Dave Olson knows how to leave an impression.
The Quesnel based driver in the ARCA OK Tire Sportsman Series had the PGARA Speedway crowd buzzing last year after a spectacular crash took him out of the race. In the circuit's 2012 return to Prince George on a rainy Saturday, Olson took the checkered flag in the feature race - cut to 55 laps (from 100) after several rain delays and spinouts on the wet track.
"A win's a win," said Olson about the race concluding under a yellow flag. "It would've been nice to finish it off with these guys side by side but we'll take it. It's a little better than last year when we ended up on the roof."
Olson was coming off a third-place finish May 26 at the Thunder Mountain Speedway in Williams Lake and sat sixth with 133 points in the ARCA standings prior to the Prince George race. Mark Berriau (167), Ian Graham (153) and Ryley Seibert (151) were on top of the leader board heading into Saturday's race.
The race concluded under a caution flag with Prince George's Bob Williams earning second place in his first race of the season and Berriau cruising to third. The results for the rest of the 13-car field were unofficial.
Prince George's Bob Mear was sitting fifth when the race was called while Logan Jewel was seventh. Unfortunately, for Jewel his hometown track wasn't friendly to him.
The good karma was in Olson's corner when Jewel and Ryley Seibert were unable to avoid colliding with Cassandra Walker who had spun her car across the track, which sent all three drivers to the back of the field. At the time of the collision Seibert was riding third while Jewel had just moved passed Chris Babcock for second place behind Olson.
Kamloops' driver Jeff Cameron blew his motor in the warm up forcing him out of the race. The wet conditions forced officials to cancel the ARCA time trial and heat events. PGARA officials had decided to eliminate the dashes for the ARCA, street- and-mini-stock cars earlier in the day.
Olson didn't flip his car this year but he was hopping around the track receiving accolades from his pit crew and other well-wishers after the race.
"We knew last year we had one of the fastest car in the race, unfortunately, due to driver fault, we got into a hole I shouldn't have been in and rolled her," said Olson. "We came back this year saying we were going to do it."
The key to Olson's win came when his patience paid off and he was able to overtake Babcock around Lap 35.
Meanwhile, Williams said he was happy to grab second place after missing the first two ARCA races of the season due to work commitments.
"I would've liked to have a run with Davey but the car was working really good," said Williams. "It would've been nice to give her a rip and see what it had."
Williams and Olson will go head to head in the rematch July 21 at the QARA Gold Pan Speedway in Quesnel. Williams took the checkered flag in 2010 and 2011 at the Quesnel track.
Saturday was also the night PGARA celebrated its 60th anniversary - 27 years at the current location - with a short fireworks display at the end of the evening during a rare, rain-free, period.
In the street-stock main event, Jarret Bonn of Fort St. John earned his first feature victory of his career, while Justin Hall took the mini-stock main race, leading from start to finish in Nathan Linfitt's No. 26 car. Lawrence Barks, the 2012 points leader in the minis, finished in second. Paul Tarnowski took third.
Barks won the A heat in mini stock earlier in the evening while Brandon Case took the checkered flag in the B heat.
A broken axle ended street-stock driver Terry Butler's night during the B heat.
The first Hit to Pass event of the season is Saturday. The next race day for hornets, minis and street cars is July 14 with time trials at 6 p.m. and races at 7.
