EAST WENATCHEE, Wash. (July 6, 2002) – Pete Harding vaulted past leader Jeff Jefferson with seven laps to go on the tight .250-mile Wenatchee Valley Super Oval in the Leonard Evans Superstore 125, and won his first Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series, NASCAR Touring race of the 2002 season.

Gary Lewis got by a fading Jefferson exiting turn No. 1 to capture second place. Jefferson held on for third, Shane Biles and Troy Conrad rounded out the top-5.

Jefferson led the 21-car field to the green flag in front of a capacity crowd based on a four-car invert. Ron Eaton won his second career Bud Pole Award at the East Wenatchee speedplant. Jefferson led the first 117 laps of the event to claim the Gatorade Front Runner Award.

Lewis moved to second place in the running order by lap two and settled behind Jefferson for single file racing through the first 25 circuits.

The top-five cars would move to the rear of the field and begin to negotiate lapped traffic by the races 41st circuit. Jefferson and Lewis moved out to a five-car length lead on Harding in traffic. By lap 50, series point leader Kevin Hamlin had moved to fifth place on the field, then capture fourth place on lap 54.

An incident involving the defending champion and Bill Lawrence relegated Hamlin to a 17th place finish, his lowest run of the season.

Lewis and Harding battled fiercely for the second place position through lap 70. A spin in turn No. 1 brought the races second caution flag just as Jefferson came across the start-finish line. Harding and Lewis barely had time to check-up, with Lewis making contact with the rear bumper of Jefferson’s Chevrolet.

Harding and Lewis began another battle for second place on lap 107. Harding was able to make his LP Body Shop Chevrolet stick exiting turn No. 4 as lap 108 began to grab the position.

Over the races final 10 laps, Jefferson’s tires on his D&G Bodyworks machine began to go away allowing Harding to catch up to the leader. With the top-two cars crossing the start-finish line together on lap 118, Harding made a bold pass for the lead on Jefferson exiting turn No. 4.

Lewis pushed his Sign Factory USA Pontiac to the limit as the white flag came out to the field, passing Jefferson for second place as the two raced down the backstretch.

Harding had seven top-5 finishes at Wenatchee Valley’s Super Oval since 1998, but had never found victory lane. With his win in the Leonard Evans Superstore 125, Harding solidifies his top-5 points standings heading into the second half of the Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series 2002 season.

“My car was real good and I just hung in there in third for awhile,” Harding said from victory circle. “The guys put a great car together and it sure feels good.”

“I think he (Jefferson) used it up there at the end. He was a tick better than us early,” Harding added.

“We had a good car, none of our (the top-3) cars were perfect,’ Lewis said. “I think we were all about the same speed, we each had our strong points and weaknesses.”

“This is an awesome track, it changes all the time so we have to work constantly with our set-up,” he added.

“I saved all race as much as I could because I knew those boys were racing hard behind me,’ Jefferson said of his lead. “I was pretty loose coming off the turn and tried to save those tires but with ten laps to go it went away.”