Curtis Blake notched the PGARA hat trick.
The rookie-class hornets' driver cleaned up during Saturday's races at the Prince George Auto Racing Association Speedway taking the checkered flag in the dash, heat and main events. In the dash and heat, Blake overtook Jasmine Sakawski midway through the race and sped out to a comfortable lead that left no room for doubt on the final lap.
It was the second race of the season for the hornet drivers and first since opening night May 25. Blake looked like he'd score the hat trick back in May but he ran out of gas, knocking him out of the main event, after he came up with wins in the dash and heat. His teammates on the Last Minute Racing team benefitted from Blake's mishap in the first race, as rookie Matt Simon earned his first checkered flag, while Blake's brother Dylan Schug placed second.
After the first race Simon and Schug sat one and three in the point standings with 26 and 21 points respectively, while Blake had 20 points. Sakawski was second with 23 points.
With his triple crown, Blake made a push for the top spot when the new points standings come out later this week. The 16-year-old looks like the driver to beat for the hornet crown at the end of the season.
Simon finished second to Blake in the main event, which was marred by an early race crash that sent Tori Parent's No. 7 car spiraling out of control and into the stationary tires on the front straight away. Sakawski was disqualified from the main event for causing the collision, though she put in a protest and an appeal process was undertaken at the end of the night. Calls to PGARA president Chris Arronge to find out the outcome of the appeal weren't returned by press time.
Parent was shaken up and complained of pain and was taken away by ambulance before the race resumed after about a 30-minute delay.
The delay toyed with Mother Nature who had been kind most of the night and held off sprinkling the track with rain, but several minor collisions in the final race forced organizers to shorten it from 35 to 33 laps when the rain became harder and the track too slick.
Arronge showed why he was the 2011 points champion in street stocks, taking the trophy in the A-dash and the main event, while placing second to 2012 points title holder Jarret Bonn of Fort St. John. Bonn won the heat in what turned out to be a two-car battle.
The street-stock heat was uneventful until near the end with the small crowd watching to see if Arronge could find a way to pass Bonn for the lead. But eyes were averted when Dawson Creek's Adam Huitema spun out on the back straight away and crashed into Jim Chapman's No. 77 car. It took about 10 minutes of work by the mechanics to get the two cars front ends unstuck.
Shane Murphy drove to the checkered flag in the street stock B-dash.
In the mini-stock class, Devin Barks won the dash and points leader Nathan Linfitt took the heat in the third race of the season. Linfitt had 54 points after the first two races.
The heat win combined with his second-place finish in the main event should keep Linfitt in top spot heading into the two-day Invitational races (Aug. 10-11).
Lawrence Barks was forced out of the heat when a flat tire turned out to be a broken tie rod, which left his front left tire turned sideways. Barks' pit crew was able to repair the damage and he returned to action and easily won the main event. Breanna Pollard placed third.
