A cool, clear evening greeted a jam-packed grandstand bringing the opening sprint car race of the season back to Marysville Raceway Park.  Central valley hot-shoe Tommy Tarlton showed the way in time trials with a 12.744 on his second lap.  Tarlton’s lap was impressive as that time was just .07 slower that MRP’s best time last season.  Shane Stewart blistered the track turning in second quick time. Ironically, both Tarlton and Stewart had to transfer to the feature by way of the B Main event. The field was that thick with quality equipment.  Tarlton started 11th next to Stewart.

When the green banner flew it was Forsberg who carried the field into turn 1. Lovell dropped into 2nd but was quickly overhauled by Herman Klein. A couple of quick early yellows allowed the racers to breathe a little and it also kept the field tightly bunched; important news for the mid field starters that were carving their way through the crowded corners. The new green provided some of the closest racing action ever seen at MRP as Tarlton, Stewart and LA’s Tyler Walker took to the high side and started to make some progress.

The new green would be a long green flag segment and Forsberg had to get up on the wheel and start carving through traffic. Outlaw star Jason Sides had started 5th and decided it was time to go. Sides started to really fly and began turning the fastest laps of the race. Meanwhile, Tarlton sliced through the field like a hot knife through butter and appeared inside the top five as the race moved into its last 10 laps.

With 4 circuits left to decide it Tarlton and Klein had a miscue that eliminated both cars, brought out a yellow and set up a trophy dash to the finish. Sides, in 2nd, and Forsberg were separated from third place runner Lovell with three lapped cars. When the final green waved, Forsberg had a brilliant restart and put about 5 car lengths between himself and Sides. That decided it and, even though Sides started to close, Forsberg maintained the lead to the checkered banner.

With our 2009 racing season underway we look forward to our next race on March 14th to be closer to home.  Both Tommy Tarlton and Peter Murphy will be racing at the Hanford track this Saturday.  Come out and show your support.