Thompson has rivals howling at SunValley By Special to The Daily Courier Monday, July 21, 2008

Don Thompson Jr. won the pole for Saturday‘s A&W 300 at SunValley Speedway near Vernon, and then he won the race. In between was 300 laps of bumper-to-bumper NASCAR Canadian Tire Series action, nine cautions, 16 lead changes, a near brawl in the pits and almost half the field not finishing.
“That was an eventful evening,” said Thompson, a 45-year-old Hamiltonian.
For Thompson, it was his first win of the season, despite having won four of five poles. It didn‘t come easily. Thompson and his No. 4 Chevrolet Monte Carlo held the lead for all but one of the first 128 laps. On the lap he didn‘t lead – the 81st – Kerry Micks was in front, but Thompson bumped into Micks‘ rear end on Turn 3, sending Micks into the wall. The yellow flag came out and, as Thompson rounded the oval again, Micks cut in front of him. When Thompson tried to pass him slowly on the inside of Turn 4, Micks sideswiped Thompson‘s car, damaging the right front. In the pits, Micks needed to be restrained by his crew. NASCAR
“I was sorry to see that,” Thompson said. “That takes a bit of the fun away from the win.”
On the 128th lap, Thompson‘s car had a flat tire, and he lost a lap. He made it up on a “lucky dog” exemption – where the top racer who is a lap down can make it up during a caution in the last 100 laps. This allowed Thompson to catch the pack, and he ended up in a neat battle with Scott Steckly – the winner of three of the first four series events – over the last 20 laps. Thompson made his move and took the lead on lap 292.
“I was on Scott pretty good a couple times going down the backstretch into the corners,” Thompson said. “He went into (Turn 1) and slipped up a bit and his car wiggled, and I just got underneath him. You gotta love the lucky dog – if it wasn‘t for the lucky dog, we wouldn‘t have won the race,” Steckly, who is from Milverton, Ont., maintained his lead in the series standings with his fifth straight top-five finish. John Gaunt of Barrie, Ont., finished a career-best third. Jason White, the local favourite, spun out on the 113th lap and was a couple of laps behind the leaders. The 35-year-old Sun Peaks driver held strong and finished seventh, his best result this season.
“We had a really good car, and I got a little overzealous,” said White. “I got a little frustrated with (Alex Tagliani‘s) No. 7 car. He ran me up the racetrack a little bit and I stuffed into Turn 1 a little too hard.”
White earned $2,680 for the showing, but, more importantly, picked up 146 points. That moves him from 14th to 11th, and 27 points up on Tagliani, White‘s closest competition in the rookie-of-the-year chase. Tagliani, a former CART racer, was running eighth until an engine fire forced him out on the 241st lap. More than a quarter of the race was run under caution, and eight of the 19 cars didn‘t finish. White has raced SunValley a lot, and he didn‘t expect such an eventful race.
“That‘s usually saved for a shorter track,” he said. “But there was a lot of battles going on tonight, and there was a lot of people grudging and there was crews that wanted to go at it with each other. There was a lot of tomfoolery, but it was surprising to see all of the carnage that there was.”

LES HEIN WINS NASCAR CHAMPIONSHIP FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA

Honored As One Of The Top Drivers In North America

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Nov. 1, 2007) – NASCAR announced Les Hein has won the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series British Columbia championship.

Hein had five wins, 16 top fives and 17 top 10s in 18 starts, racing at Sun Valley Speedway in Vernon. He earned $2,000 for the British Columbia championship.

Just 28 drivers out of the thousands of participants in NASCAR’s grassroots, local-racing program – which encompasses tracks throughout the United States and Canada – earned a similar honor.

The crowning of champions in a U.S. state or Canadian province renews a tradition of honoring the best short-track racers which dates back to the earliest days of NASCAR.

The NASCAR British Columbia champion was determined by the driver’s highest 18 finishes at NASCAR sanctioned tracks within the province.

This was also the first year of a long-term sponsorship for Whelen Engineering as the title sponsor of NASCAR’s weekly racing program. The Connecticut-based company is a leading manufacturer of automotive, aviation, industrial and public emergency lighting and warning systems.

Since its inception, NASCAR’s local racing series has served as a springboard in the careers of many top drivers. NASCAR stars Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Kurt and Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Bobby Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Elliott Sadler and Brian Vickers all began their careers racing their local short tracks.

The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion along with the U.S. state and Canadian provincial champions, track champions and other special award winners will be honored at the series awards banquet to be held on November 10 at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.

            Jason Christley, NASCAR Public Relations