After 12 years of racing the WESCAR late model touring stock car series at PGARA Speedway, Chris Babcock finally nailed it.
Practice makes perfect and his win in Saturday’s WESCAR 100 was about as close to perfection as the 51-year-old Fort St. John driver has ever come in all the time he’s been hauling his race car five hours down Highway 97 to Prince George.
“It’s redemption man, we’ve been the bridesmaid here so many times, you just miss it by that little bit,” said Babcock, who finished second to series champion Jarret Bonn in the 2018 point standings.
“We’re starting out really strong this year and I’m really happy. We worked all winter on this thing and we did ‘er.”
The random grid selection put Babcock and his 2019 Mustang in the front row to begin the 100-lap main event, and he stayed near the head of the 10-car field the entire race. He gained the lead at the halfway mark when early race leader Trevor Adelman spun out.
“I was right on him when he hit the wall,” said Babcock. “I knew he might have a tire going down so I kept my distance and it was a good thing I did because when that tire went down he just about took us both down.
Darrrell Horwath of Prince George finished second, an impressive WESCAR debut on the three-eighths mile oval track where it all began for him, while Austin Ogonoski of Edmonton ended up third.
The 38-year-old Horwath was runner-up in the Prince George Auto Racing Association street stock points championship last year, after winning the points battle the previous two years, and also claimed the Tri-City Invitational championship in 2018.
Driving a 2019 Camaro built by crew chief Keenan Magnant and sponsored locally by Nelly’s Pub, Horwath posted the fastest time in qualifying with a lap time of 16.595 seconds and that put him in the back row in a 10-car field to start the 100-lap feature race. His second-place result meant plenty of passing points, which left him atop the standings with five races still to come in the six-event WESCAR schedule.
“I had some brake issues in qualifying but we went back out and got fast time and just had patience in the main event to make our way up to second,” said Horwath. “We didn’t have quite enough to make it to first but we gave it our all.
Horwath is one of three rookies in WESCAR this year. Grant Powers of Prince George finished fifth in his first 100-lapper, just ahead of fellow rookie Donny Kunka of Williams Lake.
“It was a lot of fun, I can’t ask for much more for a rookie debut, it’s a good feeling,” said Howarth. “It’s a good group of guys to race with. We raced street stocks but we wanted to race against more equal cars and more cars and it was time. You’re a lot busier in the car (racing WESCAR). We’re a second quicker (per lap) than the street stocks and you put 10 cars out there and things can go to chaos quick.”
Horwath, Kunka, Thomas and Jarret Bonn were all part of a four-car spin that happened six laps into the race. All four avoided tagging the wall and escaped any real damage.
The same could not be said for Adelman. After his mid-race revolution the Quesnel driver came down off the wall and got tagged by Kirk Frost, and Adelman’s fibreglass car body took the brunt of the hit, left with a couple of large cracks.
Sheldon Mayert was right beside Frost and avoided the collision but stalled his engine. A push start from his crew got the Prince George driver going again, but it wouldn’t last long for the WESCAR president. Mayert cut a tire while heading into a corner on Lap 63 and almost lost it into the wall. He ducked into the pits for a tire change but radiator problems eventually forced him drop out and he finished ninth, ahead of only Bonn, who had to park his car early with a transmission issue.
Ogonoski, the 2017 WESCAR rookie of the year, drives a 2017 Chevy SS owned by Dustin Lengert of Kelowna, and they originally met playing X-box racing video games online. Ogonoski took third in the June 2018 race in Prince George but wasn’t overly proud of how he reached the podium in that race when he tangled with Kendall Thomas and spun out heading into the final turn in the mad dash for the finish. There was no such carnage this time around.
“I was all depressed on the podium here last year after I straight up wrecked (Thomas) on the final lap, so now it’s pretty awesome to come here and run it clean and the car is in one piece and no one’s mad at you,” said the 26-year-old Ogonoski.
“It’s a lot different feeling this year. They seeded us first (starting in the front row with Babcock) and instead of being intimidated by guys who have run these cars longer than I’ve had my drivers’ licence, we just put together some good laps.”
The series resumes June 15 in Williams Lake. WESCAR returns to Prince George on Sunday, July 21, the second half of a doubleheader that starts the previous night in Quesnel.
n In Saturday’s PGARA series results, 66-year-old street stock driver Lyall McComber showed at he’s not about to slow down any time soon. The defending points champion won his first main event in two tries this season, holding off the hard-charging Desiree Case and Shane Murphy to capture the spotlight in the 25-lap feature. McComber had the top time in qualifying (17.763) and also won the A-heat, which was enough to put him back in the point lead ahead of Murphy.
Just seven street stocks were running Saturday, a far cry from the heyday of PGARA in the early ‘90s when McComber used to race in the hobby stock class.
“I can remember when we had 24 or 26 cars in the hobby stocks,” he said. “I was running a Camaro and I can remember going by on the back straightaway and I’d look over across at the flagman and he was dropping the green.
“It’s the commitment that’s needed. If you’re going to do it you move into the shop and work on the car and come to the race. It takes a lot of work.”
Other PGARA main event winners were: Ron’s Towing hornets: Stephen Woods; Chieftain Auto Parts ministocks: Spencer Forseth; and Northern Outlaw pro minis: Jeremy Floer.
