Watsonville, CA. (Aug. 4) -- The Golden State Challenge series entered its final weekend of the season at Watsonville on Friday with the opening night of a two night effort at the tacky 1/4 mile oval. A surprising 27 car field appeared but Brian Coelho had everyone's number in a flag to flag win over the 30 lap distance. It is never easy at Watsonville, however, and Coelho was hounded the entire distance by Tom Tarlton but was able to withstand the pressure of both Tarlton and several restarts to record the win.
A packed house witnessed the first testing of Watsonville's famed surface this year by sprint cars and responded with appreciation with Ronnie Day's fast time effort of 11.630 with Kevin Pylant, Bud Kaeding, Eric Rossi, and Coelho filling in the top five spots in timing chores. The Golden State format for a car count of this size is three heats of ten laps with an invert four, take four to the main agenda.
All three heats were won from the outside front row starting spot and wins were collected by Tarlton, Mike Faria, and Jonathan Allard. The top four finishing positions came from the first two rows with the lone exception of Daniel Hood's 4th place heat finish from row three. Minden, NV's late arriving Doug Lippincot flipped in heat three but was able to restart sans his front wing. Brent Kaeding won the straight up B main which transferred an additiional eight to create a 20 car field for their 30 lap main. Steve Osborne flipped several times in the B main in a turn 3 skirmish and emerged unscathed from his adventure.
An inversion draw is used in Golden State events and the six pulled put Tarlton and Coelho in row one, Rossi and Bud Kaeding in row two, and Pylant alongside current GSC points leader Day in row three. The scorer's chart show Coelho led all 30 with Tarlton in 2nd, but that redundant reading doesn't convey how tough a win it was for Coelho. Between the six yellows and three reds which slowed the pace, Tarlton was never more than a car length in arrears until the last restart with two laps to run when he was able to stretch his lead. The top two had a race of their own while 3rd through 5th was heavily contested the entire distance.
Rossi claimed the final podium spot for 20 laps until Bud Kaeding outsped Rossi down the backstretch to allow the younger Kaeding to claim 3rd for the remainder of the race. Suffering a lackluster qualifying time, Brent Kaeding started 13th and fought his way into the top 5 by lap 20 and move one more spot forward two laps later to finish fourth. When Rossi wandered high in turn two on lap 29, Pylant was able to secure the 5th place finish.
The red flag appeared three times during the main event with contact between Greg Yannazzo and Jerry Bonnema causing the latter driver to roll his car upon to its side. A backstretch skirmish saw Gary Ferravant Sr. flip hard after a lap 16 restart, and Craig Smith flipped in turn 3 to create the final red flag period with two laps left. All drivers emerged from their aerobatics uninjured.
The second day of this event, labeled the Fogburner Nationals, will be Saturday when the GSC sprint cars will run without any support division in their final point race of the season.
fast time--Ronnie Day 11.630
heat one--Tom Tarlton, Damion Gardner, Day, Eric Rossi, Brent Kaeding
heat two--Mike Faria, Jim Skinner, Brian Coelho, Kevin Pylant, Gary Ferravanti Sr.
heat three--Jonathan Allard, Bud Kaeding, Craig Smith, Daniel Hood, Jeff Botelho
B main--Brent Kaeding, Gary Ferravanti Sr., Wayne Williams, Jerry Bonnema, Wayne Katen, Greg Yannazzo, Gary Ferravanti Jr., Doug Lippincott, Bob Maiwald, Tim Barci
A main--Coelho, Tarlton, Bud Kaeding, Brent Kaeding, Kevin Pylant, Eric
Rossi, Jonathan Allard, Ronnie Day
