By Steven Blakesley
WATSONVILLE, CALIFORNIA (March 29, 2025) – Lincoln’s Tanner Carrick earned his seventh career Ocean Speedway victory but his first without a wing, as Carrick prevailed in the 30-lap inaugural Watsonville appearance for the Ultimate Sprint Car Series on Friday night. The USCS were the first non-wing series to compete at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds dirt track since 2018 as part of a busy opening night.
The race’s pivotal moment came when Carrick and El Cajon’s Braden Chiaramonte collided on the backstretch on lap 17, ending Chiaramonte’s evening. Carrick charged back into the lead on lap 23 and never relinquished it for the coveted win.
“He got me earlier in the night and tries to do it again and runs me up against the backstretch wall. What are we doing? If you want to run me over, I’m just going to run you over back. If you watched the rest of the race, me and (Cole Wakim) ran each other very clean there,” Carrick said. “I knew (the outside) was there, I just had to get some heat in the tires. I was ice skating for a few laps on every restart. We’ve been super fast all year long. We needed a win there. Opening nights here seem to treat us very well here the last few years.”
2024 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo champion Caleb Debem of Salinas led the 19-car field to green with Chiaramonte and Carrick in pursuit. Chiaramonte took the lead around the outside in turn four on lap nine. Carrick tried to follow suit but Debem held the position in an excellent battle. Lapped traffic brought the battle for second back together, with Carrick nabbing the spot on lap 15.
Carrick then sized up Chiaramonte and threw a slide job from deep in the front stretch into turn one. Chiaramonte turned underneath him. The pair touched – Chiaramonte right rear to Carrick left front, before the caution flew for Gilroy’s Chris Nelson spinning in turn four. Under yellow, Chiaramonte came to a stop with surprising front-end damage that ended his event.
Debem was placed in the lead for the restart ahead of Cole Wakim of Simi Valley. Debem spun from the lead on lap 20, requiring assistance to get refired. That thrust Wakim into the top spot, but Carrick used the outside in turn four to drive past him on lap 23. A caution on lap 27 set up a three-lap shootout but Carrick held court. Tanner Carrick won the Ocean Speedway season opener over Wakim, Oregon’s Blaine Cory, Ryan Timmons of Pleasant Hill, and Brent Sexton of Lakeside. Camarillo’s Ricky Lewis led qualifying group one and established a USCS 410/360 Sprint Car standard at Ocean Speedway with a 12.569-second lap.
Cody Burke of Salinas drove from the eighth starting position to win the season opening 25-lap IMCA Modified feature. Robert Marsh of Salinas fended off some tough customers for the first half of the event. A caution for both cars carrying No. 46 – Jonathan Hagio and Kyle Bryan each in separate spins, set up the key restart for Burke. Burke drove inside Marsh on the backstretch to take the lead on lap 15. Bobby Hogge followed him into second as well. Hogge hounded Burke to no avail over the final ten laps. Burke earned the victory over Hogge, Marsh, Bakersfield’s Robby Sawyer, and Prunedale’s Jim Pettit II.
Baypoint’s Danny Wagner took home the win in the 20-lap IMCA Sport Modified main event from a scheduled ninth starting position. Cody Bryan, Matthew Frazier, and Rob Gallaher each took turns at the lead over the first four laps. Four-wide action in lapped traffic saw Wagner close on Gallaher. Gallaher held the outside line to lead lap 15 by a nose before Wagner cleared him in traffic to lead lap 16. Wagner led the final two laps after a restart to top Gallaher, Bo Crebs, Frazier, and Trevor Clymens.
An outstanding field of Hobby Stocks from all over California competed with Nicholas Johnson of Bakersfield dominating for the 20-lap feature win. Johnson led all 20-laps with Cody Johnson winning a back-and-forth battle with Madera’s Lance Hurst for second. Ryan Hart and Chad Johnson rounded out the top-five.
Kenny Stragalinos of Boulder Creek won the 15-lap Four Banger main event. A brief side-by-side tussle with Tony Gullo of Watsonville entertained over the first three laps of competition. Stragalinos led the rest of the event followed by heat race winner Joshua Silva of Watsonville, Gullo, heat race winner TJ Santos of Gilroy, and Amaya Flower.
Ocean Speedway returns to action on Friday night April 4 for the first of five appearances by the prestigious NARC King of the West 410 Sprint Cars. More information available at www.OceanSpeedway.com
Ocean Speedway Opening Night March 28, 2025 – Race Results
IMCA Modifieds A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 20-Cody Burke[8]; 2. 2-Bobby Hogge[9]; 3. 22-Robert Marsh[1]; 4. X-Robby Sawyer[11]; 5. 6-Jim Pettit II[4]; 6. 15F-Markus Frazier[6]; 7. 91-Anthony Copeland[10]; 8. 28T-Matt Kampfraat[2]; 9. 46-Kyle Bryan[3]; 10. 55H-Mickey Hill[12]; 11. 46N-Jonathan Hagio[7]; 12. 7-Katelyn Robertson[5]
IMCA Sport Mods A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 11D-Danny Wagner[9]; 2. X-Rob Gallaher[6]; 3. 168-Bo Crebs[5]; 4. 15F-Matthew Frazier[3]; 5. 2C-Trevor Clymens[8]; 6. 33G-Gavin Espino[12]; 7. 22X-Jim DiGiovanni[10]; 8. 15-David Crocker[2]; 9. 22W-Charlie Hunter[14]; 10. 34-Cody Bryan[1]; 11. 39-Steven Allee[7]; 12. 8-Thomas Cumming[17]; 13. 96M-Paul Mulder[16]; 14. 89-Duane Bieser[15]; 15. 4M-Emali VanHoff[11]; 16. 47-Chris Mayer[13]; 17. (DNS) 7T-Trent Golden
Hobby Stocks A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 1N-Nicholas Johnson[2]; 2. 26S-Cody Johnson[3]; 3. 10H-Lance Hurst[5]; 4. 38-Ryan Hart[8]; 5. 11-Chad Johnson[6]; 6. 22-Adriane Frost[14]; 7. 51-Norm Ayers[7]; 8. X1-Bobby Gallaher[1]; 9. 117-Lilly Mead[17]; 10. 03-Cody Keldsen[9]; 11. X4-Rob Gallaher[13]; 12. 73B-Brady Muller[15]; 13. 8-Wayne Reeder[12]; 14. 9-Wally Kennedy[10]; 15. 55H-Hunter Hammett[4]; 16. 1-Joe Gallaher[16]; 17. (DNS) 7X-Nic Teixeira
Four Bangers A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 720-Kenny Stragalinos[1]; 2. 28J-Joshua Silva[4]; 3. 52-Tony Gullo[2]; 4. 14-TJ Santos[3]; 5. 10-Amaya Flower[5]; 6. 51-Ken Keegan[6]; 7. 112-Travis VanGilder[7]; 8. 43-Kate Beardsley[8]; 9. 27-David Dupuis[10]; 10. 50F-Shelbie Freeman[9]; 11. 2-Nicole Beardsley[11]; 12. 25-Bill Beardsley[13]; 13. 117-Cody Method[12]
Ultimate Sprint Car Series A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 83T-Tanner Carrick[5]; 2. 86-Cole Wakim[4]; 3. 5K-Blaine Cory[10]; 4. 29T-Ryan Timmons[8]; 5. 44-Brent Sexton[7]; 6. 3D-Caleb Debem[1]; 7. 87P-Jacob Tuttle[6]; 8. 33-Heath Holdsclaw[9]; 9. 63D-Jon DeWees[12]; 10. 9C-Chris Wakim[14]; 11. 12-Adam Christian[13]; 12. 72JR-Chris Nelson[11]; 13. 31P-Eathon Lanfri[17]; 14. 72-Jeff Shelton[19]; 15. 18-Josh Gillis[16]; 16. 29C-Camie Bell[15]; 17. 73B-Braden Chiaramonte[2]; 18. 41-Ricky Lewis[3]; 19. 99T-Tanner Boul[18]