PETERSEN MEDIA
Continuing to put himself in position to capture his first win of the 2013, Steven Tiner came oh-so-close again last weekend as he scored a second place finish at the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, CA before charging to a fourth place finish at the Placerville Speedway on Saturday night.
“It is great that we have been running so well the past month, but second is really getting frustrating,” Tiner said with a smile. “We want to be winning, but we are fortunate that we aren’t tearing up equipment, and are right ‘there’ on a nightly basis.”
Piloting the Western Metal No. 37 on Friday night, Tiner jumpstarted his night by timing in seventh fastest, on a tacky, hooked up surface.
Starting on the front row of his heat race, the Visalia, CA driver lost a drag-race into turn one to Kurt Nelson, and wound up going on to score a second place finish, putting him in the feature event where he lined up in the second row.
When the green dropped, Tiner settled into the fourth spot, as he chased after the lead trio or Shane Golobic, Kurt Nelson, and Justin Sanders.
With Golobic getting knocked out on the ninth lap, Tiner moved up to third as he stalked Sanders, as the track was very tough to pass on.
On the 20th lap, Sanders was able to move to the lead, and Tiner was able to make work of Nelson a lap later, to move into the second spot, and looked for an opening to sneak past for the lead.
On this night Sanders was too good, and Tiner scored a second place finish.
“Justin Sanders did a good job, and he was better than us tonight,” Tiner said. “The track was pretty tough to pass on, and if you made a mistake, you seemed to get past, and we were good, but he just beat us to the front.”
Saturday night, Tiner was back aboard his own STR No. 94 at the Placerville Speedway in Placerville, CA.
Putting his KPC Chassis back together, Tiner got over the cushion in time-trials, and would up timing his BR Motorsports/King Racing Products/Elma Lanes machine in 16th fastest, putting him in the second row of his heat race.
Charging to a second place finish in his heat, Tiner earned a spot in the feature event, though he found himself deep in the field, as he lined up in the 14th spot.
Continuing to show speed after a disastrous qualifying effort, Tiner worked all over the Placerville Speedway to get up into the third spot late in the feature, chasing after Mason Moore and Andy Forsberg.
With an opening at the bottom of the speedway in turns one and two, Tiner looked to get under Moore, but he made contact with the infamous drain at the bottom of the speedway, and had a left front tire go down.
Though it altered the handling of his machine a touch, Tiner opted to stay on the track, as he ended up recording a fourth place finish.
“We had a great car in the feature event, I just messed up in time-trials, and that set us a back a ton,” he said. “We were getting up to the second spot, but got over that drain, and cut down our left front, and lost a couple spots toward the end of the night. Overall it was pretty good night after how bad it started.”
Steven and his Steven Tiner Racing team would like to thank BR Motorsports, King Racing Products, Elma Lanes, Larry Davis Farms, Wright Process Systems, Harvest Supply, Powder Coat-It, SRP, Wilwood, FSR, Dan Olson Race Products, Sander Engineering, Sweet Manufacturing, Good Ridge, Schoenfeld, Western Metal Company, and Roseville Precision for their support in 2013.
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Races-33, Wins-0, Top 5’s-18, Top 10’s-22
ON TAP: Tiner will be in action on Saturday night for the Johnny Key Classic at the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, CA.