By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA…Reigning Johnny Key Classic winner Gauge Garcia of Lemoore raced to his first Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo victory of the season on Friday night in Watsonville.
Garcia was a rocket ship right from the start of the night aboard the Valley Wound Healing/ Apex Construction No. 28 mount. He set fast time in Ocean Sprints qualifying to begin the evening and then drove to victory in the Gizdich Ranch Dash.
The former Sprint Car Challenge Tour Rookie of the Year jumped into the lead at the waving of the green flag in the 25-lap finale. The main event would go non-stop, and Garcia had his way with things up front, but Redding’s Max Mittry did keep him honest at times.
The top two pulled away from the rest of the field and ran in that formation over the duration of the contest. Garcia got crossed up on the tricky high side a couple of times, which allowed Mittry to close. Garcia fended him off however, to collect the win.
Mittry, Bud Kaeding, Caleb Debem and Jake Haulot rounded out the top five.
The IMCA Modified main event saw Jonathan Hagio set the pace early on, until Jim Pettit II drove by after a restart. Bobby Hogge then climbed into second and began to hound the rear of the leader.
On lap nine the duo was racing nose to tail, which then saw Pettit get turned to bring out a caution. Hogge led the remaining distance to grab the win ahead of Robert Marsh, Cody Burke, Pettit who rebounded nicely, and Josh Combs.
A healthy field of IMCA Sport Mods competed on Friday night with 19 total entries signing in. DJ Keldsen led the opening circuit in the feature, before Trevor Clymens went by the take the point on lap two.
The Sport Mods put on an entertaining main event once again at Ocean Speedway, with cars running high and low. Right around the midway point, Danny Wagner shot to the front and held on for his second checkered flag of the season in Watsonville.
Point leader Bo Crebs, Keldsen, Trevor Clymens and Steven Allee completed the top five.
Logan Mitchell won his second consecutive race at his home speedway when he drove to victory in Friday’s Western Midget Racing main event at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway.
Anthony Bruno of San Jose charged around the outside of Teddy Bivert to take the lead at the start the 20-lap main event. Bruno, the opening night Ventura Raceway winner, accumulated a one-second advantage over the battle between Bivert and Mitchell for second.
Bivert and Mitchell then tracked down Bruno and the trio ran in lockstep. Bivert rolled the middle of the track and got into the back of Bruno, sending them both for a spin on lap nine in turn one.
Mitchell acquired the lead as a result and dominated the final 11 laps for his fourth-career Ocean Speedway win. Bivert used the high side to charge back to second, followed by Santa Clarita’s Adam Weisberg, Bruno, and Fremont’s Nathan Moore.
Joshua Silva led every lap in the Four Banger finale but was a DQ in post-race tech, which handed the win to TJ Santos.
The Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo will now have some time off, before resuming things on Friday June 13th.
Ocean Speedway in Watsonville returns this coming Friday May 16th with the NARC 410 Sprint Car Series making its first appearance of the season. The evening of action is billed as “First Responders Night at the Races.”
Results
Ocean Speedway
May 9, 2025
Ocean Sprints:
1. 28-Gauge Garcia[1]; 2. 2XM-Max Mittry[2]; 3. 29-Bud Kaeding[6]; 4. 3D-Caleb Debem[5]; 5. 7H-Jake Haulot[4]; 6. 25S-Seth Standley[3]; 7. 88-Austin Torgerson[11]; 8. 3-Cole Schroeder[7]; 9. 72W-Kurt Nelson[8]; 10. 76-Jennifer Osborne[10]; 11. 25Z-Jason Chisum[9]
IMCA Mods:
1. 2-Bobby Hogge[6]; 2. 22-Robert Marsh[5]; 3. 20-Cody Burke[4]; 4. 6-Jim Pettit II[3]; 5. ONE2-Josh Combs[7]; 6. 72-Mike Szlauko[8]; 7. 22S-Cole Szlauko[11]; 8. 7-Katelyn Robertson[2]; 9. 3-Todd Hermosillo[9]; 10. 46-Kyle Bryan[10]; 11. 46N-Jonathan Hagio[1]
IMCA Sport Mods:
1. 11D-Danny Wagner[8]; 2. 168-Bo Crebs[10]; 3. 01-DJ Keldsen[1]; 4. 2C-Trevor Clymens[3]; 5. 39-Steven Allee[7]; 6. 30H-Orion Messina[11]; 7. 47-Clay Daly[14]; 8. 19C-Tommy Clymens[4]; 9. 7T-Trent Golden[6]; 10. 96M-Jim DiGiovanni[15]; 11. 32-Jeff Bentancourt[13]; 12. 15-David Crocker[16]; 13. 89-Duane Bieser[19]; 14. 3-Connor Solis[17]; 15. 4M-Emali VanHoff[5]; 16. X-Rob Gallaher[9]; 17. 42B-Max Baggett[2]; 18. 22W-Charlie Hunter[18]; 19. 03-Matthew Pwtorak[12]
WMR:
1. 96X-Logan Mitchell[3]; 2. 11-Teddy Bivert[1]; 3. 15-Adam Weisberg[4]; 4. 09-Anthony Bruno[2]; 5. 25JR-Nathan Moore[9]; 6. 2ND-Terry Nichols[5]; 7. 9-Rayce Edward[6]; 8. 68-Marvin Mitchell[7]; 9. (DNS) 7A-Kevin Felkins
Four Bangers:
1. 14-TJ Santos[1]; 2. 33-Jonathan Welborn[12]; 3. 43-Kate Beardsley[5]; 4. 519-Steve Roach[7]; 5. 50f Shelbie Freeman