Bob Kuhn didn't think he was coming up to Prince George to race the Indy 500.
But after sitting behind the wheel of his car for more than two hours Saturday night at PGARA Speedway in the Tri-Cities Street Stocks Invitational main event, he was starting to wonder if this indeed was a marathon.
The 75-lap accident-plagued race became an agonizing test of survival for the drivers and for racing fans who stuck it out into the wee hours of Sunday morning. Only 12 of the 25 cars were still running when Kuhn took the checkered flag for his second win in the three-race series.
Kuhn, who sizzled in qualifying with a record-setting 17.667-second lap, took over the lead from Prince George driver Lyall McComber at Lap 49 and held on for the final 26 laps to clinch the win.
McComber was second, followed by Arnie Kunka of Williams Lake.
"It was brutal racing and the object was to keep clean and stay out of trouble," said Kuhn, who got caught in the middle of a 12-car pileup heading into Turn 4 before even one lap had been completed.
"I just came around the corner and there was nowhere to go, I couldn't stop in time. It was a pretty hard hit but I think the bumper took most of it."
It was a sign of things to come in a race that ground to a halt 13 times due to collisions or car body parts falling on the track. The first wreck forced the 50-year-old Agassiz driver into the pits with a stuck throttle and his crew had to work quickly to bend some twisted sheet metal out of the way but Kuhn was in line for the restart.
McComber was fourth in qualifying and he shot up to near the front of the field early in the race and was in the lead after the fifth caution flag came out, just 13 laps in. The race took about an hour and 45 minutes to complete but it was closer to two hours factoring in the time it took to sort out the start order in the pits.
Only the top-20 qualifiers were guaranteed the right to start in the main event. Those who didn't make the top 20 were forced to race a 25-lap B main with the top five finishers advancing. PGARA also ran main events for its hornets, mini stock and pro-mini race series and it was 1:30 a.m. by the time McComber got to the scales for the post-race weigh-in.
"That was the longest bloody race I've ever been," said the 64-year-old McComber, who got punched in the rear bumper by Kuhn just before Kuhn made his pass. "Bob has a faster car and he did bump me quite a bit. I guess you have to mark that down as just racing."
The drivers were warned in the pre-race meeting not to take unnecessary chances to gain positions but those warnings obviously fell on deaf ears. The hardest wreck came three laps in when James Lewis pasted Jason Schapansky on the driver's side in a shower of sparks but both drivers emerged unscathed and both finished the race.
"It was crazy, I don't know what the guys were doing, there shouldn't have been that much carnage," said McComber, who was fourth in the Tri-City points series heading into the Prince George race.
"There was a lot of cars, a lot of traffic but you just hold your line, drive your car. You can't win it on the first lap, you have to be on the last lap to win it. It was chaos, I'm glad I got positioned and up to the front quick, so I had pretty clean sailing there."
PGARA president Chris Arronge, the current PGARA street stock series points leader, ended up fourth in the feature race, followed by local drivers Steve Jefferson and Wayne French, who were fifth and sixth respectively.
"That was probably the longest amount of time I've spent in the car," said Arronge, whose car was showing some battle scars as he drove to his spot in the pits. "If spectators like crashes they got a lot of those, from the first lap giant pileup all the way through the race, there were a lot of crashes.
"We came in with eighth-fastest car and we ended up fourth so we can't complain too much. We have lots of crap to fix on this thing."
This was Kuhn's first visit to the three-eighths-mile oval track at PGARA Speedway and he had high praise for the crew of volunteers from the Prince George Auto Racing Association who made it all happen.
"I love it, the staff here is amazing and this is one of the funnest places to race," said Kuhn. "It's just a really good organized track and lots of fun."
Allen Roberts won the pro mini main, Stephen Woods was the mini stock feature race winner and Tiffany-Rose Verkaik was first across the line in the hornet main on Saturday. The Tri-City series wraps up in Quesnel on Sept. 17.
