Joey Tanner earned his second win of the year Saturday night in Warriors of Dirt Fastrack Dirt Late model series at Madras Speedway in Madras, Oregon, The track where young Tanner began his racing career at the age of 13 and won his first stockcar championship at age 14 in the street stock division. It was a hot July Saturday in the desert in Madras and after finishing second in his qualifying heat race Tanner was set to start in the 7th position for the 40 lap Independence Cup. The start of the race showed Tanner conserving his equipment and tires and by lap 10 a wreck on the front stretch between Mike Keely and Bob Trout brought out the first yellow of the race. On the restart the field lined back up in a California restart and Tanner was on the inside of the third row. By lap 15 Tanner was now in third when the second caution flew for a spin in turn three by rookie Brittany Ray. The next restart had young Tanner started third and after 2 laps of hard fought side by side racing Tanner was able to pass Steve Moore and series point leader Jason Wines for the lead. After capturing the lead on lap 18 the young son of west coast mainstay Jody Tanner never looked back winning by a marginal half a lap and conquering his second win in 3 races in the new west coast dirt late model series.
After the race young Tanner was asked how it felt to win and doing it at the track he began his career at: “ It was awesome, it has been almost 3 years since I ran Madras and it was a great feeling to be able to win in front of the fan’s and driver’s I grew up around”.
The win puts Joey Tanner 3rd in the overall standings for the Warriors of Dirt and when asked about his championship hopes Tanner replied: “It sure is going to be a large hill to climb to catch Wines and Ferrando but hopefully the bad luck is behind us and winning 2 out of the last 3 races is a confidence booster for the team and I, now we can really make a run at this championship.
Tanner drove his best race of the year dominating the last 22 laps by a marginal half a lap after starting 7th.Tanner also took home the hardware, $100 bonus and a new Goodyear tire for the Warriors of Dirt hard charger award improving 7 positions.
Joey Tanner would also like to thank his father and car owner Jody Tanner and crew members Steve Moore, Dave and Ronny Wilburn, Daniel Hartung, and Tim Patrick. Tanner got the job done in the Jody’s nothing but fun, ABC restaurant repair, driving force graphics, Xtreme motor sports, Action Jackson’s Rayburn Monte Carlo. For more information on Joey Tanner please visit www.joeytanner.com and for series information please visit www.warriorsofdirt.com.
