WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Tanner Carrick withstood an onslaught of restarts and challengers to triumph in the curtain raiser for the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo, Friday night at Ocean Speedway.
Carrick prevailed in a 30-lap contest as part of a five-division program at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds.
Dominic Gorden led time trials as the only car dipping into the 10-second lap times driving car No. 10. Penngrove’s Chase Johnson then won the dash to earn the pole for the 30-lap feature.
Johnson sprinted ahead and led the field into lapped traffic quickly. Johnson spun on the exit of turns one and two in traffic, however, for the first caution on lap seven – surrendering the lead to Carrick.
Carrick and Gorden ran side-by-side on the restart with Carrick narrowly edging Gorden to lead lap nine. Carrick solidly had the top spot in hand by lap 10. The red flag flew that same lap for Vince Giannotta flipping in turn two. When action resumed, Johnson marched through the pack. His march came to an early end when he flipped in turn two for a red flag on lap 14.
Caeden Steele tried to seize second from Gorden on the restart using the bottom line. A series of incidents slowed the action including fifth running Seth Standley of Yuba City crashing on the front stretch.
Gorden retook second from Steele from the outside line, then used a lap 21 restart to approach Carrick. Gorden nearly nabbed the lead but fell short. Carrick darted to victory over the final nine circuits. Gorden settled for second followed by Steele, Kurt Nelson and Nick Parker.
Veteran Bobby Hogge topped the IMCA modified main event and Buddy Kniss won the sportmod feature.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 83T-Tanner Carrick[2]; 2. 10-Dominic Gorden[3]; 3. 121-Caeden Steele[4]; 4. 72W-Kurt Nelson[17]; 5. 115-Nick Parker[7]; 6. 17-Rickey Sanders[8]; 7. 28X-Gauge Garcia[9]; 8. 61-Travis Labat[15]; 9. 3D-Caleb Debem[6]; 10. 29-Bud Kaeding[10]; 11. 72S-Bradley Dillard[13]; 12. 9-Adrianna DeMartini[12]; 13. OB1-Orville Burke[14]; 14. 25S-Seth Standley[5]; 15. 28-Chase Johnson[1]; 16. 25Z-Jason Chisum[11]; 17. 72JR-Chris Nelson[16]; 18. 98-Vince Giannotta[18]
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