Chris Arronge has seen this movie before.
Last year at this time, the veteran Prince George Auto Racing Association driver was sitting second behind Wayne French, within reach of catching him in the Canadian Tire street stock points standings heading into the final race day. But he never did.
Arronge is facing a similar situation today in the season-ending points meet. He trails French by 20 points for the street stock title and Arronge, the PGARA president, knows the odds are not in his favour.
"I only have a chance if something goes sideways for him, but it's definitely possible," said Arronge.
"Last year was the first time we raced together and we both had pretty good years for timing in and main events, we were both pretty much first and second all year. But he was first a few extra times and he just happened to beat us. He won by like 10 points or something."
This year, French has 316 points, Arronge has 296 and third-place driver Brett McComber has 237.
The 45-year-old French, who owns his own mechanic's shop in the city, Competition Automotive, discovered a issue with the 1975 Chevy Malibu he races and spent the afternoon and evening Friday working on the car. He hopes he'll have all the bugs worked out in time to go racing.
"We had to do a pretty major (repair) on the car just to show up this weekend," said French. "After every race we do a thorough inspection on the car so that you don't get surprised on race day. I have a pretty good group of guys who are dedicated and we're on it."
A 12-car field is expected for the street stock main event and if all 12 are running, that will mean 24 points will go to the winner. With the inverted start order, the fastest driver in qualifying goes to the back of the pack for the start of the feature race. That driver will gain one point for each car he passes.
"There's 35 points right there if you win it from the back," said Arronge, who drives the No. 16 street stock. "If the other guy drops out or only makes five of 10 points, there you go right there. We want to race for it at the end of the year."
Arronge led for most of the season but French and his No. 73 car vaulted past him into first place in the standings on the second day of racing at the Tri-Cities Street Stocks Invitational meet in Prince George, Aug. 14 when Arronge had a mechanical issue and crashed in the main event. Arronge finished 16th, while French timed in quickest and cruised to victory in the 100-lap feature race. French ended up the top pointgetter in the two-day Tri-Cities event at PGARA Speedway.
"Saturday night wasn't all that spectacular for us, I had no power steering for more than half the race but we managed to stay on the lead lap and finished in sixth place," said French.
"You just don't give up, you keep digging."
Last year's street stock title was the first points championship French had ever won. He's raced streets for three years and prior to that raced the PGARA bomber series for five or six years, finishing second in the bomber points several times.
French likes racing head-to-head with Arronge and he knows he's only one bad race away from losing his points lead.
"If everything pans out ((today) I'll be proud to win a second championship, but it's unfortunate it wasn't Chris and I racing side-by-side that determined who won the championship," said French, referring to Arronge's mechanical failure in the Tri-Cities race. "Chris is a champion, he's proven it many times, and he'll come out swinging on the last weekend. I hope that him and I have an opportunity to race door-to-door, lap after lap. It always seems either he has a bad day or I have a bad day and we never really got to race each other."
Tonight's meet is the sixth of the 2016 season. Qualifying lap time-ins start at 6 p.m., with racing at 7. If it gets rained out, it will be rescheduled for Sunday afternoon, with time trials at 1 p.m. and racing at 2.
The two other PGARA points series, the Chieftain Auto Parts mini stock and the Tri-Par R.V. Rentals Hornets, are also going down to the wire. Stephen Woods holds a 20-point lead over second-place driver Nathan Linfitt in the mini stock standings. Driving the No. 75 car, Woods has 127 points while Linfitt and his No. 18 car have 107. Gary Howard is third in the mini class with 64 points.
In the hornet series, PGARA's entry-level class, Riley Markovics and his No. 9 car are just four points ahead of the lucky No. 13 car being driven by Tiffany-Rose Verkaik. Brandon Forseth and Spencer Forseth have shared the driving in their No. 16 car and they are also within striking distance in third pace, 11 points behind Markovics.
There will also be racing tonight in the Northern Outlaws four-cylinder pro mini stock series, but drivers in the series, which made its PGARA debut this year, won't be racing for a points title.
