WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Justin Sanders won the 30-lap Taco Bravo 360 Series sprint car feature at Ocean Speedway on Friday night.
The Aromas, Calif., chauffeur led from flag to flag, picking up his sixth victory of the season at the quarter-mile Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds oval and his 14th winged sprint car win overall this year.
Zane Blanchard scored his best ever Ocean Speedway finish, when he finished second, holding off numerous challenges from Bud Kaeding. Mitchell Faccinto finished, fourth just ahead of D.J. Netto.Â
Both Faccinto and Netto recovered from issues prior to the feature event. Faccinto clipped the backstretch wall during his qualifying attempt, damaging the rear axle. With help from several different teams, the Stan Greenberg Motorsport crew changed the complete rear end in time to answer the first heat call. Faccinto would finish third in his heat, locking him into the feature.
Netto was not as fortunate as he went three wide coming out of the second turn in the same first heat and got hit from behind, sending him over on his wing necessitating a red flag stoppage.Â
The Netto crew then spent their time replacing both wings, a front axle and rear nerf bar. They were forced to start 16th in the Main and methodically worked his way into the top five. Both Faccinto and Mitchel Moles were also involved with Faccinto suffering a bent top wing and the Moles car received excessive damage and would finish last.
Sanders quickly took the lead coming out of the second turn and would lead until the checkered fell. He would have to survive several caution flag periods, the first occurred on lap 11 when Nick Ringo went high on the back stretch and was forced across the track resulting in a big scramble involving Mark Chaves Jr. and a luckless Moles.Â
Moles would go to the work area, but failed to answer the restart. During the caution, third place running Myers Jr. and fourth place Joey Ancona also pitted with Myers being able to rejoin the field.
Blanchard would challenge and eventually pass Day Jr to take the second spot just before the halfway point. The caution would come out on lap 17 when Geoffrey Grimm spun high in the second turn. J.J. Ringo who was running fourth got a terrible restart, moving both Kaeding and Faccinto into the top five.
With five laps to go, Sanders was working heavy lapped traffic but a second place running Day would bring out the caution when he spun in the fourth turn.Â
Shortly after the restart, Day would spin again in almost the exact spot as his first spin. Day’s car had suffered a part failure and he was pushed back to the pits, ending his race.
With Sanders clearly out front, eyes were on the great battle for second between Blanchard and Kaeding, with the Hanford youth beating out the wile master Kaeding.
The finish:
Justin Sanders, Zane Blanchard, Bud Kaeding, Mitchell Faccinto, D.J. Netto, J.J. Ringo, Travis Labat, Kurt Nelson, Joel Myers, Jeremy Chisum, Bryce Eames, Mark Chaves, Jr., Adam Kaeding, Ashlyn Rodriguez, Richard Fajardo, Burt Foland, Jr., Geoffrey Grimm, Keith Day Jr., Nick Ringo, Joey Ancona, Tristan Guardino, Mitchel Moles