News from the Source

Ryan Robinson, Norm Ayers and Tommy Velasquez III claim opening night wins on Key weekend

By Gary Thomas

Watsonville, CA…Foresthill’s Ryan Robinson started from the front row and dominated Friday’s Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo feature en route to victory aboard the family-owned No. 4w mount.

Sharing victory lane on Friday night were Norm Ayers with the Hobby Stocks and So-Cal gasser Tommy Velasquez III with the South Bay Dwarf Cars. Ayers held off the relentless challenges from Adriane Frost to claim the win, while Velasquez easily won the Dwarf Car main event by a half lap.

In the 30-lap Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo main event it was Robinson who started from the front row and had his way with things over much of the contest. An excessive amount of slowdowns were seen early on in the feature, which kept racers from getting into a rhythm. Once things got going however, Robinson pulled away through lapped traffic to claim his first career Ocean triumph.

Castro Valley’s Jake Andreotti put together one of the finest outings of his Ocean Sprints career, bringing home a solid runner up effort at the finish. Aromas throttle masher Justin Sanders rounded out the podium and looks to wrap up the Watsonville title at tonight’s Johnny Key Classic.

Completing the top-10 on Friday were Bud Kaeding, Kurt Nelson, JJ Ringo, Mitchell Faccinto, Dominic Scelzi, Keith Day Jr. and Steven Kent. Two B-mains were held during the night and went to Kaleb Montgomery and Colby Johnson. The evenings Dash was picked off by Day Jr., who earlier in the night set a new all-time Ocean Speedway track record by clocking a 10.715 in qualifying. A total of four heat races were contested with wins going to Kurt Nelson, Jake Andreotti, Zane Blanchard and Bud Kaeding.

A strong field of 39 Sprint Cars were on hand for the “Key Classic Opener.” Action returns later this evening with the 61st running of the Johnny Key Classic. On tap will be the Sprint Car Challenge Tour vs Ocean Sprints, Hobby Stocks and WMR.

Ocean Sprints Friday night A-main finish: 1. 4W-Ryan Robinson[2]; 2. 7P-Jake Andreotti[5]; 3. 17-Justin Sanders[11]; 4. 69-Bud Kaeding[6]; 5. 72W-Kurt Nelson[7]; 6. 2-JJ Ringo[9]; 7. 37-Mitchell Faccinto[10]; 8. 41S-Dominic Scelzi[18]; 9. 22-Keith Day Jr[1]; 10. 7-Steven Kent[15]; 11. 61-Travis Labat[14]; 12. 5-Mark Chaves Jr[13]; 13. 7Z-Zane Blanchard[4]; 14. 50-Bryce Eames[20]; 15. 98-Michael Pombo[19]; 16. 8-Jeremy Chisum[17]; 17. 72JR-Chris Nelson[16]; 18. 5D-Connor Danell[22]; 19. 88A-Joey Ancona[3]; 20. 78-Bret Barney[21]; 21. 38-Colby Johnson[12]; 22. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[8]

B Feature 1 12 Laps

1. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[1]; 2. 41S-Dominic Scelzi[3]; 3. 50-Bryce Eames[5]; 4. 5D-Connor Danell[2]; 5. 4-Burt Foland Jr[4]; 6. 88-Koen Shaw[6]; 7. 94-Greg Decaires V[10]; 8. 6C-Travis Coelho[8]; 9. 12-Jacob Pacheco[7]; 10. 34B-Glenn Bryan[12]; 11. 07-Richard Fajardo[11]; 12. (DNS) 17X-Rickey Sanders

B Feature 2 12 Laps

1. 38-Colby Johnson[1]; 2. 98-Michael Pombo[4]; 3. 78-Bret Barney[6]; 4. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[8]; 5. 72S-Bradley Dillard[7]; 6. 6D-Josh Chisum[11]; 7. 25Z-Jason Chisum[9]; 8. 87P-Jacob Tuttle[10]; 9. 51-Brody Fuson[2]; 10. (DNS) 10-Jessie Attard; 11. (DNS) 3T-Nick Ringo

Dash 1 6 Laps

1. 22-Keith Day Jr[2]; 2. 4W-Ryan Robinson[1]; 3. 88A-Joey Ancona[4]; 4. 7Z-Zane Blanchard[6]; 5. 7P-Jake Andreotti[8]; 6. 69-Bud Kaeding[7]; 7. 72W-Kurt Nelson[5]; 8. 28-Chase Johnson[3]

Heat 1 8 Laps

1. 72W-Kurt Nelson[2]; 2. 22-Keith Day Jr[4]; 3. 5-Mark Chaves Jr[1]; 4. 72JR-Chris Nelson[6]; 5. 50-Bryce Eames[7]; 6. 51-Brody Fuson[5]; 7. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[3]; 8. 12-Jacob Pacheco[8]; 9. 07-Richard Fajardo[10]; 10. 17X-Rickey Sanders[9]

Heat 2 8 Laps

1. 7P-Jake Andreotti[1]; 2. 2-JJ Ringo[3]; 3. 4W-Ryan Robinson[4]; 4. 7-Steven Kent[5]; 5. 4-Burt Foland Jr[6]; 6. 25Z-Jason Chisum[9]; 7. 38-Colby Johnson[2]; 8. 6D-Josh Chisum[10]; 9. 72S-Bradley Dillard[8]; 10. 3T-Nick Ringo[7]

Heat 3 8 Laps

1. 7Z-Zane Blanchard[2]; 2. 28-Chase Johnson[4]; 3. 61-Travis Labat[1]; 4. 37-Mitchell Faccinto[3]; 5. 41S-Dominic Scelzi[5]; 6. 98-Michael Pombo[6]; 7. 88-Koen Shaw[7]; 8. 6C-Travis Coelho[8]; 9. 94-Greg Decaires V[9]; 10. 34B-Glenn Bryan[10]

Heat 4 8 Laps

1. 69-Bud Kaeding[2]; 2. 17-Justin Sanders[3]; 3. 88A-Joey Ancona[4]; 4. 8-Jeremy Chisum[6]; 5. 5D-Connor Danell[1]; 6. 78-Bret Barney[7]; 7. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[8]; 8. 87P-Jacob Tuttle[9]; 9. 10-Jessie Attard[5]

Image courtesy of Devin M Photography

• Gary Thomas on Aug 21, 2021
• Article Date: 8/21/2021