By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – May 17, 2016…With three different winners in the first three races of 2016 the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo will look to make it four-for-four this Friday evening at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway.
The show on Friday will also be the only Sprint Car event running in California and is the final night of racing before the Ocean Sprints get a couple weekends off. Following this Friday’s round the Winged 360 Sprints won’t compete in Watsonville again until Friday June 10. Along with our track regulars a few added entrants are expected to tackle the quarter-mile this week.
Last week it was 2015 Ocean Sprints champion Justin Sanders claiming his first Taco Bravo 360 win of the year, leading the final 25-laps in the feature. The Watsonville based driver will return this Friday hoping to make it back-to-back wins. The 23-year-old set a record last season by winning nine times with the Ocean Sprints.
The other two races so far this year have been captured by two-time Ocean Sprints champion Shane Golobic of Fremont and young upstart Buddy Kofoid from Penngrove. After his opening night victory on April 15 Golobic has finished runner up the past two events. He’ll be looking to get back into victory lane on Friday. Kofoid scored his first career win at the track on April 29 and is coming off a fourth place finish last week.
Easton’s Tommy Tarlton has shown lots of speed the last two events and will be one of the drivers looking to breakthrough this week. Tarlton, a two-time Ocean Sprints champ, finished third last Friday after battling with Golobic late in the race. Gilroy’s Kurt Nelson was also solid overall last week. The Taco Bravo flagship driver won the dash and ran up front, until getting into a couple incidents that left him with a further back finish than he would have wanted.
Reigning Johnny Key Classic winner Andy Forsberg has this Friday night on his schedule. The Auburn driver dominated last year’s Key Classic and ended the season by wrapping up his eighth Civil War Sprint Car Series title. Forsberg has had a strong start to the 2016 campaign as well, with four wins to his credit.
More drivers expected Friday will include Stockton’s Brad Furr, Hollister’s Tony Gualda, Salinas’ Jason & Jeremy Chisum, Fresno’s Koen & Kyler Shaw, Fremont’s Dustin Golobic, Cottonwood’s Lucas Ashe, Oakdale’s Shawn Conde, Corralitos’ Jerry Bonnema, San Jose’s Craig Frandsen & Darrell Taylor, Fresno’s Anthony Simone, Hayward’s Danny Malfatti and others.
Weekly award winners from round three included: Ray Scheidts Electric Fast Time: Tommy Tarlton, High Five Pizza Hard Charger: Jason Chisum, Beer Optics Hard Luck: Kurt Nelson
The front gate at Ocean Speedway will open at 4:30pm this Friday night with hot laps at 5:30pm, qualifying around 6pm and racing to follow. The pit gate will open at 2pm. Friday’s event also features the IMCA Sport Mods, American Stocks & Dwarf Cars.
All seating will be general admission with adult tickets $17, seniors 65 & older $16, children 6-12 $13 and kids five and under free. A family pack featuring two adults and two kids is available for $55. The Ocean Speedway is located on the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville, California with the physical address being 2601 East Lake Ave, Watsonville, CA 95076.
The Ocean Sprints & Ocean Speedway is held under the management of Prentice Motorsports Group, which also operates the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series, the Civil War 360 Sprint Car Series presented by Flowmaster, the Wingless Sprint Car Series presented by Hunt Magnetos & the All Star Modified Tour.
The Ocean Sprints would like to thank Taco Bravo, High Five Pizza, Ray Scheidts Electric, Beer Optics, Hoosier Tires West, Flowmaster, Budweiser and Kaeding Performance for their support. For more information on the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo log onto www.racepmg.com