WATSONVILLE, Calif. – Justyn Cox earned his first-career Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo win at Ocean Speedway, winning Friday’s action in his first appearance at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds quarter-mile this year.
Cox overcame several challengers including Joey Ancona to get the win.
“It’s awesome to win,” Cox said. “You hate to kind of get gift wrapped it. Joey’s one heck of a young driver. I wish we would have gone green the whole time. It would have been a great race between all of us. I haven’t been up front a lot this year and I had a little rust on how to control a race.”
Caeden Steele won the Dirt.Travel Fast-Time Award, but it was Cox taking the pole for the 30-lap feature after winning the dash.
Outside pole sitter Zane Blanchard soared past Cox on the start, but Brendan Warmerdam had a hard side over side crash into turn one that nullified the pass. Cox restarted back on the pole for a complete restart and took control of the race with Steele advancing past Blanchard for second. Connor Danell flipped in turn four to bring out the red flag again on lap two.
Steele threw a slide job attempt at Cox in turn three on the restart but Cox held the position. Fourth starting Kurt Nelson backpedaled a bit on the restart, while Ancona entered the picture by driving up to third. Colby Copeland was also on the attack, advancing from 11th to fifth by lap six. The leaders encountered lapped traffic for the first time on lap ten. Ancona snookered second from Steele on lap 11 in turn four. Rickey Sanders slid to a stop in turn two for a caution on lap 14.
Ancona used the restart to drive past Cox on the outside and take the lead on lap 15. Steele made a bid to the inside of Cox for second on the backstretch but Cox held it on lap 17. Steele took over the position on lap 18, but it was nullified when Bret Barney stopped in turn two.
Copeland capitalized by taking third from Steele on the restart. Meanwhile Travis Labat advanced from 14th to fifth as well. Ancona faced off with side-by-side lapped traffic which allowed Cox to move in. Cox dove underneath Ancona into turn one on lap 24. Ancona turned under the traffic to follow Cox and was clipped by a spinning lapped car. The contact sent Ancona into a flip down the backstretch which ended his bid for the win.
Justyn Cox paced the final six laps over Copeland, while Labat drove past Steele for third. Dylan Bloomfield rounded out the top-five.
“We just kind of buried ourselves qualifying there,” Copeland said. “The main – the track got way slicker and wider than I thought. Hats off to the track crew. I know they’ve been doing a good job here the last couple of weeks. Looking forward to getting back here in three weeks (for the Howard Kaeding Classic).”
In other action on Friday night, Jonathan Hagio won his third IMCA Sport Modified 20-lap feature of the season.
Jason Lazzerini won his second Four Banger feature of the season.
Joe Gallaher won his seventh Hobby Stock feature after starting at the rear of the field.
The Finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 31C-Justyn Cox[1]; 2. 16A-Colby Copeland[11]; 3. 61-Travis Labat[14]; 4. 121-Caeden Steele[3]; 5. 33-Dylan Bloomfield[8]; 6. 7P-Jake Andreotti[5]; 7. 21X-Gauge Garcia[15]; 8. 7Z-Zane Blanchard[2]; 9. 3T-Nick Ringo[6]; 10. 72W-Kurt Nelson[4]; 11. 37-Steven Kent[18]; 12. 72JR-Chris Nelson[16]; 13. 50-Bryce Eames[10]; 14. 3M-Adam Kaeding[9]; 15. 17-Rickey Sanders[12]; 16. 25Z-Jason Chisum[21]; 17. 72S-Bradley Dillard[19]; 18. 56Z-Don Hart[22]; 19. 88A-Joey Ancona[7]; 20. 78-Bret Barney[13]; 21. 5D-Connor Danell[17]; 22. 75-Brendan Warmerdam[20]; 23. (DNS) 5R-Ryan Rocha