It started out so good for Williams Lake racer Ryley Seibert Saturday.
Racing in front of his home town crowd at Saturday’s Heartland Toyota 100 at Thunder Mountain Speedway — the second stop on the ARCA West OK Tire Sportsman Series provincial tour — Seibert, the 2010 rookie of the year, sent the large crowd into a frenzy early, breaking the old track record with a time of 15.852 seconds.
Not to be outdone, however, Seibert’s competition — Mark Berriau, Sarah Cornett-Ching, Logan Jewel, Dave Olson and Ian Graham — finished within two tenths of a second of Seibert’s qualifying time.
During the 100-lap main event Seibert ran into a slough of trouble leaving Prince George’s Logan Jewel to scoop up the checkered flag, and the momentum, heading back to his home town June 16 for race three of the series.
Seibert’s trouble began on lap 28. Drivers Jewel and Trevor Adelman were jockeying for position when Adelman, while moving toward the back of the pack, drew a yellow flag damaging Seibert’s right front fender in the process.
Under the ensuing caution lap Seibert attempted to rub the remaining piece of fender off on the wall but was sent into the pits for repair. Following a long stretch of clean racing Seibert slid off the backstretch, narrowly missed the wall and spun into turn three. He would finish the race in seventh place, but sits third place overall in the AWOTSS championship standings.
Meanwhile, a duel between Berriau and Jewel provided solid action heading into the final 10 laps.
When the checkered flag was raised it was Jewel in first, Berriau in second and Olson in third. Point standings in the AWOTSS after two races have Berriau hanging onto first place overall.
Also featured Saturday were local Bone Stock, Heartland Toyota Pro Mini, Thunder and Street Stock classes.
The main event results are as follows:
Bone Stock: Sean Kelly (also won fast time).
Heartland Toyota Pro Mini: Tim Roberts (Allen Roberts won trophy dash)
Thunders: John Haynes (Tim Westwick won trophy dash)
Street Stocks: Donny Kunka (Derek Christianson won fast time, trophy dash and heat)
The next event at Thunder Mountain Speedway is Fan Appreciation Night, which goes June 16 starting at p.m.
The following are more detailed results on the 100-lap AWOTSS main event and the 2012 AWOTSS championship standings:
Heartland Toyota 100 Main Event
Driver Time Best Time
1. Logan Jewel 42:30.735 16.274
2. Mark Berriau 42:31.376 16.278
3. Dave Olson 42:32.100 16.251
4. Ian Graham 42:33.708 16.424
5. Chris Babcock 42:34.874 16.440
6. Kalvin Loudoun 42:36.550 16.478
7. Ryley Seibert 42:37.065 16.308
8. Bob Mear 42:37.468 16.596
9. Trevor Adelman 42:37.967 16.541
10. Jeff Cameron 42:39.909 16.694
11. Sarah Cornett-Ching 42:38.744 16.580
12. Barry Clayton 42:41.150 17.362
ARCA 2012 Championship Standings (after two races)
Driver Total
1. Mark Berriau 167
2. Ian Graham 153
3. Ryley Seibert 151
4. Logan Jewel 143
5. Kalvin Loudoun 137
6. Dave Olson 133
7. Bob Mear 121
8. Trevor Adelman 120
9. Chris Babcock 118
10. Sarah Cornett-Ching 106
11. Jeff Cameron 91
12. Trevor Seibert 84
13. Dave Hemrich 84
14. Barry Clayton 72
15. Matt Stephenson 63
16. Don Nickel 42
17. Mike Soppit 41
18. Rob Angus 39
19. Cassandra Walker 32
20. Dan Ursel 12
