HANFORD, Calif. — Over the last few years, when he hasn’t been competing with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars, Carson Macedo has made a habit of returning home to California and winning.
That trend continued Saturday night at Keller Auto Speedway.
Back in April of 2019, Macedo won a Kings of Thunder 360 event at Keller Auto Speedway. The next year, he claimed the inaugural Tom Tarlton Classic in Hanford. And just last November following the Outlaw season’s conclusion, Macedo collected a 360 victory at Thunderbowl Raceway, a mere 20 minutes from Hanford.
Last night, instead of relaxing on an off weekend after the World of Outlaw races were rained out, the Lemoore, Calif., native hopped in the Tarlton Motorsports No. 21x and snagged another home state victory with the Kings of Thunder 410 sprint cars to help kick off Nor-Cal’s sprint car season.
The victory marked his sixth straight top-two finish at his home track across 410 and 360 sprint car action, and his average finish over that span improved to 1.3.
“It wasn’t easy,” Macedo said. “The track was definitely physically demanding and turned out to be a really good race track.”
Kerry Madsen, who was making his debut in the Roth Motorsports entry, and Macedo led the field to the green flag. A quick red flag waved, as Corey Day and Steven Kent made contact on the frontstretch, sending Kent on a wild ride and ending both of their nights.
On the restart, Madsen edged ahead entering turn one and slid in front of Macedo exiting turn two. Carrying momentum down the backstretch, Macedo powered to Madsen’s inside heading into turn three and completed a slide job to lead the opening circuit.
A yellow flag flew on the second lap for Joel Myers Jr. who spun and stopped in turn four.
Once racing resumed Madsen began a steady hunt of Macedo. The Roth Motorsports pilot methodically worked the low line while Macedo ripped the top around the entire three-eighths-mile.
“We actually got two lanes, I felt like, that were pretty equal in (turns) three and four,” Macedo explained. “And then (turns) one and two I felt like it was just so hard to hit the bottom consistently because of the holes getting into turn one, so I sort of just committed to the top.”
Madsen pounced on lap 14 when Macedo shifted his line in turns three and four to the bottom but slid up slightly out of the groove and left an opening. The Australian sneaked by Macedo and led the lap.
With a slower car in front of the lead duo, Macedo was able to snatch the lead back on the next circuit when Madsen got tripped up diving below the lapped car. Macedo made a daring move, roaring around the cushion and passing both Madsen and the lapped car out of turn two.
The move ultimately proved to be the winning pass as Macedo found his rhythm running the top in turns one and two and the bottom in turns three and four, not making anymore mistakes around the tricky lower groove.
Macedo went on to win by a healthy three-second margin and also gave new Tarlton Motorsports crew chief, Drew Warner, a victory in his debut with the team.
“Anytime I can come back and run the 21 car out west at Hanford in front of hometown fans and all you guys here it’s pretty special,” Macedo said.
Madsen finished second in his maiden voyage in the No. 83.
“It was a great run,” Madsen said. “Great opening night for us, for me and Roth Motorsports. I want to thank Dennis and Theresa (Roth) and Todd (Ventura), and Paul (Baines) gave me a great car all night.”
Shane Golobic, who won the night’s 360 sprint car feature, finished third.
“I wanted to make that happen again,” Golobic said. “Those guys made good moves in traffic, and I just wasn’t able to capitalize on it. There just weren’t as many cars out there as I probably needed to create more.”
The finish:
- 21x Carson Macedo 2. 83 Kerry Madsen 3. 17w Shane Golobic 4. 2x Justin Sanders 5. 41 Dominic Scelzi 6. 21 Mitchell Faccinto 7. 88 Austin McCarl 8. 3 Kaleb Montgomery 9. 91r Brody Roa 10. 83v Joel Myers Jr. 11. 2k J.J. Ringo 12. 16a Colby Copeland 13. 37 Steven Kent 14. 14 Corey Day