Rain soaked the Goldpan Speedway Saturday night delaying the WESCAR OKTire Challenge Series United Concrete 100. The race was finaly run Sunday afternoon under broken threatening skies.

Arnie Kunka #27 sets the fast time of 15.745 eclipsing #52 Garnet GrimardÕs fast time of 15.758 with #17 Leonard Wilnechenko qualifying third with a 15.763. Slightly more that 5 tenths of a second separated the whole 13 car field. A testament to the highly competitive OKTire Challenge Series.

The WESCAR inversion wheel had been spun and landed on one half so half the field of 13 cars or the top 7 cars were inverted. Since Peter Ernst qualified 7th the spin of the wheel put him on the pole for the start of the race. A lucky break or an omen. Only 100 laps of close WESCAR action would determine the truth. Bob Williams #5 was lined up outside on row one with #38 Lee Thomas inside second row with #0 Brett Young starting 4th. #17 Leonard Wilnechenko was on the inside on the third row with #52 Garnet Grimard on the outside. Arnie Kunka #27 the fastest qualifier lined up inside 4th row and #49 Warren Bergman winner of the B heat on the outside. Bill McNabb #33 returned to the series from Taylor B.C. and sat in 9th on the grid with WESCAR rookie #6 Sheldon Mayert outside of him. Ian Black #14 from Terrace and Cory Price #94 of Williams Lake lined up side by side with QuesnelÕs #72 Dennis Adelman alone in the last row.

The green flag drops with #23 Peter Ernst on the pole and he gains a 2 car length lead over #5 on the first lap . As the pack rounds turn 3 #38 has to brake to avoid the car in front of him and #17 Wilnechenko had no time to react and taps the #38 spinning him around. #38 Thomas is put to the back of the field for bringing out the caution with his spin. #17 stayed in his position in the field of cars. On lap 6 the green flag waves and four laps are run before #14 Black bobbles coming off turn 2 in lap 11 and spins into the infield keeping it off the wall and undamaged.

The field of 13 cars line up quickly and the restart on lap 14 is lead by #23 Peter Ernst. The battle for the lead is exciting as both the #5 and the #27 challenge Ernst but he is able to make his car as wide as 2 cars holding back the 2nd and 3rd place cars. The close racing action continues until lap 40 when the yellow flag is waved as the #33 McNabb gets into the back of #17 Wilnechenko spinning him around on turn 3. It was a reflection of what happened back on lap 1 with the #33 not able to brake in time in tight traffic but this time the #17 was spun around. Wilnechenko this time is sent to the back of the pack.

A restart on lap 44 sees #23 continuing to lead and he stretches out his lead over the #5 and #27 over the ensuing laps. Action near the front of the field sees #27 make a smooth , clean and colourful save on the outside of #0 as Young tries to get underneath #27 Kunka in turn 4 on lap 47 earning #27 Arnie Kunka the Cloverdale Paint, Ò Most colourful move of the raceÓ Award of $50 from Cloverdale Paint.

The race continues with Ernst stretching his lead over the #5 Williams to half a lap and Ernst weaves easily through backmarkers. The checkered flag flies at the completion of the United Concrete 100 with #23 Peter Ernst taking his first win of the WESCAR 2004 OKTire Challenge Series in front of his home town crowd by going flag to flag in the lead position. #5 Bob Williams of Prince George finishes in second and third is #27 Arnie Kunka of Williams Lake. Les and Cyndie Clarke of the Quesnel OKTire dealership are on hand to hand out the UNITED CONCRETE 100 trophy to a beaming and thirsty Peter Ernst.

Watch for more racing action in the WESCAR OKTire Challenge Series when the teams and their haulers arrive at Thunder Mountain Speedway in Williams Lake B.C. for the Stampede Weekend on July 3rd. You can hear races announced live on 99.3 the Drive as they broadcast 5 of the 8 races in the WESCAR OK Tire Challenge Series with Ron St.Clair covering the lap by lap action. Check the website www.wescarracing .com for all the pictures and information on the series.