Two longtime veterans of late-model stock car racing made their presence felt over the weekend in Quesnel.
While Lee Thomas of Fort St. John deserved the lion's share of the spotlight for winning the 100-lap feature race Saturday at Gold Pan Speedway, Garnet Grimard of Williams Lake used his third-place finish in the ARCA West OK Tire Sportsman Series main event to vault to the top of the points standings.
Thomas took advantage of his pole position start to avoid the mayhem brought about in a series of yellow-flag incidents and a red-flag accident and went on to claim his third career win. He held off a serious challenge for the lead early on from Kalvin Loudoun of Kaleden, then staved off the pressure late in the race from Matt Stephenson and Grimard, the respective second- and third-place finishers.
Hometown favourite Dave Olson of Quesnel brought on the red flag to stop the race when he became involved in a spectacular wreck with rookie Art Rauschenberger of Williams Lake, driving in his first ARCA West race. Olson's car ended up on top of Rauscheberger's, resulting in heavy damage to both vehicles. Neither driver was hurt.
Grimard earned 55 points in Quesnel to move up from second place into the points lead with 186, with four of six races now complete. Stephenson picked up 55 points to move into second, just five points behind Grimard, with 181. Rookie Ryley Seibert of Williams Lake dropped from first to third, with 180.
Not far off Seibert's pace is Bob Williams of Prince George, who sits fourth with 171, while Olson is now seventh with 126. Prince George drivers Logan Jewell (98) and Sheldon Mayert (97) are 10th and 11th respectively in the points derby.
The ARCA West OK Tire Sportsman Series resumes Aug. 7, the first ever ARCA West stop in Agassiz.
