TULARE, California — With the USAC National Sprint Car Series competing at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway for the first time it was an Indiana driver that showed the fast way around on Sunday night as Jamestown's Jon Stanbrough utilized his outside front row starting spot to dominate all 40-laps of the feature during the 30th Pacific Coast Nationals and score the $12,500 top prize.
The 40-lap finale of the Pacific Coast Nationals lined-up with Orange's Henry Clarke and Stanbrough sharing the front row and it saw Stanbrough quickly jump into the lead at the waving of Willie Williams' green flag. Moving into second early on was Phoenix, Arizona's Chad Boat, who was the lone driver to seemingly be able to even give the fast moving Stanbrough a slight challenge. The first stoppage of the race was a red flag on lap seven that involved Elk Grove's Kyle Larson and Ventura's Cory Kruseman.
The night as a whole featured numerous spins and flips, but the main event ran relatively incident free as the final slow down of the feature was on lap 10 when Visalia's Gregg Bragg got upside down in the second corner. When the green lights came back on Stanbrough continued to sit out front with no worries, although Boat closed in at one point, it didn't last for long as the driver of the Indiana Underground No. 37x sprinter ran the bottom side of the 1/3 mile clay oval to perfection and easily pulled away from the rest of the field.
The most excitement in the main event was the battle for the second, third and fourth positions as Boat, Concord's Damion Gardner and Campbell's Bud Kaeding ran different lines on the raceway trying to push their way forward. Gardner moved into third on lap 20, but would lose the spot to Kaeding on lap 33. The now three-time USAC Silver Crown Series champion ran the high scary side all the way around the Thunderbowl Raceway and closed in on Boat, but ran out of time as the laps clicked off very quickly.
When the checkered flag was unveiled Stanbrough crossed under it with plenty of breathing room to score his first career Thunderbowl win during his very first weekend of racing at the track. Boat charged under the stripe in second with Kaeding, Gardner and Indiana driver Bryan Clauson completing the top-five. Rounding out the top-10 in the Pacific Coast Nationals main event were Clarke, Tucson, Arizona's Jerry Coons Jr., Indiana's Tracy Hines, Riverside's David Cardey and Grass Valley, CA native Brad Sweet. Olney, Illinois' Levi Jones, who wrapped up the 2009 USAC National Sprint Car title on Sunday night, finished the feature in 12th.
Saturday's opener of the Pacific Coast Nationals featured a lightning fast race track and saw Clauson break the 410 wingless track record in qualifying with a blazing fast clocking of 14.646. The main event on Saturday saw Manhattan Beach's Garrett Hansen hold off the challenges of Kruseman, USAC/CRA point leader Mike Spencer of Temecula, Levi Jones and Clauson to score his first ever USAC National Sprint Car win.
On behalf of all involved with the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway we would like to thank everyone for making 2009 another successful year and would like to wish everyone a happy and safe off-season and look forward to seeing all in 2010.
Full results from the 30th Pacific Coast Nationals can be found at http://www.thunderbowlraceway.com
