(Photo courtesy L&J Photography)
Tarlton Sweeps the Night Again as he Storms to His 4th Victory of the Season
By Gary Costa
Watsonville, CA – (June 4, 2010) --- The weather was hot in Watsonville last Friday, but Easton’s Tommy Tarlton made things even hotter as he scorched the competition during the evening’s festivities at Ocean Speedway by going on to claim his second clean sweep of the year. Tarlton also swept the Golden State Challenge 410 Series event at Santa Maria Speedway on May 1, and he also drove to victory the previous night in the Taco Bravo Series on April 30, en route to sweep the entire racing weekend. With his victory, he has also become the only repeat winner this season in the Ocean Sprint Car Series.
Looking back on Tarlton’s 2009 campaign, he had scored two wins with the Ocean Sprint Car Series by the end of June. Tarlton then went on a tear, winning two more races and he did not finish out of the Top-5 during the rest of his season on the way to claiming the title. In addition, the defending Ocean Sprint Car champion also swept the 49th Annual Johnny Key Classic. Tarlton is hitting his stride, and that’s not good news for the competition.
Crew chief Paul Baines had the car fast right out of the box. Tarlton pulverized the ¼-mile dirt oval in hot laps, and proceeded to turn in the fastest lap aboard the Corporate America Lending, Tarlton & Son, Inc No. 21. Tommy showed that his speed in hot laps was no fluke, and proceeded to back it up by laying down his third quick-time in the series this season. Tommy tripped the timing lights at 11.751 seconds. Tommy and Anthony Simone put on a show for the fans in their eight-lap heat race, with Tommy getting the victory. His heat race win would now set him up for his “sweep”.
With six cars being inverted in the 30-lap feature, Tarlton would start from the six position. When the green lights flashed on around the speedway, the gloves would come off and the fight was on. With two nice grooves being available for racing action, Tarlton was able to position himself into the top three, and he began to stalk the race leaders. After moving into second, Tommy and Peter Murphy would begin to duke it out. The two raced hard, but clean and both drivers began to negotiate heavy lapped traffic. Entering turns three and four on the twentieth go around, a lapped car would slow Murphy just enough for Tarlton to slip by. That’s all that Tommy needed as he was gone, never challenged, and romped his way to his fourth victory of the season. Tommy was able to extend his points lead by eighteen points over Hall of Fame driver, Brent Kaeding who sits in second.
“We love this facility, the promoter (John Prentice) here is awesome. I haven’t been very happy with myself, we’ve been getting to the front but not winning them. Paul and I have had some long conversations about that, and I owe all of my racing success to him,” a jubilant Tarlton said from victory lane. “I need to thank all of my sponsors, the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, who has been with us forever and Corporate America Lending, who is new on board with us this year and we’re real happy to have them with us, Sharp Insurance & Bonding and obviously Tarlton & Son. I’m just happy to be out here and having fun with all of you fans!”
Witness the last six-laps of Tommy’s incredible drive and his heartfelt victory lane interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LB0E1kdvpk video courtesy Bruce Velo.
The Tarlton Motorsports hauler will head north to Skagit Speedway to compete in the prestigious Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup June 17-19. Be sure to catch “Team Tarlton” on Facebook!
Special thanks to: Corporate American Lending, the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Ridgeline Framing, Shark Racing Engines, Matt & Glass, M & S Motorsports, Sharp Insurance, Elite Racing, BG Products, Pro Signs, King Racing Products, Kaeding Performance, Pro Shocks, Sander Engineering, Astro Titanium, Simpson, BR Motorsports, Willwood, and Brown & Miller Racing Solutions.
- Gary Costa on Jun 08, 2010
- Article Date: 6/8/2010