Rain struck again for the third time in 2004 delaying the WESCAR OKTIRE CHALLENGE SERIES Saturday night race in Williams Lake on the Stampede weekend. The race was run Sunday July 4th under partially clouded skies.

Korbin Thomas #18 qualified fastest with a 16.567 surpassing the 16.642 set earlier by #52 Garnet Grimard. The WESCAR wheel was spun to determine the inversion of the field. The inversion ended up being 12 so #17 Leonard Wilnechenko was put in the pole position with #94 Corey Price on the outside beside him. The # 5 car normally driven by Bob Williams, this weekend was driven by Don Sales of Quesnel, ended up 9th on the starting grid.

The green flag waved and #17 Wilnechenko pulled away from the pack behind him. On lap1 #27 Kunka left the track with a tire going down and on lap 6 #72 also left the track with mechanical problems not to return to the race. On lap 8 a big wreck occured down the front straight involving the #18Korbin Thomas, #5Don Sales #52 Garnet Grimard #73 . The restart on lap 23 sees Thomas still on the lead lap using good pit strategy earning him the Cloverdale Paint ÒMost Colourful Move of the raceÓ $50 award.

The restart is lead by #17 Wilnechenko and he continued to lead through 5 more cautions caused by a variety of cars spinning. Late in the race #18 Korbin Thomas works his way through traffic avoiding the causes of the cautions and passes #17 Leonard Wilnechenko around lap 80 and leads the pack the rest of the way to the checkered flag winning the WESCAR OKTire Challenge Series OKTire 100. Peter Ernst finished second after #17 Leonard Wilnechenko left the track at lap 95 with mechanical problems. Rookie Sheldon Mayert finished 3rd in an impressive run with # 38 Lee Thomas in 4th and #0 Brett Young the last car on the lead lap in 5th place. The lap 73 leader award sponsored by Competition Automotive in Prince George went to #17 Leonard Wilnechenko . He receives a $50 gift certificate for merchandise from Competition Automotive in the Parkridge Heights area of Prince George.

The next race in the WESCAR series is July 17 at QuesnelÕs Goldpan Speedway and it will be broadcast live on 99.3FM the DRIVE radio. Check the WESCAR website www.wescarracing.com for all the pictures, stories and race results as the series continues.