(7/14/18 Petaluma, CA – Jim Allen) … Shane Golobic picked off his third King of the West-NARC sprint car victory of the season with an impressive green-to-checkered run in Saturday’s 30-lap Fujitsu feature event at Petaluma Speedway Saturday night.
Golobic, aboard the potent Tachi Palace-sponsored Tarlton Motorsports KPC, survived six caution flags and the late race advances of Bud Kaeding in heavy traffic to secure the $3000 win.
Golobic caught a break on the initial start after Kyle Hirst took the initial lead, but the red came out for a massive six-car melee on the backstretch, calling for a complete restart. The cars of Marcus Dumesny and Colby Copeland got upside down and reeled in Dustin Golobic, Jarrett Soares, and Willie Croft before it was over. Surprisingly, nobody was hurt and after frantic work by several pit crews, only the car of Dumesny was unable to continue.
On the restart, Golobic changed his strategy and took no chances as he powered out to a big lead, chased by Hirst, Kaeding and Chase Johnson. Kaeding motored under Hirst in the third corner on the ninth lap to secure second and a hardcharging Tanner Thorson powered from ninth to third on the 12th circuit.
In the waning laps, Kaeding began to gain on the leader as the pair maneuvered in and out of slower cars in a high speed game of cat and mouse. Kaeding made a last ditch effort to take the point and managed to get his nose under Golobic in the fourth corner with the white flag waving, but was unable to make it stick.
“I wasn’t expecting Kaeding to be that close,” admitted Golobic after scoring his 10 KWS-NARC victory of his career by just two-car lengths. “I made a couple of mistakes in traffic and knew I needed to get going to win this thing. It wouldn’t have been possible without a great car prepared by Paul Baines and the entire Tarlton team.”
Kaeding, who set the standard for the field in qualifying, ended up scoring second in the Williams Motorsports Alviso Rock Maxim, Thorson filled out the podium driving Clyde Lamar’s Tri-C/Amsoil Spike chassis.
Series point leader Hirst locked down fourth place in the Roth Motorsports KPC, chased by the Safecraft Safety Equipment Maxim driven by Chase Johnson.
The second five to cross the checkered were Copeland, Jason Statler, Willie Croft, Sean Watts and Richard Brace Jr. Croft earned the Swift Metal Finishing Hardcharger award after starting 19th in the grid.
