PETERSEN MEDIA- Though he came up just a little bit short on winning his fifth Pombo-Sargent Classic, Tommy Tarlton thrilled the Hanford, CA crowd as he charged through the field from his 17th starting spot to pick up a fourth place finish in what was a non-stop 30-lap feature event.
“Our night started out terrible with some mechanical issues, but Paul Baines and my guys worked through it, and we were awesome in the feature event,” Tarlton said.
Fighting through some issues during their hot lap time, Tarlton timed his Elite Landscape Construction/Tarlton and Son/Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino machine in 18th fastest, putting himself in a bit of an early hole.
Finishing sixth in his heat race, Tarlton went on to win the ‘B’ Main event from his third starting spot, putting him in the feature event, where he lined up in the ninth row.
The only yellow of the race was on the initial start for a spun car, and when the action went live, Tarlton was extremely strong on the slicked off surface.
In just four-laps, Tarlton had worked himself up to the ninth spot, as he was able to work the bottom to near perfection.
Once in ninth, it took him a few laps to chase down Evan Suggs, to take over the eight spot on the sixth lap, and with seventh running Sean Becker a little ways in front of him, Tarlton used it to his advantage as he got off the bottom to see if he liked any other lines.
On the 15th lap, Tarlton caught Becker and another pack of cars that were in traffic, and after a torrid battle, he took the seventh spot on the 23rd lap, and then was able to get past Bud Kaeding as well to get into the sixth spot.
On the 24th lap, Tarlton used a bold move down the back stretch to crack the top-five as he passed Brent Kaeding, and on the 26th lap, he got by Dominc Scelzi to take the fourth spot, and began reeling in third running Cory Eliason, but the Easton, CA driver ran out of laps.
“That was fun,” he said. “I saw the 00x car in front of us and was trying to get on the podium, but we are happy with fourth. My wife and kids were with me in the pits, and it means a lot to me to have them around and enjoying this too.”
Friday night, Tommy and his team were in action at the Ocean Speedway, and Tarlton had a very good night.
Timing in fourth fastest, Tarlton would transfer through his heat and earn a spot in the redraw, where he pulled the vaunted eight pill.
Starting in the fourth row, Tarlton had his elbows up on the choppy track as he was able to surge his way to the front.
Getting into the second spot, Tarlton took the white flag and made a move on Brad Furr in the first pair of turns to take the lead, coming to the checkered, a car wrecked behind him and Tarlton took the yellow instead of the checkered, and they reverted back a lap, negating his pass.
The last restart saw Tarlton give Furr everything he could handle, but he would end up in the second spot.
“It was a tough call, but I think it was the right call,” he said. “We would have loved to grab the win, but we have been really good the last few weeks, and hopefully we can keep it going.”
Tarlton Racing would like to thank Elite Landscape Construction, Tarlton and Son, Inc., Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino, Pabco Gypsum, WFO Apparel, Bandy and Associates, All Star Performance, Corporate America Investments, and BG Lubricants for their support through the 2014 season.
ON TAP: Tarlton will be back in action on Friday June 20th at the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, CA with the King of the West Series.
2014 BY THE NUMBERS: Races-6, Wins-1, Top 5’s-4, Top 10’s-4
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Tommy by visiting
www.tommytarlton.com, follow @Tarlton_Racing on Twitter, or become a fan on facebook at www.facebook.com/tarltonracing21.
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