and clawed his way up to the third spot, behind Shane Golobic and Justin Sanders with just eight laps to go.
On the 23rd lap, Golobic spun out of the lead, and Tommy sat behind two lapped on the restart.
Sanders got a great jump and pulled to nearly a straightaway lead over Tarlton, but he finally cleared them, and did his best to track down Sanders.
Coming out of turn four, Tarlton nearly pulled off the last lap heroics, but came up just short of the win, and crossed the stripe in the second spot.
“I wish we would have had a clean shot on Sanders during that final restart, because I think we would have had something for him,” he said. “My guys did great, and our car is awesome right now.”
Tarlton Racing would like to thank Corporate Lending America, Tachi Palace and Casino, Tarlton and Son, Bandy and Associates, Pro Signs, BG Lubricants, All Star Performance and Astro Titanium for their continued support.
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Races-5, Wins-0, Top 5’s-5, Top 10’s-5
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Tommy by visiting www.tommytarlton.com or follow @Tarlton_Racing on Twitter.