Eighteen drivers in the ASA Ok Tire Series stormed Thunder Mountain Speedway Saturday night, quite literally, when unfortunate rainfall cut the 100-lap main event short.
That didn’t stop 400 spectators, however, from enjoying the evening’s festivities as local race classes hit the track, along with the ASA OK Tire Series drivers finishing 67 laps of its 100-lap main event.
When the skies opened up and the main event was called it was Penticton’s Matt Stephenson taking the checkered flag driving, quite appropriately, the No. 1 car. In second place was the No. 86 car of Langley’s Tom Berrow, followed by Hixon’s Dave Olson in third.
Williams Lake’s Korbin Thomas finished the race in the fifth spot, while local Ryley Seibert finished seventh.
Tim Westwick, president of Thunder Mountain Speedway, said the rain and weather made for a challenging evening.
“It was a crazy night running against the weather,” Westwick said. “A huge thank you to all our volunteers, as well as ASA race director Kendall Thomas, his father Earl Thomas from CP Electronics and ASA OK Tire Series president Gary MacCarthy for their expertise in helping fix the technical issues with our scoring system. The event wouldn’t have happened without these individuals.”
Westwick said he’d also like to thank all of the racers and fans who visited Thunder Mountain from around the province, despite the weather.
“With some sacrifices to our local cars’ races we were able to complete 67 out of the 100 scheduled ASA main event laps to make the race official,” he said. “We did, however, have to call the race because of a safety concern after a caution flag when it began to rain again. We were lucky enough that it held on for as long as it did.”
In the local race classes it was George Giesbrecht taking the fast time in the bone stock time trials, while Sean Kelly picked up the win in the A dash. In the B dash it was Quesnel’s Hannah Braman, the only female driver in the class, picking up the win. The heat went to Brian Bettles, while the main event went to Terry Braman.
For the pro-mini class it was Marius Dunford picking up the fastest qualifying time, while Allen Roberts took the win in the A dash and the B dash.
In the new street stock class (the thunder class and street stock classes from previous years were combined) it was Williams Lake’s Arnie Kunka taking the fast time in time trials. Westwick, however, picked up the A dash win, while Kunka followed up his fast time with a win in the heat.
Westwick added Thunder Mountain is currently looking at rescheduling its June 15 race day.
“Due to dry grad we want to change our race date so that all race fans can attend both events if they choose to do so,” he said. “We have many young drivers who will be taking part in the grad festivities and we don’t want them to miss either event.”
The race day currently scheduled for June 15 will feature the local pro-mini and street stock main events that were supposed to be held Saturday to kick off the day, plus a full race day itinerary.
For full local race results and points standings visit www.thundermountainspeedway.ca.