Chris Arronge has had near-perfect days at the track before, like he did on Saturday at PGARA Speedway, and it never gets old.
It started in qualifying when he got around the three-eighths mile track in 18.05 seconds, not a record-setting time, but good enough for fast time of the day in the Canadian Tire street stock series. He didn't grab the trophy in the dash but took the heat race, and the best was yet to come. Starting from the back of a 12-car pack in the 30-lap main event, he maximized his passing-point potential and captured the flag.
"We started at the very back and slowly worked our way to the front and the racing was clean," said Arronge, who grabbed the lead with about five laps to go. "It was caution-free clean racing for the whole race, which was kind of strange."
Jerry Gascon was second in the main and Chad McComber placed third.
Unlike the first two points meets in the Prince George Auto Racing Association's top class, drivers kept to themselves and didn't try any ill-advised passes that would cause accidents. That means drivers can focus on their engines and not their fenders before they pack up for the trip to Williams Lake for Saturday's Tri-Cities Street Stocks Invitational at Thunder Mountain Speedway.
Arronge began the night trailing Wayne French by nine points in the street stock season standings but he's now comfortably ahead in the points lead after French's No. 73 car, driven by Brett Young, had nothing but trouble Saturday.
"He had a horrible night," said Arronge. "Wayne was out of town and Brett Young was driving for him and I don't think he finished a race all night, so we got by him in points. Their car wouldn't go into gear in the dash. In the heat (race) the car just shot off on them and in the main event the car got too hot."
Arronge leaned on his brother Danny to drive the No. 16 car two weekends ago when rain delayed the WESCAR/PGARA meet into Sunday, a working day for Chris, who works for CN Rail. But unless the upcoming meets extend into Sundays, Chris plans to be behind the wheel the rest of the season.
Steven Woods was the winner of the Chieftain Auto Parts mini stock main event on Saturday, while Tiffany-Rose Verkaik won the Tri-Par RV Rentals hornet feature race.
The next meet at PGARA Speedway is set for Aug. 13, when the Twin Rivers Developments Tri-Cities Street Stock Invitational comes to Prince George.
