By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA…The man known as the “Bullring Bullet” around these parts, Justin Sanders, made the move by Shane Golobic on lap 17 and walked away from the pack to record his fifth NARC King of the West 410 Sprint Car triumph of the season.
Dating back to last year Sanders, the 2024 NARC champion and current point leader, has claimed five of the last six series events held at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds quarter mile.
Sharing victory lane on Grad Night during Friday’s program were Alexander Mead with the R&J Landscaping Hobby Stocks and Anthony Bruno with Western Midget Racing.
In the 30-lap NARC KWS Hoosier Tires feature it was two-time Watsonville Speedway track champion Shane Golobic motoring to the lead. The 34-year-old veteran cut his teeth in Winged Sprint Car racing at the track and had an exceptional night going.
Early on it was San Jose’s Tim Kaeding keeping pace with the leader, while Justin Sanders stalked the top two in lapped traffic. The action was fast and furious through the slower cars until a caution period waved on lap 11.
After the restart Sanders was clearly the fastest car on the track, as he found the high side to his liking aboard the Mittry Construction No. 2x mount. He would grab second on lap 13 and then come after the leader.
Sanders applied pressure to Golobic, before claiming the lead with 17 circuits completed. Following that he had his way with things up front and went on to cross under the Ed Entz checkered flag.
Golobic finished in the runner up spot followed by Dominic Gorden, Tim Kaeding and Landon Brooks in the top five. The remainder of the top 10 was filled out by Jett Barnes, Joey Ancona, Kaleb Montgomery, Bud Kaeding and Sean Becker.
Golobic captured the HD Titanium Dash while Sanders brought home Kaeding Performance heat one, with Shane Golobic claiming BMRS heat two and Dominic Gorden winning the Hills Meat Company final heat.
Tim Kaeding got down to track record territory in ARP Qualifying but just missed out on it with a blistering lap of 10.627 around the bullring to set fast time.
For the first time ever the R&J Landscaping Hobby Stocks raced in the opposite direction on Friday night. Multiple different leaders and some intense racing was seen during the feature.
It turned out to be a lengthy contest however, as several drives had issues of some sort. Alexander Mead was one of the competitors who had an issue early but came back and marched through the field to pick up the win.
Mead took over the lead with just three laps left in the shortened main event. Dennis Keldsen, Jamie Magana, Joe Gallaher and Norm Ayers rounded out the top five.
The Western Midget Racing finale saw a good close race up front between Anthony Bruno and defending champion Logan Mitchell. Mitchell hounded the leader all race long and pulled even on the final lap, but Bruno held tough and captured victory. Mitchell, Nicholas Leonard Jr, Nathan Moore and Issac Johnson followed him across the line.
Watsonville Speedway returns to action this coming Friday June 5th for the Joe Brechel Memorial Race. NARC 410 is back at it next Saturday June 6th with the David Tarter Memorial at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway.
Results
Ocean Speedway
Class of 2026 Senior Night
May 29, 2026
NARC King of the West 410 Sprint Cars:
1. 2X-Justin Sanders[3]; 2. 17W-Shane Golobic[1]; 3. 10-Dominic Gorden[6]; 4. 0-Tim Kaeding[2]; 5. 21L-Landon Brooks[9]; 6. 14M-Jett Barnes[4]; 7. 88A-Joey Ancona[5]; 8. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[7]; 9. 29-Bud Kaeding[12]; 10. 7B-Sean Becker[13]; 11. 73B-Braden Chiaramonte[11]; 12. 88N-DJ Netto[10]; 13. 26-Billy Aton[14]; 14. 41-Dominic Scelzi[23]; 15. 12-Jarrett Soares[16]; 16. X1-Chance Grasty[8]; 17. 4-Burt Foland Jr[18]; 18. 34B-Glenn Bryan[22]; 19. 14-Mariah Ede[17]; 20. 21-Caeden Steele[21]; 21. 61-Travis Labat[19]; 22. 2K-Jake Andreotti[15]; 23. 551-Angelique Bell[20]
R&J Landscaping Hobby Stocks:
1. 8-Alexander Mead[5]; 2. 01-Dennis Keldsen[7]; 3. 44-Jamie Magana[9]; 4. 1-Joe Gallaher[1]; 5. 51-Norm Ayers[6]; 6. 511-Elizabeth Geary[10]; 7. X2-William Gallaher[8]; 8. 88-Ryan Bowers[2]; 9. 22-Adriane Frost[4]; 10. 16-Lilly Mead[3]
Western Midget Racing:
1. 9-Anthony Bruno[2]; 2. 96X-Logan Mitchell[1]; 3. 09-Nicholas Leonard Jr[4]; 4. 25JR-Nathan Moore[3]; 5. 4R-Issac Johnson[6]; 6. 4-Glen Bryan[7]; 7. 7D-Dalton Wright[9]; 8. 35-Justin Stretch[5]; 9. 68-Marvin Mitchell[8]
Watsonville Speedway is located on the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville, California with the physical address being 2601 East Lake Ave, Watsonville, CA 95076.
Info can be found at www.watsonvillespeedway.com or by liking the track on Facebook by searching Watsonville Speedway.