The ARCA OK Tire Challenge Series opened its season at the Motoplex Speedway in Vernon, B.C. May 7.
The weekend would not disappoint the fans as the competitors dodged the rain clouds to put on a great show.
Along with some of the best oval drivers from western Canada was the hot young shoe of the No. 9 Lake Excavating Chevy Impala SS from Williams Lake, Ryley Seibert.
Friday night would be the first of the practice sessions, “being only a couple hours on Friday I really wanted to just knock out the rust from the winter by working on being smooth lap after lap,” says Seibert.
When Saturday morning rolled in the weather would be threatening the chances of a race even happening.
But the racers battled through it to get to qualifying, where Seibert would lay down a great lap of 18.857 seconds around the half mile oval which would earn him a fifth-place starting spot.
As ARCA inverted the first 14 of the 21 car field the No. 9 Impala would roll towards the green flag in 10th position but by lap 10 owned the fifth spot. Many big crashes and spins during the race found Seibert dodging left and right to keep his car in one piece.
“It so important to keeps all the body panels on the car for the full 100 laps,” Seibert says.
“Your chances of doing well decrease way too much if you bend your car right away.”
One thing this young man has learned is that you’re not going to win the race on the first lap, but you sure can lose it.
One hundred laps and a checkered flag later young Seibert would find himself crossing the finish line in the third position right behind the 2009 ARCA Champion Mark Berriuo.
“I know that I can run with these boys and that I love to every weekend that we go to the race track,” Seibert added.
The great run will most likely leave Seibert in third in the ARCA Championship after total points from qualifying, heat races, passing points, and of course the 100 lap main event.
He will run the entire schedule and says he is very keen on having the 2011 ARCA title on his resume. You can follow Ryley on his fan page on Facebook under Ryley Seibert Racing, where he constantly keeps everyone up to date on the season.