Jeff Lapcevich scores first career NASCAR Canadian Tire Series pole at CTMP

43-year-old Jeff Lapcevich would lay down the quickest lap (1:24.1 seconds) at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to win the pole for the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. It marks the first career pole for the veteran in his 52nd career start.

“This is great,” Lapcevich commented after his pole winning lap. Lapcevich is running the No. 76 on his Tim Hortons Dodge this season rather than the No. 23  in honor of his father, who passed away during the off-season.

Lapcevich has made five starts this season, with his best finish being second back in May at CTMP. In seven starts on the road course, he has yet to win a race, though has six top 10 finishes.

“We’ll go see what we got,” Lapcevich added. “We’ll just set a good pace and I know it’s good on the long runs so if I can stay cool behind the wheel, we should be in good shape.”

Road course guru Andrew Ranger qualified second, only 0.043 seconds behind Lapcevich, after being one of the late entries for the race. Ranger had called his old car owner Dave Jacombs to run, yet Jacombs already had drivers in both of his cars. Ranger then got talking with defending series champion D.J. Kennington and Kennington prepared a car for Ranger to run this weekend.

Ranger has made two NCATs starts this year, finishing first at Circuit ICAR and second at Trois Rivieres. In five starts at CTMP, he has two wins with his worst finish being a sixth.

L.P. Dumoulin was third quickest after leading the first practice session this weekend with a lap of one minute and 24.2 seconds. The driver of the No. 47 WeatherTech Canada/Bellemare Dodge won the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park race in May and currently sits fourth in points.

“We’ve been fast all day,” Dumoulin commented. “In qualifications, someone had a problem in turn one with an axle and I think it got a little slippery. We have a good position for the long race. We’ll just run strong and see how it works out tomorrow.”

Three-time CTMP winner J.R. Fitzpatrick was fourth quickest as he looks to turn his season around following some bad luck.

Jason Hathaway, who won the last race ran by the Canadian Tire Series at Antogonish, was fifth quickest as he looks to carry the momentum. He currently sits third in points, 10 points behind points leader Scott Steckly.

Steckly was sixth quickest as he looks for his first win on the Bowmanville, Ontario road course.

“Obviously we like to be closer to the front but there was some oil dry on the track and we focus more on the race set-up rather than qualifying,” he commented afterwards.

Steckly, who finished third at CTMP in May, currently holds a four point lead over D.J. Kennington. He has won three races so far this year.

“We’re going to every race looking for the win and whatever happens, happens,” Steckly added.

Gary Klutt was seventh quickest, followed by Martin Roy, Peter Klutt and Kerry Micks. Kennington qualified in the 12th position.