Joey Ancona rockets to Ocean Sprints win Friday night in Watsonville
Watsonville, CA…Making just his second Ocean Speedway start of the season on Friday Night, Clayton’s Joey Ancona raced to his third career Taco Bravo Sprint Car victory, leading all but one lap in the feature.
Fellow winners on Friday evening were Tyler Tucker with the IMCA Sport Mods, Thomas Cumming with the Four Bangers and Bryant Bell with the visiting Western Midget Racing.
The Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo main event began with Fresno traveler Kyle Rasmussen leading the opening night, before Ancona slipped by for the top-spot on lap two.
After that Ancona had his way with things out front, although Rasmussen stayed somewhat close over the duration of the contest. Several cautions slowed the flow, but Ancona hit his marks on every restart.
Ancona eventually crossed under the Ed Entz checkered flag to pick up the win ahead of Rasmussen, Ocean Sprints point leader Caleb Debem of Salinas, Jennifer Osborne from Geyserville and Oakdale’s Brad Dillard.
“We haven’t raced all that much this year, so it feels great to get a victory tonight in Watsonville,” said Ancona. “We have a lot of national races coming up out here, so we really wanted to get some laps before all that occurs. I want to thank my entire family and our sponsors for making it happen.”
The 20-lap IMCA Sport Mod finale featured some solid racing throughout the pack. Reigning Ocean Speedway champion Chuck Golden of Pittsburgh set the early pace up front.
Several drivers fought for position behind him however and kept the crowd on hand intrigued. A lap 15 restart changed the complexion of the race when Delhi driver Tyler Tucker blasted to the outside and grabbed the lead that he would never relinquish.
Tucker went on to score his initial Ocean win over Golden, Jason Ryan Jr., Chris Falkenberg and point leader Emali VanHoff.
The quiet riot Four Banger main event was all about San Jose’s Thomas Cumming, who drove away to earn his fourth victory of the season at Ocean Speedway.
Watsonville’s own Joshua Silva blasted to the lead at the waving and the green flag and held command over the first few circuits. Once Cumming got by though, that was all she wrote, as he crossed under the stripe by over two seconds over Silva, point leader Peter Vannerus, Ken Keegan and Nicole Beardsley.
Bryant Bell of Oakley, Calif. prevailed for his fourth consecutive Ocean Speedway Western Midget Racing win on Friday night, holding off Logan Mitchell of Santa Cruz to take the 20-lap feature.
Weisberg led the first 17-laps on a fast-paced Ocean Speedway fresh after track prep. 2023 champion Bryant Bell of Oakley, San Jose’s Anthony Bruno, and Santa Cruz’ Logan Mitchell hounded Weisberg in a tight formation. All three drivers pursuing Weisberg were previous winners in the WMR series, adding to the pressure of the situation for the second year Midget racer.
Bruno sailed inside of Bell for second in turn three but got sideways, allowing Mitchell to seize third on lap 15.
Weisberg’s bid for his first ever WMR victory ended when his No. 15 Stealth Chassis went up in smoke, setting up a three-lap shootout between Bell and Mitchell.
Bell outfoxed Mitchell over the final three circuits on the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds dirt track for the win, followed by Mitchell, Bruno, Roseville’s Josh Young, and Las Vegas’ Kyle Hawse.
Ocean Speedway returns to action this coming Friday August 2nd with another four-division program. On tap will be the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo, IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks.
Results
Ocean Speedway
July 26, 2024
Ocean Sprints:
- 88A-Joey Ancona[4]; 2. 38N-Kyle Rasmussen[1]; 3. 3D-Caleb Debem[3]; 4. 76-Jennifer Osborne[2]; 5. 72S-Bradley Dillard[7]; 6. OB1-Orval Burke[9]; 7. 36-Kevin Barnes Sr[8]; 8. 9-Adrianna DeMartini[5]; 9. 72W-Kurt Nelson[6]; 10. (DNS) 8-Jeremy Chisum
IMCA Sport Mods:
A Feature 1 20 Laps | 00:11:48.396
- 44T-Tyler Tucker[4]; 2. 3G-Chuck Golden[1]; 3. 52-Jason Ryan Jr[8]; 4. 16M-Chris Falkenberg[11]; 5. 4M-Emali VanHoff[5]; 6. 14H-Matthew Hagio[7]; 7. X-Rob Gallaher[6]; 8. 28E-TJ Etchinson III[13]; 9. 34-Cody Bryan[15]; 10. 54R-Brian Baggett[10]; 11. 39-Steven Allee[3]; 12. 22X-Jim DiGiovanni[2]; 13. 33-Mike Gil[14]; 14. 15-David Crocker[9]; 15. 22W-Charlie Hunter[16]; 16. 42B-Max Baggett[12]
Four Bangers:
- 8-Thomas Cumming[1]; 2. 28J-Joshua Silva[2]; 3. 37-Peter Vannerus[9]; 4. 51-Ken Keegan[8]; 5. 2-Nicole Beardsley[6]; 6. 43-Kate Beardsley[5]; 7. 25-Bill Beardsley[7]; 8. 50F-Shelbie Freeman[3]; 9. 50-Tony Smith[4]
WMR Midgets:
- 09-Bryant Bell[3]; 2. 96X-Logan Mitchell[5]; 3. 9-Anthony Bruno[4]; 4. ONE9-Adrianna DeMartini[7]; 5. 57-Josh Young[11]; 6. 20-Kyle Hawse[6]; 7. 18-Todd Hawse[2]; 8. 15-Adam Weisberg[1]; 9. 68-Marvin Mitchell[8]; 10. 2ND-Terry Nichols[9]; 11. (DQ) 96XX-Nathan Moore[10]
Image courtesy of Top Dawg Photos
- Gary Thomas on Jul 27, 2024
- Article Date: 7/27/2024