PETERSEN MEDIA
Tanner Holmes and the Tarlton Motorsports didn’t quit despite having a tough first two nights of the Trophy Cup. Not sitting where they wanted in points, they focused on racing into the show on Saturday night, and after transferring through the ‘B’, Holmes went toe to toe with Levi Hillier and Spencer Bayston to claim the Saturday night feature event victory.
“It was a bit of a tough first two nights for our race team,” Tanner Holmes said. “We qualified really well, but we just didn’t quite have the Trophy Cup luck we needed to race to the front so, our points just weren’t there.”
Lining up in the second row of his Saturday night heat race aboard the Tarlton and Son Inc./American Rock and Rent/Executive Auto Sales backed No. 21 entry, Holmes worked his way to a third-place finish.
Still not in the Top 18 for event points, Holmes lined up in the second row of the ‘B’, with six transfers into the feature event up for grabs. Racing his way to a second-place finish, the Jacksonville, OR driver was locked into the 50-lap feature event where he took the green flag from the outside of the second row.
On the slick feature event surface, Holmes worked his way into third in the opening laps, and then was into second on the ninth lap when the earlier leader ran into issues.
Slipping back on the ensuing restart as he chased after Levi Hillier, Holmes fell back to sixth on the 11th lap but was able to get back up on the thick cushion that had built up and back into fourth on the 13th lap, before moving back into third on lap 16.
Racing back into second just before the race’s halfway point, Holmes closed in on Hillier as they raced hard and reached the back of the field.
Getting into the race lead on the 27th lap, the red flew and allowed teams to re fuel and make adjustments for the final half of the race.
Nailing the restart and powering his way away from the field, Holmes set a strong pace though, behind him Spencer Bayston was reeling him in.
On the 46th lap, Bayston was able to driver around Holmes in traffic and drop him back to second, but Holmes didn’t go away. Continuing to battle, Holmes returned the favor on the 49th lap and went on to pick up the popular feature event win.
“When I saw Bayston get by, I knew it had to push it harder with time running out,” Holmes said. “Luckily I was able to pace him, and then coming to the white a hole opened up and I was able to capitalize and get the Tarlton Motorsports another win in Tulare, CA. A huge thanks to everyone on our team for all of their hard work as well as to the Tarlton family for their continued support.”
Tarlton Motorsports would like to thank Tarlton and Son Inc., American Rock and Rent, Executive Auto Sales, Durst, Tarlton Estate and Asset Management, Bandy and Associates, FK Shocks, FK Rod Ends, Willwood Brakes, Vortex Wings, and High Performance Lubricants for their support.
BY THE NUMBERS: Races: 25, Wins: 4, Top 5’s: 9, Top 10’s: 13
ON TAP: Tarlton Motorsports and Tanner Holmes are set to return to action for the NARC finale on November 1st in Stockton, CA.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Tarlton Motorsports by following @Tarlton_Racing on Twitter, or becoming a fan on facebook at www.facebook.com/tarltonracing21.