Goldpan Speedway Results

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 07:09 PM

Peter Ernst earns a hat-trick with three consecutive wins In the WESCAR OKTire Challenge series. (photo submitted by Doug Waller)

The Billy Barker weekend started with a washout for practice on Friday night as the torrential rain fell on Quesnel's Goldpan speedway. This left a green track for all the teams from around the province arriving under sunny skies Saturday morning. Those sunny skies clouded over after the heat races and then the heavy rains fell and washed out the evening of racing. The main event was rescheduled for the next day at noon.

On the evening before, Bobby Williams in the Turtle Wax #5 Monte Carlo earned the fast qualifying time with a circuit of 15.284 seconds on the large 1/4mile track. He was unable to eclipse the record of 15.210 set by Lighting Lee Thomas in the June race who qualified this time with a 15.320 pass on the track. Notably, Sheldon Mayert who is 2nd in the points, qualified 3rd fastest in the Brandt Tractor Chev and Peter Ernst the point leader qualified 6th in the Fountain Tire Chev. Hinting of what was to come in the main the #92 Darcy McKeown in the Gary McCarthy GM Chevy qualified 4th ,11/100ths slower than the #5s fast time. Only 0.908 seconds separated the field of cars in qualifying.

The dash races saw the Jock's Excavating #14 Ian Black of Terrace win the C-dash, #52 Garnet Grimard of Williams Lake won the B-dash and the #92 Darcy McKeown of Terrace held on to take the A-dash. In the B-heat the #52 Grimard beat out Smokey Prest in the #78 and the #23 Peter Ernst of Quesnel won the A-heat in front of #92 Darcy McKeown. The #6 Sheldon Mayert, 2nd in the points, had been plagued with problems and never made it into the A-heat race allowing #23 Ernst to pull further ahead in the points.�

The fans gathered Sunday on the sloping terraced hills of Quesnel�s Goldpan Speedway for a spectacle later in the day rarely repeated in stockcar racing. They also came to see the new #89 Pinnacle Pellet car in the WESCAR circuit driven by Darren Swaan.

The green flag starting the OKTire 100 did not wave until Sunday at 12:15PM with #14 Ian Black and #22 Chris Babcock� on the front row. Babcock fell back to mid pack early and on lap 3 spun unassisted coming off turn 4 bringing out one of the two caution flags of the race. Not long after the green waved Garnet Gimard moved to the front with Peter Ernst close behind. Using a lap down car on the inside groove the #23 Ernst moved around the #52 Grimard in the low lane and powered into the lead. Behind the two leaders the #92 McKeown fought hard� to slide underneath the #2 Chase Larson on turn 3. McKeown got sidewards with his left front tire in the dirt on the inside of turn 3 which loosened his rear traction and Darcy did a masterful job of controlling the slide then putting it back on all fours to complete the pass coming off turn 4. The #5 Bobby Williams followed through the gap created and proceeded to make a charge on the #92 who now held the 3rd position. Many times the #92 McKeown had to hold off the advances of the #5 Bobby Williams who many times tried to get up beside the #92 but always backed off, racing clean into the corners. On lap 55 a debris caution yellow flag flew. This caution created a side by side restart giving #52 Grimard an opportunity to get beside the #23 Ernst the leader. Ernst, the master of his home track, performed a perfect restart leaving the #52 to fall in line behind him. Behind them, the #92 continued to fight off the challenges of the #5 and that is how they finished taking the checkered flag minutes before the next rain squall hit.

In the winners circle the Fountain Tire #23 wrote the drivers signature with rubber and smoke then� Ernst stood on his car door holding his trophy high in the air to a loud round of applause from the crowd of fans for winning three main events in a row, a racing hat-trick.� Ernst thanked his sponsors� and congratulated his crew for the win. Garnet Grimard said he felt good with a 2nd place, literally, after a shattering crash in Williams Lake two weeks before. Darcy McKeown could not smile any wider a smile with his third place win and invited everybody out to Terrace for the next race on August 5 at Terrace Speedway and to come enjoy all the town has to offer during their mid-summer River Festival. Check the website www.wescarracing.com for all the pictures, schedule and news in the OKTire Challenge Series.