WATSONVILLE -- The cold air temperature created higher horsepower, and the fog cover kept the clay track surface tacky, which created the perfect conditions for high speeds at Ocean Speedway on Friday night.

Four of the Wright One Construction 360 Sprint Cars went under their track record in qualifying, with opening round winner Tommy Tarlton setting the new mark at 11.786 seconds.

The track only went quicker in heat races, with Scotts Valley's Evan Suggs running all 10 laps of his heat under 12 seconds, including a best lap of 11.466 -- only half a second off the all-time track record set by Mark Kinser in a World of Outlaws event.

Despite the fast racing, there were no crashes in the three feature races, with just stalled cars or debris slowing the action four times.

The feature race went to last year's Johnny Key Classic winner, Jason Statler of Los Gatos. Statler overtook Suggs 10 laps into the race and officially led the final 20, but was helped by the race's second and final caution brought out by a stalled car on course.

Lapped traffic had allowed Stephen Allard to overtake Statler, and although the two completed their lap with Allard in front before the yellow fell, the entire field had not completed the lap so scoring was reverted back to when Statler held the top spot. On the restart with six laps to go, Allard came under fire from defending champion Brent Kaeding, giving Statler an easy run to the finish.

Suggs had dropped to sixth after contact with Statler as they battled for the lead and knocked him against the back straight wall. But he seemed to come to grips with the changed handling in the later running, working up to finish fourth.

In recent years, the American Stocks Division has been rife with disqualifications. Friday's fourth round concluded with the first for 2008.

After Tony Oliveira drove Rod Herrick's car to a clean sweep, duplicating Herrick's result from the last round, the Ford Mustang was randomly chosen for an engine compression technical inspection. The car read above the maximum allowed 9.5:1 ratio even after being allowed to cool down until 11 p.m.