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Speedway hosts opener to much fanfare

It started out so good for Williams Lake racer Ryley Seibert Saturday.
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The No. 27 car

It started out so good for Williams Lake racer Ryley Seibert Saturday.

Racing in front of his home town crowd at Saturday’s Heartland Toyota 100 at Thunder Mountain Speedway — the second stop on the ARCA West OK Tire Sportsman Series provincial tour — Seibert, the 2010 rookie of the year, sent the large crowd into a frenzy early, breaking the old track record with a time of 15.852 seconds.

Not to be outdone, however, Seibert’s competition — Mark Berriau, Sarah Cornett-Ching, Logan Jewel, Dave Olson and Ian Graham — finished within two tenths of a second of Seibert’s qualifying time.

During the 100-lap main event Seibert ran into a slough of trouble leaving Prince George’s Logan Jewel to scoop up the checkered flag, and the momentum, heading back to his home town June 16 for race three of the series.

Seibert’s trouble began on lap 28. Drivers Jewel and Trevor Adelman were jockeying for position when Adelman, while moving toward the back of the pack, drew a yellow flag damaging Seibert’s right front fender in the process.

Under the ensuing caution lap Seibert attempted to rub the remaining piece of fender off on the wall but was sent into the pits for repair. Following a long stretch of clean racing Seibert slid off the backstretch, narrowly missed the wall and spun into turn three. He would finish the race in seventh place, but sits third place overall in the AWOTSS championship standings.

Meanwhile, a duel between Berriau and Jewel provided solid action heading into the final 10 laps.

When the checkered flag was raised it was Jewel in first, Berriau in second and Olson in third. Point standings in the AWOTSS after two races have Berriau hanging onto first place overall.

Also featured Saturday were local Bone Stock, Heartland Toyota Pro Mini, Thunder and Street Stock classes.

The main event results are as follows:

Bone Stock: Sean Kelly (also won fast time).

Heartland Toyota Pro Mini: Tim Roberts (Allen Roberts won trophy dash)

Thunders: John Haynes (Tim Westwick won trophy dash)

Street Stocks: Donny Kunka (Derek Christianson won fast time, trophy dash and heat)

The next event at Thunder Mountain Speedway is Fan Appreciation Night, which goes June 16 starting at p.m.

The following are more detailed results on the 100-lap AWOTSS main event and the 2012 AWOTSS championship standings:

Heartland Toyota 100 Main Event

Driver                             Time                Best Time

1. Logan Jewel                 42:30.735        16.274

2. Mark Berriau                42:31.376        16.278

3. Dave Olson                  42:32.100        16.251

4. Ian Graham                  42:33.708        16.424

5. Chris Babcock               42:34.874        16.440

6. Kalvin Loudoun             42:36.550        16.478

7. Ryley Seibert                42:37.065        16.308

8. Bob Mear                      42:37.468        16.596

9. Trevor Adelman             42:37.967        16.541

10. Jeff Cameron               42:39.909        16.694

11. Sarah Cornett-Ching     42:38.744        16.580

12. Barry Clayton               42:41.150        17.362

 

ARCA 2012 Championship Standings (after two races)

Driver                                Total

1. Mark Berriau                   167

2. Ian Graham                    153

3. Ryley Seibert                  151

4. Logan Jewel                    143

5. Kalvin Loudoun                137

6. Dave Olson                     133

7. Bob Mear                        121

8. Trevor Adelman               120

9. Chris Babcock                 118

10. Sarah Cornett-Ching      106

11. Jeff Cameron                 91

12. Trevor Seibert                84

13. Dave Hemrich                84

14. Barry Clayton                72

15. Matt Stephenson           63

16. Don Nickel                    42

17. Mike Soppit                   41

18. Rob Angus                     39

19. Cassandra Walker           32

20. Dan Ursel                      12

 



Greg Sabatino

About the Author: Greg Sabatino

Greg Sabatino graduated from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in 2008.
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