Battling not only for standings heading into the Points Final Championship Race on Sept. 7, drivers at Thunder Mountain Speedway Saturday also had to battle inclement weather.
Rain off and on throughout the afternoon and into the early evening put a bit of a damper on the night’s Doug Larson Memorial and West Coast Vintage Racing, however, that didn’t stop organizers from squeezing in the full lineup of events.
“We fought the weather but we got all the races in,” said TMS president Bob Lowen.
Bone stocks and pro mini classes in TMS’ regular season racing was centre stage as street stock drivers took the night off to make way for the West Coast Vintage Racing Series.
Rounding out the field there was a Williams Lake racing family sharing the spotlight with Karl Seibert, his son, Trevor Seibert, and his grandson, Ryley Seibert, all out on the track together.
And after winning both the main events at the PGRA Speedway in Prince George Wednesday, and at the Quesnel Goldpan Speedway on Friday, Ryley finished just shy of the three-race Cariboo sweep in Williams Lake.
“It was awesome to be back at the Goldpan Speedway on Friday night,” Ryley said. “We battled the rain all day and the series chose to forgo to heat races and dashes to make sure the main races were completed.
“With a really good initial start [in the main] on the front row outside position I knew I had a good car and that if I could only clear the pole sitter I would have a really good chance at winning … With a really good initial start at the drop of the green flag I was able to take the lead down the back stretch and never looked back.”
Saturday, again battling more rain showers throughout the day, Ryley qualified quickly in sixth, starting him in the middle of the pack.
“I ran my heart out but the heart (engine) in the car didn’t have what it took as half way through the race I broke a rocker stud in the motor and had to retire before a chance at sweeping the wins through the Cariboo tracks,” he said. “The experience has me looking forward to getting out more and more again, lighting a bit of a fire in me to get back into the higher ranks of racing.”
He said he’s hoping throughout the winter his friends, family and fans will see him down in the U.S. competing in races again and moving up the ranks to hopefully make an attempt at the NASCAR Big 3 Series (truck series, Xfinity series and Cup series) one day.
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Taking the vintage car win, meanwhile, in Williams Lake, was Abbotsford’s Dean Warmerdam.
In TMS’s local classes trophy winners were Tristan Waslen, Damian Fisher, Steve Panta and Chrissie Gertzen, who picked up her first trophy of the season.
Vintage trophy winners were Warmerdam, Ron Brewer, Joe Davitt, Wendall Moore and Ron Larson.
Lowen noted it should be an exceptional night of racing on Sept. 7 for TMS’s final event of the season, which will feature not only the season points championship, but also a Day of Destruction Hit to Pass boat race.
Currently leading the street stock division is Williams Lake’s Tim Westwick, while Quesnel’s Mitch Rollo has the lead in the bone stock class. Jaye Salmon and Mikey Garcia are in a battle for the championship in the pro mini division.
The 2019 Grand Finale Points Championship and Day of Destruction Hit to Pass gets underway Sept. 7 with qualifying at noon, and racing to follow at 1 p.m.
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