WESCAR, the province's richest and fastest late model touring stock car series, is coming back to Prince George this weekend.
Sunday's afternoon's 100-lap feature race will be Round 2 of the Cariboo Gold Rush, a weekend WESCAR doubleheader that starts Saturday afternoon in Quesnel.
Ian Graham of Harrison Hot Springs was the big winner in the most recent WESCAR race, June 15 in Williams Lake. He qualified quickest and won the 100-lap feature, claiming top spot in the podium ahead of Chris Babcock of Fort St. John, who was second, and third-place Donny Kunka of Williams Lake. Prince George driver Sheldon Mayert, now in his second season as WESCAR president, ended up fourth, right on Kunka's tail.
"That was a good one for us, we were pretty happy," said Mayert.
"We were the second-fastest qualifier so we were happy about that. We just had a good setup there."
After two of five WESCAR stops, Babcock leads the points championship race with 159. He won the season-opening 100-lap feature at PGARA Speedway on June 1.
Darrell Howarth of Prince George, the second-place finisher at PGARA, is just two points back with 157, followed by Kunka (154) and Mayert (142).
Thirteen WESCAR drivers made it to Williams Lake and Mayert hopes to see at least 15 cars running this weekend with the lure of a two races back-to-back within an hour's drive of each other.
"It's good for the guys in the series, it's good for spectators, they get to go down to watch and race in Quesnel and either come back and camp in Prince George and the traveling guys get double the bang for the buck," said Mayert.
"You get two races and it's one fuel bill to come from the Okanagan or Lower Mainland, or Fort
St. John or Terrace."
Dave Olson of Quesnel is expected to race both races this weekend and Trevor Adelman of Quesnel is back after a wedding forced him to miss the Williams Lake race. Trevor Reinert of Kitimat will make his season debut and other possibilities to enter the WESCAR fray are Dave Haworth of Kamloops and Jeff Cameron of Lake Country.
Qualifying starts at 1 p.m. Sunday and racing begins at 2 p.m.
The four Prince George Auto Racing Association classes - Canadian Tire street stocks, Chieftain Auto Parts mini stocks, Canadian Brewhouse Northern Outlaw pro minis and Ron's Towing hornets - will also be featured Sunday.
The WESCAR series resumes with the Mertins 100 next Saturday in Agassiz and wraps up with the season-ender in Quesnel on Sept. 14.
