Sarah Cornett-Ching Continues to Improve in First Year in ARCA West Series With Top Ten at Prince George; Return Trip to Motoplex up Next

Craig Revelle – Finish Line Web Design

June 23, 2011

After a full day of work on Thursday, Sarah Cornett-Ching and her father left their Summerland, British Columbia home and began their more then 8 hour journey across the province to Prince George, and the Prince George Auto Racing Association Speedway for the Next Round of the ARCA West OK Tire Series.  Sarah arrived in Prince George a day before race day, as she had a pair of appearances to make to help promote the series.

Sarah made it to Prince George on Friday morning, and visited the Prince George Secondary School for her first appearance of the day.  Sarah had the car on display for the students to see, and helped local authorities with their campaign to keep racing off the streets.  With the ARCA West Series in town, it was also a great chance to promote the event, and Cornett-Ching was excited about the opportunity to meet with the local students and sign some autographs and answer their questions.

“The appearance was a huge success, and the kids loved the race car and had a great time with the question and answer period too. We had police officers there to help send the message across to the kids just getting their drivers license to keep racing off the streets”, says Cornett-Ching.  The local CKPG news did an interview with my dad and myself that aired on the 5 o clock news, and I was able to spread the word over the radio as well”.

After leaving Prince George Secondary School, Cornett-Ching took the car over to OK Tire, in Price George.  OK Tire is the title sponsor of the ARCA West Series, and Cornett was the only racer in the series to make the effort to support their pre-race event, and was recognized for her efforts.  From the OK Tire appearance, Cornett-Ching began to prepare for the challenge that lies ahead, with another new track to learn as the OK Tire ARCA West Series continues.

Cornett-Ching arrived at Prince George Auto Racing Association Speedway on Saturday morning, and was eager to get on the track for practice.  Once on the track, Sarah soon realized they needed to make some adjustments on the car to get rid of the loose condition that she was experiencing.  By the end of practice, the car was adapting well to the adjustments, as they attempted to get the car dialed in.  Time Trials were up next, and despite overdriving turn three and four, Cornett-Ching pulled off a fast lap, earning the pole position for her qualifying heat.  At the green flag, she got off to a great start, but an early caution bunched the field back up, and again on the ensuing restart, she continued to lead the event.  Another caution was displayed a few laps later, and this time, the car to the outside slammed the door of Cornett-Ching’s car, and she dropped to third and that is where she finished the heat.

With the feature coming up, Cornett-Ching elected to start the main event from the tail of the field, knowing it was going to be a long caution filled race.  With no experience on the track before the day began, Cornett-Ching had done an outstanding job learning the new track, and patiently worked her way forward.  A few laps into the race, contact with another car caused her radiator shroud to close up a bit, and later in the race, a long red flag period caused the car to overheat.  When the red flag was lifted, the car developed a vapor lock in the fuel system, and she had to be pushed to the pit area.  After a quick fix, she returned to the track one lap down.  The remainder of the race was spent making laps and gaining valuable experience.  At the checkered flag, she still had an eighth place finish.

“We had an up and down day here at Prince George”, says Cornett-Ching after the race.  “Overall we had a decent car, I learned a lot about the track and we came home with the car in one piece”.

The next race on the schedule for Sarah Cornett-Ching is July 2nd back at Motoplex Speedway in Vernon, BC.  Cornett-Ching raced with the ASA Series at Motoplex just one month ago, and a late race incident kept her out of the top five, but still managed an eighth place finish.  This time, she will be looking for another solid run, and a top five finish in the first of two Hot Summer Nights series events at the track.

Since 2005, Sarah Cornett-Ching has racked up a pile of awards, including Most Aspiring driver as well as Champion in her division that year.  Two years later, after moving up a class, she claimed the championship again.  In 2008 she claimed her first ever top five finish in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series, and the following year she finished third overall in the series points standings.  In addition to here third place in points, she also claimed awards for Most Improved driver, Most Dedicated to the Sport and West Coast Sportsman Rookie of the Year Award.  Last season she claimed fifth place in points in both the Okanagen Street Stock Series and the West Coast Sportsman Series.  She was also named Most Improved Driver and Most Dedicated Driver of the West Coast Sportsman Series.  She plans to run the full ARCA West Regional traveling Series this season, and hopes to secure funding to run the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series events in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Vernon, British Columbia later this year.

For more information on Sarah Cornett-Ching and to follow her racing accomplishments, please visit her website, www.sccracing.com or visit her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sccracing.