The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Sunday, October 3, 1999 Oakville Beaver Weekend 21 Wild finish to season in Texas In one of the most-hotly contested races of the 1999 KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship (KTAC) season, Oakville's Kenny Wilden took home a fourth-place finish after fighting his way through 43 rough-and-tumble laps that included a heavy impact with William Langhome's car just four comers from the checkered flag. Wtlden's effort at last weekend's Texaco Grand Prix of Houston marked his ninth-consecutive top-five finish of the season and 10th in 12 races. He had previously clinched second place in the final KTAC standings on Sept. 11 at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif. The incident between Wilden and Langhome occurred in Turn 7 on the 10-tum, 1.527-mile street circuit near downtown Houston, while they were run ning fourth and third, respective ly, in close pursuit of race leader Anthony Lazzaro and the sec ond-place car of Andrew Bordin. The drama began when Lazzaro, who was going down the short straight between turns 6 and 7, pulled to the left to let Bordin, his PPI teammate, pass to take over the lead. "It looked like Lazzaro pulled over to let Bordin have the win and he slowed everybody up unexpectedly," Wilden said afterward. "I think it surprised Langhome and he got on the binders real early, and by that time I didn't know what was going on. All I knew was that everybody in front of me was com ing up real fast, and then I plowed into Langhome pretty hard. "Unfortunately, two of the guys behind me, [Alexandre] Tagliani and Alex Gurney, got by, but then they tangled and I got back by them on the straightaway. I'm just very happy with fourth right now." Wilden was happy with the rest of the race. "We had a very fast car and were pretty much setting fastest laps all race, but it was just really tough to get by anybody. "We didn't have enough on the straightaway to get a good run on guys, so we'd end up catching them in the cor ners, which didn't do much good. "I had a few chances on Langhome, but you really had to be a lot better to get around the guys in front of you, and I just wasn't able to do it today." Bordin, who stayed out front the rest of the way after being given the lead by Lazzaro, the 1999 KTAC champion and winner of five previous races this season, took the checkered flag .176 seconds in front of his teammate. Langhome, who was able to continue on after coming in contact Wilden, finished third. All in all, Wilden was pretty happy with the season as a whole. "I don't think we could have asked for a better season. It was a championship effort. "What it really came down to was the first race in Long Beach. If things would of happened differently there we would have been a lot closer to Lazzaro and we would have still been in the hunt this weekend. "But I'm real pleased. It was great year." For more information on Kenny Wilden, visit www.kennywilden.com. CTV SportsNet will televise the race this Tuesday (Oct. 5), at 8 p.m. Photos by Peter C. McCusker O N T H E R U N : the Halton Public Board of Education held its Oakville division champi onships on Wednesday (see this Wednesday's edition for results). The Halton-wide championship is set for this Wednesday (Oct. 6) at Sherwood Forest Park in Burlington, the juniors from 1011:30 a.m., the seniors from 12:30-2:30 p.m. TOP PHOTO: in this hotly contested senior boys final, Nick Dodge of Falgarwood passed Jamie Adison of E.J. James in the final 20 metres for the championship. INSET PHOTO: Abbey Lane runners cheer on their teammates. Hom e and hom e exhibition hockey series split Home ice proved to be no advantage for either Oakville or Mississauga as they split a home and home two-game exhibi tion series. In the opener, on Sept. 18th, the visiting Mississauga Chiefs defeated the Oakville Hornets BB atom rep team 5-4. Scoring for Oakville were Stephanie Secord, Tenille Clarke, Brittany Court and Monique Kahnert. Assists went to Taylor Laughlin, Kaitlyn Wheeler, Melissa Snedden, Roxanne Johnson, and Megan Wanless. In the return match in Mississauga on Sept. 22nd, the Hornets controlled the game throughout, ultimately winning 2-0, behind the combined shutout efforts of Stephanie Wilson and Charlotte Capaldo. Scoring for the Hornets were Roxanne Johnson, unassisted, and Megan Wanless, with assists from Roxanne Johnson and Monique Kahnert. The 1999-2000 Atom BB Hornets are made up of Charlotte Capaldo, Stephanie Wilson, Tenille Clarke, Brittany Court, Traci Galbraith, Sarah Grigor, Roxanne Johnson, Monique Kahnert, Taylor Laughlin, Bianca Mirabelli, Erin Mitzel, Stephanie Secord, Melissa Snedden, Jackie Szarka, Megan Wanless, and Kaitlyn Wheeler.