Day leads field of veterans during latest Ocean running

WATSONVILLE — It was truly a veteran’s night at Ocean Speedway at Watsonville on Friday as track champions Ronnie Day, Tommy Tarlton and Brent Kaeding finished on the podium in the 30-lap Taco Bravo feature.

“It feels good to get three wins. That means I have one more than Tommy,” Day said. “I knew he was close. But the good karma stayed with us.”

Since the inception of the sprint-car series in 2007, Kaeding and Tarlton garnered two titles each along with Day’s first championship last year.

“I felt like a middle-aged racer in a senior sandwich,” a joking Tarlton said about his finish between Day and Kaeding. “It’s not a win, but it’s pretty satisfying to finish on the podium against the best sprint car drivers in the country.”

Still, two teenagers, Shane Golobic and Carson Macdeo, completed the top five in the sprint car feature, showing that age is a state of mind in auto racing. At 16, Macedo, is nearly 40 years younger than Day.

Golobic, from Fremont, is trying to break the string of series championships held by the wily veteran racers. If he does it, the 18-year-year-old challenger would become the youngest champion in the series.

The “Fremont Flyer,” as he’s so aptly named, is the current series point leader despite zero wins this season. His seven top four finishes in seven starts remains on schedule with Day’s consistent run to the championship of last year.

Macedo, Tommy Tarlton’s nephew from Lemoore, finished fifth in the feature. He was among the youngest competitors racing in the series. The young charger pulled off a surprising sideways-sliding four-wheel drift to win the 30-lap feature at Ocean Speedway Chowchilla last Saturday night.

Despite his reputation as a masterful qualifier, Prunedale’s Justin Sanders would have rather had no luck than bad luck. He started the night with a new one-lap qualifying record of 11.404 seconds, beating Evan Suggs’ 11.463 seconds set last July.

Yet Sanders and pole position starter Ryan Rusconi didn’t make it past the first lap, tumbling end over end in front of the main grandstands.

Heat race winners were San Francisco’s Nick Rescino Jr., Fresno’s Koen Shaw and Golobic.



For the complete article see the 06-26-2012 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 06-26-2012 paper.

Share on Facebook