The Gordie Mannes Memorial Weekend at the Penticton Speedway will debut the Tri-City Street Stock Series on Saturday.
Along with welcoming drivers from the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and Interior, others will come from Williams Lake, Quesnel and Prince George, which make up the Tri-City series.
“We’ve had a street stock invitational series race for 15 years. We’ve had participation be pretty strong,” said Penticton Speedway owner Johnny Aantjes. “Having another series come in and participate with us on that night is going to help us have a really good car count and good competitive cars.”
Among the drivers from the Tri-City Series likely competing is Arnie Kunka, who finished second last year and is in the same position this season. Aantjes has some concern about how many drivers will come from that series because of which races they can collect points, but after talking to some people, he feels there will be reasonable support.
“Hopefully next year we can work with the point system a little bit. Make some small modifications to make it better,” he said.
With sunny weather expected and temperatures at 34 degrees, Aantjes said “who wouldn’t want to be here?” during the long weekend.
“This is a great venue to hold a big race. Attract some good competitive cars,” he said.
Included in the weekend action will be hornet racing and street stocks. Aantjes said the hornet class looks really good and expects the same from the street stock.
The weekend, sponsored by Underwriter’s Insurance, wraps up on Sunday, Aug.2 with another street stock invitational race, hornets and the ever popular Hit to Pass Eve of Destruction.