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Young Dominic Gorden is a first-time Sprint Car winner at Ocean Speedway

Dominic Gorden snags first career Sprint Car victory at Ocean Speedway Friday night

By Gary Thomas

Watsonville, CA…They always say first wins are the sweetest and for young Dominic Gorden on Friday night at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, that was certainly the case.

The Clovis, CA resident started from the pole in the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo main event and held a hungry cast of racers at bay over the course of the 30-lapper, recording his initial Winged 360 triumph. Sharing victory lane on Friday were Rob Gallagher with the Hobby Stocks, first-time winner in the Four Banger division TJ Santos, and reigning Police n Pursuit champion Roy Iler.

“This feels pretty amazing right now to get my first Sprint Car win at Ocean Speedway,” stated an exuberant Gordon on the front stretch. “My crew chief Richard Brown and my guys gave me a great car all night, but I knew that I had to be almost perfect in the main event with people like Bud Kaeding behind me. I’m glad we were able to pull it off. This is one I’ll remember for a long time.”

Gordon quickly jumped out to the lead in the Ocean Sprints finale and held command in impressive fashion running the bottom to perfection. Campbell’s Bud Kaeding worked different lines in the feature as he tried everything to get by the youngster. Going into the evening Gordon had made less than 10 career Winged Sprint Car starts, but you could hardly tell on this night. Kaeding had a few looks but couldn’t quite pull off the pass on each occasion.

As the race wound down Kaleb Montgomery hopped by Kaeding to take over second on lap 23, which set up a tremendous battle between the pair over a few laps. Gordon drove off with no worries to accept the checkered flag over Montgomery and Oakley’s Dylan Bloomfield. It was an especially strong run for Bloomfield, who made several great passes, including one of Kaeding with just a couple laps remaining.

Kaeding and 11th starting Justin Sanders completed the top-five. Sanders looked strong over the final half of the feature as he rode the high-side by numerous cars.

Rounding out the top-10 in the feature were Caeden Steele, Rickey Sanders, Ashton Torgerson, Mitchell Faccinto and Jayson Bright. A total of 25 cars competed during round two of the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo campaign. Kaleb Montgomery began the evening by setting fast time with a lap of 11.565.

Ocean Sprints A-main results: 1. 10-Dominic Gorden[1]; 2. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[5]; 3. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[4]; 4. 69-Bud Kaeding[2]; 5. 2X-Justin Sanders[11]; 6. 121X-Caeden Steele[6]; 7. 121-Rickey Sanders[3]; 8. 02-Ashton Torgerson[8]; 9. 22-Mitchell Faccinto[7]; 10. 68-Jayson Bright[12]; 11. 25Z-Jason Chisum[14]; 12. 7P-Jake Andreotti[10]; 13. 72S-Bradley Dillard[17]; 14. 72W-Kurt Nelson[15]; 15. 3D-Caleb Debem[19]; 16. 34B-Glenn Bryan[22]; 17. 88-Austin Torgerson[16]; 18. 83T-Tanner Carrick[9]; 19. 72JR-Chris Nelson[13]; 20. 07-Richard Fajardo[18]; 21. 98-Vince Giannotta[23]; 22. 56Z-Don Hart[21]; 23. 8-Jeremy Chisum[20]

Dash 6 Laps

1. 10-Dominic Gorden[1]; 2. 69-Bud Kaeding[3]; 3. 121-Rickey Sanders[2]; 4. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[5]; 5. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[6]; 6. 121X-Caeden Steele[4]

Heat 1 8 Laps

1. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[4]; 2. 7P-Jake Andreotti[1]; 3. 2X-Justin Sanders[5]; 4. 25Z-Jason Chisum[6]; 5. 72S-Bradley Dillard[7]; 6. 07-Richard Fajardo[8]; 7. 28-Chase Johnson[3]; 8. (DNS) 21X-Gauge Garcia; 9. (DNS) 98-Vince Giannotta

Heat 2 8 Laps

1. 121-Rickey Sanders[1]; 2. 02-Ashton Torgerson[2]; 3. 69-Bud Kaeding[3]; 4. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[4]; 5. 72W-Kurt Nelson[6]; 6. 68-Jayson Bright[5]; 7. 3D-Caleb Debem[7]; 8. 56Z-Don Hart[8]

Heat 3 8 Laps

1. 10-Dominic Gorden[1]; 2. 22-Mitchell Faccinto[3]; 3. 83T-Tanner Carrick[2]; 4. 121X-Caeden Steele[4]; 5. 72JR-Chris Nelson[5]; 6. 88-Austin Torgerson[6]; 7. 8-Jeremy Chisum[7]; 8. 34B-Glenn Bryan[8]

Qualifying

1. 3-Kaleb Montgomery, 00:11.565[17]; 2. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield, 00:11.572[21]; 3. 121X-Caeden Steele, 00:11.573[4]; 4. 28-Chase Johnson, 00:11.588[5]; 5. 69-Bud Kaeding, 00:11.593[19]; 6. 22-Mitchell Faccinto, 00:11.688[14]; 7. 21X-Gauge Garcia, 00:11.689[18]; 8. 02-Ashton Torgerson, 00:11.734[1]; 9. 83T-Tanner Carrick, 00:11.758[2]; 10. 7P-Jake Andreotti, 00:11.793[6]; 11. 121-Rickey Sanders, 00:11.797[15]; 12. 10-Dominic Gorden, 00:11.869[13]; 13. 2X-Justin Sanders, 00:11.939[20]; 14. 68-Jayson Bright, 00:11.982[16]; 15. 72JR-Chris Nelson, 00:12.005[9]; 16. 25Z-Jason Chisum, 00:12.049[8]; 17. 72W-Kurt Nelson, 00:12.060[12]; 18. 88-Austin Torgerson, 00:12.110[11]; 19. 72S-Bradley Dillard, 00:12.235[10]; 20. 3D-Caleb Debem, 00:12.311[22]; 21. 8-Jeremy Chisum, 00:12.328[24]; 22. 07-Richard Fajardo, 00:12.412[3]; 23. 56Z-Don Hart, 00:12.795[25]; 24. 34B-Glenn Bryan, 00:12.795[7]; 25. 98-Vince Giannotta, 00:12.795[23]

For the second consecutive week the Hobby Stocks provided several thrills during their 20-lap main event. Early on it was all about reigning Ocean Speedway champion Joe Gallagher who blasted out front in his beautiful No. 1 machine. The 2022 season was a dream for the elder Gallagher after picking off 10 victories at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds bullring.

Rob Gallagher soon found his muscle however, carving his way by a very fast Shane Freeman into second on lap seven. Once in the runner up spot though he had quite the gap to close between himself and Joe. With the race wearing on he methodically reeled in the leader and hounded his rear bumper for a few laps, before charging past on lap 15. After that Rob pulled away en route to claiming the checkered flag over Joe G, DJ Keldsen, Sam Kennedy and Freeman.

Hobby Stocks results: 1. X-Rob Gallaher[9]; 2. 1-Joe Gallaher[1]; 3. 01-DJ Keldsen[7]; 4. 57-Sam Kennedy[8]; 5. 55F-Shane Freeman[2]; 6. 73R-Ryan Muller[5]; 7. X1-Bobby Gallaher[6]; 8. 3OG-Dan Fassler[4]; 9. 03-Dakota Keldsen[3]

Friday turned out to a night of firsts as young TJ Santos also raced to his initial victory in the Four Banger main event. The 15-lap contest showcased an excellent race up front between early leader Richard Mitchell and Santos, who ran side by side on several occasions. Mitchell’s hopes of victory were shattered on lap 12 however, as he slowed to bring out the caution.

Opening week winner Jason Lazzerini had moved through the field big time up to this point and found himself in second for the final restart. Lazzerini stayed with the leader, but Santos hit his marks and crossed the stripe for his first ever Four Banger win. Lazzerini, who was running ninth on lap five, Kate Beardsley, Amaya Flowers and Peter Vannerus rounded out the top-five.

Four Banger results: 1. 14-TJ Santos[1]; 2. 0-Jason Lazzerini[12]; 3. 43-Kate Beardsley[6]; 4. 10-Amaya Flowers[3]; 5. 37-Peter Vannerus[4]; 6. 51-Ken Keegan[13]; 7. 2-Nicole Beardsley[8]; 8. 25-Bill Beardsley[10]; 9. 27-Patrick Kelley[7]; 10. 810-Matt Hill[11]; 11. 112-Travis VanGilder[14]; 12. 66-Richard Mitchell[2]; 13. 52-Tony Gullo[5]; 14. 333-Sarah Ayers[15]; 15. 5-Charlie Cole[9]

The Police n Pursuit main event was all about last year’s titlist Roy Iler who picked up the victory with ease. Terre Rothweiler debuted a brand new Winged car and ran second, followed by Jackie Yeung, AJ Waltrip and Kevin Elliot.

Police n Pursuit results: 1. 805-Roy Iler[2]; 2. 45-Terre Rothweiler[4]; 3. 520-Jackie Yeung[7]; 4. 14-AJ Waltrip[1]; 5. 36-Kevin Elliott[5]; 6. 01-Ben Standon[3]; 7. 134-Pat Sullivan[8]; 8. 214-Scott Morasci[6]; 9. K9-Jerry Ogg[9]

The Ocean Speedway returns to action this coming Friday May 5th with the Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo, IMCA Modifieds, Hobby Stocks and Four Bangers.

Image courtesy of Top Dawg Photos

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