>> Returning to his native California after an impressive stretch with Keith Kunz Motorsports, Tanner Carrick translated the speed and results from the midget into his sprint car as he recorded sixth and eighth place finishes over the weekend including a stint up front at Placerville Speedway.
“It was a really good weekend for our team,” Tanner Carrick said. “I hate that I let my guys down while leading on Saturday night, but it was great to continue to be fast and keep our Tanner Carrick Racing car up front.”
Friday night brought on a trip to Ocean Speedway for Carrick as he took part in the Howard Kaeding Classic with the Civil War Series. Getting his night off to a quick start, Carrick timed the CVC/Cemex/Interstate Oil machine in fourth quickest in time trials amongst the 28 cars checked into the pit area.
Battling with Cole Macedo and younger brother, Blake in heat race action, Carrick would hold on to finish fourth and punch his ticket into both the Dash and the 30-lap feature event.
Finishing eighth in the Dash, the Lincoln, CA driver would put his No. 83T machine in the fourth row to start the 8th Annual HK Classic feature event. When the feature came to life Carrick would get shuffled back a bit as he would fall back to 10th in the early goings.
Slipping back to 12th at the halfway point, Carrick’s machine would slowly come to him and he would start trending the right direction. Moving up into ninth on the 16th lap, Carrick would make a nice move on the 21st lap to take over seventh.
Chasing after DJ Netto the final laps of the race, Carrick would make a move on the final slap to tally a sixth place finish when the checkered flag was displayed to the field.
Saturday night the scene shifted to Placerville Speedway where Carrick would ultimately flirt with his first career sprint car win. Timing in fourth fastest in time trials, Carrick’s second place finish would be more than enough to get him into the redraw where the two pill put him on the front row of the feature alongside Cody Lamar.
Battling hard with Lamar in the opening laps, Carrick would finally get into the lead on the race’s fifth lap. Out in front, Carrick would look very strong as we worked on the thick Placerville Speedway cushion that had developed following pre race track preps.
In traffic, Carrick would look just as strong but on the 17th circuit the youngster would get into the cushion too hard and it would get his machine sideways and ultimately stall him out.
Forced back to 12th for the final eight laps, Carrick would get what he could as he worked his way forward and closed his night out with another Top-10 by way of an eighth place finish.
“It was disappointing to make a mistake like that, but we will get there,” Carrick added. “We will stick around California for another week and get two more sprint car races in this weekend.”
Tanner Carrick would like to thank CVC, Cemex, Interstate Oil, Conti, Harris and Sloan, Emerald, Timberworks Construction, Arai, and Spike Chassis for their support.
2018 BY THE NUMBERS: Starts: 17, Wins: 0, Top 5’s: 2, Top 10’s: 9
ON TAP: Carrick will return to Ocean Speedway on Friday night and make his way to Petaluma Speedway on Saturday night.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay up to speed with Tanner Carrick by following him on Twitter @Carrick_Tanner or @CarrickMotorsp1, and by clicking over to www.tannercarrick.com.