WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Ryan Robinson won his first Taco Bravo 360 Sprint Car Series feature Friday night at Ocean Speedway, driving the family-owned car normally driven by his sister Jodi.
The siblings joined each other on the car’s top wing in the frontstretch victory lane celebration.
Jake Andreotti scored his best Ocean Speedway finish when he captured the second spot followed by series points leader Justin Sanders. Bud Kaeding and Kurt Nelson rounded out the top five.
Trophy Dash winner Keith Day Jr started on the pole alongside of Robinson. Day, who started the day as the track record holder, saw his record broken twice in qualifying. Mitchell Faccinto was the first car to lower Day’s record as he was the 18th car to take a time trial.
His record did not stand long as the very next car, Joey Ancona, lowered the track record. When Day took time as the 28th car to make an attempt, he regained the track record with a lap of 10.715 seconds around the quarter-mile track.
Day jumped to the lead at the start, but the race would only go two laps before the race would be stopped for a Colby Johnson flip in the fourth turn.
On the restart Robinson would make a pass on Day in the fourth turn. The race quickly developed into a Robinson/Day battle until a caution would come out on the 10th circuit for a Michael Pombo spin. On the restart, the fourth-place-running Joey Ancona would tag the first turn cushion and do a half twist flip.
The second-place-running Day had a problem getting loose in the first turn and would spin into the infield, kept going, but caused a caution putting him to the rear of the field.
On the restart, Jeremy Chisum caught the first turn cushion and sent him sailing upside down towards the second turn outer wall. At the same time the red flag was put out, Connor Danell got upside down in the second turn.
On the restart, pulled away with ease leaving Sanders to get around Nelson for third.
The finish:
Ryan Robinson, Jake Andreotti, Justin Sanders, Bud Kaeding, Kurt Nelxon, J.J. Ringo, Mitchell Faccinto, Keith Day Jr., Steven Kent, Travis Labat, Mark Chaves Jr., Zane Blanchard, Bryce Eames, Michael Pombo, Jeremy Chisum, Chris Nelson, Connor Danell, Joey Ancona, Bret Barney, Colby Johnson, Kaleb Montgomery