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  1st Place: #23 - Peter Ernst | |
 2nd Place - #38 Lee Thomas |
 3rd Place - #6 Sheldon Mayert |
WESCAR OKTIRE Challenge Series - Hythe WESCAR 100 Results:
August 25, 2007,
Hythe Motor Speedway - Hythe, AB
The crowd came to see cars go real fast from the visiting series and they were blown away by the great racing and the mistral winds of northern Alberta. Fortunately there were more damaged umbrellas than cars on this, the seventh race of the OKTire Challenge Series.
Qualifying saw the 2006 track record fall as Bobby Williams in the Turtle Wax Chevy leaned on the 12.5 degree highbanks to run a 15.435 second laptime. The four dash races from D to A were won by #42 Danny Scott, #2 Chase Larson, #71 Dave Olson and #23 Peter Ernst respectively. The B-heat was won by newcomer #89 Darren Swaan of Quesnel in his Pinnacle Pellet Dodge and the A-heat by #22 Chris Babcock in his Service on Site Ford Taurus.
When the green flag for the WESCAR 100 dropped, the tail wind tossed every car around as they all rounded turn 1 and 2 but the pack of cars ran 26 laps of clean exciting racing with #23 Ernst moving to the front of the pack early after starting in the back half of the pack. On lap 26 a yellow flag was waved when #44 Pylypiuk spun on turn 2 unaided by any other cars but I suspect that strong crosswind may have had something to do with it.
Once the green came out it was for a shortlived term as on lap 36 the #22 Babcock and the #2 Larson touched and resulting in a spin so they were both sent to the back. Ernst was challenged on both restarts by #38 Lee Thomas but the #38 was not able to outdo Ernst on the restarts. On lap 80 the #14 Hustad spun the #71 Olson in turn 3 as the video replay showed so both were also shown to the back. This caution allowed #6 Sheldon Mayert in his Brandt Tractor Chevy to have a chance at Ernst on the restart but to no avail. Ernst, with 3 wins earned this year, has been displaying his prowess on restarts and did so again holding off the challenge of Mayert.
The #38 Thomas then battled with the #6 Mayert and was able to move Mayert back to 3rd but Thomas ran out of laps to catch the #23 Fountain Tire car of Peter Ernst holding the lead. On the last corner of the last lap the fans were blown away with excitement once again as the #5 Bobby Williams traded paint with the #6 of Mayert and had to wrangle his slipsliding #5 back under control from a sure spin to capture 4th. The crowd created their own strong wind of applause to the dual smokeshow spins of the top two finishers on the 7degree banked front straight. Both Ernst and Thomas wrote in rubber their car signatures on the pavement to the delight of all the fans.
That was how they finished to complete the 7th race of the OKTire Challenge Series . The last race in the series where the series champion will be determined will be at the Playground of Power, PGARA speedway in Prince George on Saturday, Sept 8. There are many drivers mathematically still possibly able to capture the top spot.
place, car, driver:
(unofficial)
1. #23 Peter Ernst;
2. #38 Lee Thomas;
3. #6 Sheldon Mayert;
4. #5 Bob Williams;
5. #22 Chis Babcock;
6. #39 Dave Rounds;
7. #89 Darren Swaan;
8. #14 Phil Hustad;
9. #71 David Olson;
10. #42 Danny Scott;
11. #44 Ryan Pylypiuk;
12. #2 Chase Larson;
13. #91 Sandy Short;
14. #19 Kary Rogers;
15. #13 Daryn Smith;
// Fast Qualifier: #5 Bob Williams, 15.435 seconds (new track record)
//Margin of victory, 1.101 seconds
// Race time 37:24
//
WESCAR OK Tire Challenge Series Announcer/Media Rep.