Leonard Wilnechenko Takes Checkered

The rain once again washed out WESCAR racing on a Saturday night in Williams Lake. That is the 4th time in seven events that the event was carried over to a Sunday afternoon of racing. The air was cool and a mist was in the air but with the Street stock running a 20 lap race prior to the WESCAR vehicles, the track stayed dry enough to race, barely! Williams Lake driver Garnet Grimard in the #52 Napa Autoparts car captured fast time of 16.745 to steal fast time away from Lee Thomas in the #38 Cloverdale Paint Pontiac who had clocked in a 16.765 . With a spin of the WESCAR wheel the landing on a full inversion of the field, #52 Grimard was going to have to start from the back of the field of 14 cars that qualified for the running of the WESCAR OKTire Challenge Series OKTIRE 100. The race starts with #33 Bill McNabb on the pole and Bruce Bentley in the #72 beside the #33. Bruce was driving the car normally driven by Dennis Adelman . As the pack roared through turn 1 the #94 Corey Price came in contact with the #73 Wayne French putting the #73 car hard into the turn 2 wall which puts his heavily damaged car out of the race. The #94 car was black flagged and sent to the pits for the rest of the race. The race is completely restarted and McNabb had the lead till lap 3 when #17 Leonard Wilnechenko gets past McNabb. Wilnechenko continued to lead on lap 24 when another caution flies when the #6 Sheldon Mayert and the #27 Arnie Kunka get together coming off turn 2. Arnie cuts down a tire and pits to have it replaced putting him a lap down. Mayert is put at the back of the line of cars due to his spin in the incident. On the restart on lap 30 a few cars get together coming off turn 2 and the #38 Lee Thomas and the #72 Bruce Bentley are sent down into the wet grass on the infield. The race is red flagged due the lengthy time it took one wrecker to remove two cars from the quagmire in the infield. #72 and #38 do not return to the race due to damaged incurred in the incident. Wilnechenko #17 leads on the restart and takes off while the #0 of Brett Young follows in 2nd being chased by #33 McNabb. On lap 41 current points leader #5 Bob Williams gets past #33 McNabb to hold 3rd spot. On lap 45 #22 McComber retired from the race due to mechanical problems. The leaders run clean and green to the checkers with #17 Wilnechenko winning the OKTire 100 lap feature in his FOX Proffessional Driving Monte Carlo with #0 Young in 2nd, #5 Williams 3rd and an impressive run by #33 McNabb finishing in 4th. The $50 Cloverdale Paint ÒMost Colourful Move of the RaceÓ award went to #33 Bill McNabb for his driving through a slide coming off notorious turn 2 in the latter part of the race. The lap 73 leader award of a $73 coupon provided by Competition Automove in Prince George went to #17 Leonard Wilnechenko. Watch for more racing action in the WESCAR OKTire Challenge Series when the teams and their haulers arrive at PGARA Raceway in Prince George B.C. for the 8th and final race of the series on September 11, 2004. You can hear the last race announced live on 99.3 the Drive as they broadcast 5 of the 8 races in the WESCAR OKTire 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