ELMA, WA – The Northern Provincial Pipelines Late Model Series raced its first ever point event in the United States Saturday night.  NPP teams were given some bonus hot laps about 45 minutes prior to the official start of the nights race schedule at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Washington.  Spruce Grove Alberta’s Bruce Broughton was the first NPP driver to register a heat race victory south of the border.  Arvid Fonstad, who has run a limited season, made the long haul from Entwistle, Alberta and registered his first heat race win of 2008.  Whitecourt, Alberta’s Rod Wilde, running his final NPP race weekend of the season, grabbed the third and final heat of the night.  Edson Alberta’s Crystal Kennedy won the ‘B’ Dash race.  In the ‘A’ Dash, Altario Alberta’s Kevin Clark and Sherwood Park Alberta’s Curtis Moore battled hard for the lead.  After losing the race lead on the very first lap, Clark would take back the number one spot from Moore with 3 laps to go and drive on to his second ‘A’ Dash win of the season.  Kevin Wheeler, was the hard charger in the ‘A’ Dash.  The Whitecourt, Alberta driver, who started in the 8th position, made all his passes on the high groove in his KW Mechanical sponsored #3 Dodge and got past Moore on the final lap of the ‘A’ Dash to finish second.  Clark and Wheeler would sit on the front row for the start of the 35 lap Feature event.  The start of the Feature would see Wheeler immediately taking the lead.  Kevin Clark fell off the pace in his Clark Construction #5 Dodge with electrical problems and would retire on lap 21.  Wheeler was challenged for the lead several times by Whitecourt driver Paul Grundberg and Stony Plain Alberta’s Mike Tom.  Tom was able to get by Wheeler underneath the flagstand on the start of lap 20.  The NPP Feature would go 22 straight laps before the first and only yellow would fly.  Edson Alberta’s Ken Clark and Shelton Washington’s Jay Cole would slow at opposite ends of the race track forcing officials to throw the caution.  Both drivers ironically suffered broken trailing arms on their race cars.  On the restart, Mike Tom and his Hinton Oilfield Services #55 Chevrolet would hang onto the lead until lap 32 when Grundberg, who was running third, would slingshot past Wheeler and Tom coming out of turn four down the front straight.  Grundberg would lead the final three laps of the Feature and drive his Carlan Services #12 Pontiac to victory at Grays Harbor Raceway.  Mike Tom who was heading for a second place finish, had the spindle on the left front tire break, causing him to spin on the final corner.  Bruce Broughton drove on to a second place finish in his #61 LJB Auto Chevrolet and Wheeler finished third.

VIDEO ( Nathan Prince – Grays Harbor Raceway videographer)
Click: NIGHT #1 HEAT RACES
Click: NIGHT #1 ‘A’ & ‘B’ DASHES
Click: NIGHT #1 FEATURE (part 1)
Click: NIGHT #1 FEATURE (part 2)

PHOTOS ( Fletch Photos – 360-649-5063)
Click: NIGHT#1 PHOTOS