Category: Featured Other Series

Following a late race restart, Jason Hathaway would beat J.R. Fitzpatrick barely at the line to score the victory in the Wahta Springs 300 at Barrie Speedway. It marks Hathaway’s second straight victory on the tight oval after winning last year’s event.

“It was good,” Hathaway commented. “It was a big win. We were pretty dominant throughout the race. Led some laps and then took tires, had to restart sixth and worked our way up. It’s tough here; it’s tough at Barrie with Kennington, J.R., Ranger and Tagliani – there’s some good talent here. I love short track racing, I love racing close – but yeah, the road courses are killing us in the points deal but as long as we can keep winning ovals, we can keep the sponsors happy.”

After leading a chunk of the first half of the race, Hathaway would bring his No. 3 Rockstar Energy/Princess Auto/Fast Eddie Racewear Chevrolet down pit road under a lap 151 caution for Erica Theiring going around in turns three and four. The Ed Hakinson Racing driver then began to work his way back up through the field, retaking the lead from Fitzpatrick at lap 174.

He would stretch the lead out considerably till a caution flew at lap 221 for debris in turn three. Another good restart allowed Hathaway to keep the lead, however it wouldn’t be the last restart with three cautions in the span of 44 laps.

Following a restart with five to go after Anthony Simone went around virtue of contact from Joey McColm, Hathaway would get another good restart with six to go and was set to head straight home. However with two laps to go, Alex Tagliani got sideways off of turn four virtue of contact from McColm. Tagliani would slow up, causing Lapcevich to get into the back of him, before Tagliani went sideways and then hit McColm before the pair both hit the outside fronstretch wall for a caution. Tagliani would be done with a destroyed car, as the entire front end looked to be missing.

The incident would set up a green-white-checkered, in which Hathaway and Fitzpatrick would run side-by-side for both laps before Hathaway got the advantage at the line. For Fitzpatrick, it marks his second straight podium finish after scoring the victory last weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

“We were pretty good,” Fitzpatrick commented post-race. “Struggled quite a bit there at the beginning and put tires on it, small adjustment, but still not where we needed to be.”

The runner-up finish allows Fitzpatrick to go from 19 points behind L.P. Dumoulin to 16 points behind with one race to go.

“We gained a little bit of points,” Fitzpatrick added. “I don’t like to wish bad luck on anybody, but that’s what we need to win this championship with it being 16 points.”

D.J. Kennington would fight back after running mid-pack throughout the first half to finish third, followed the aforementioned L.P. Dumoulin. Dumoulin fought his way back after falling a lap down during the 92 green flag stretch at the beginning of the event. Lapcevich would round out the top five after getting into the wall when Steve Mathews blew the motor at lap 92, and going for a spin at lap 120 off of Simone’s front bumper.

“It was a busy race,” Lapcevich said. “There was a lot of action going on. Right off the get go, someone up front didn’t go and it sort of became a train in there. Then it sort of sorted out and it looked like pretty clean racing. Somebody blew up and I got in their oil and hit the wall pretty hard. I really thought our night was done then because it hit the right front really hard – it bent it up. Got going under caution and the wheels were still straight, which surprised me, so we kept going.

“All in all, a good night. We got turned around early and burnt our tires and had to take right sides early and that hurt us. There’s 200 laps on the right side by the end of the race, but all in all, got down a lap and got it back. The guys on pit road made good adjustments.

“Looking at the car, I’m happy to have a top-five because it doesn’t look like it’d finish that high.”

Joey McColm and Noel Dowler would finish sixth and seventh, rounding out the lead lap cars as only seven of the 16 starters finished on the lead lap.

Quebec natives Andrew Ranger and Alex Tagliani both had good nights going, but would ultimately not have the finishes they wanted. Ranger would have motor issues with about 100 laps to go while running second behind Fitzpatrick, while Tagliani was caught up in the late race wreck as mentioned previously. Tagliani had been running inside the top six throughout the whole night to date, including inside the top three within the final 120 laps.

“I think this is nonsense,” Tagliani commented post-race of the late race contact. “This is exactly what we told them not to do. We told them to give penalties to those who deserve penalties and without, this is going to happen again. I can’t be part of it. I can’t come here, work, spend money, advertise the series and sponsors and the series accepts for everybody to run like that. It is not what I believe in. We feel this behavior should be fixed by the series officials.”

Tagliani added post-race that he is contemplating his future in the series based on the turn of events after being taken out on four different occasions this year without action taken by the sanctioning body.

Fan favourites Scott Steckly and Mark Dilley both had their nights go south, as well, with Steckly having rear-end issues at lap 163 while Dilley got into the wall after getting into Mathews’ oil, before breaking something on the right front at lap 260.

Those who have momentum will be looking for another positive one. As for those who did not have the night they hoped, they will be looking to turn things around as the series heads to Kawartha Speedway in two weeks for the season finale.

Andrew Ranger has always been considered a road course ace and in need of some points to close in on the championship with three races to go, he is using those skills to his advantage. The Roxton, Pond native scored the pole for the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 with a lap of 83.261 seconds (106.321 mph) in the No. 27 Mopar/Exide Dodge to become the all-time series leader in pole awards with 15. It also marks Ranger’s record-fifth pole at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

Ranger enters this weekend sitting 26 points behind L.P. Dumoulin in the championship standings with three races to go, despite struggling earlier this season. If Ranger can win the championship this season, it will mark his third career championship. Fitzpatrick, who is currently tied with Ranger for second in points, will start second after posting a lap of 83.597 seconds. Fitzpatrick won the spring race at CTMP and holds the most victories on the 11-turn road course with four.

Marc Antoine Camirand will start third, followed by points leader L.P. Dumoulin and DJ Kennington. Kennington had to change the motor following the first practice after laying down a trail of fluid.

Scott Steckly qualified sixth, followed by Jeff Lapcevich, Robin Buck, Kerry Micks and Alex Tagliani.

Sunday’s Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 is scheduled to take the green flag at 10 a.m. EDT.

Following a crash in Friday night’s Verizon IndyCar Series practice at Auto Club Speedway, Mikhail Aleshin has been diagnosed with fractured ribs, a broken right clavicle, a concussion and chest injuries. INDYCAR added in their statement that the Russian was admitted to Loma Linda University Medical Center and listed in serious but stable condition.

Aleshin would get down below the white line in the corner, resulting in the car sliding sideways. He would then make contact with Charlie Kimball, before cartwheeling into the catch fence. Marco Andretti and Sebastian Bourdais also got a piece of the wreck.

Kimball, Andretti and Bourdais would all exit their cars under their own power, while Aleshin was helped from his car.  Aleshin had qualified eighth for the race during the qualifying session earlier in the evening.

The MAVTV 500 marks the final race of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season as Will Power looks to hold off Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud for his first career championship. Power enters the weekend with a 51 point lead, but qualified 21st for the race while Castroneves qualified pole. The race is set for the green flag at 9 p.m. EST.

It’s only practice and the action has already started as teams are working feverishly in the pit area to have the cars ready for qualifying later today, and tomorrow’s Printy’s presents the Clarington 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

J.R. Fitzpatrick would lead the first practice session with a lap of of one minute and 24.244 seconds as he looks to reach Canadian Tire Motorsports Park victory lane for the fifth time in his career.

Was fastest in practice with a car that isn’t comfortable to drive at all..also a small miss in the engine…getting it.all fixed

— J.R. Fitzpatrick (@J_R_Fitzpatrick) August 30, 2014

Current series points leader L.P. Dumoulin was second quickest, 0.149 seconds behind Fitzpatrick. Dumoulin enters the weekend sitting 27 points ahead of Fitzpatrick after winning last year’s Clarington 200. Following practice, Dumoulin’s team made the decision to change the transmission following issues late in the session.

Luc Lesage was third quickest, followed by Kerry Micks and DJ Kennington. Kennington is one of two drivers that laid down fluid on the track surface during practice; Kennington and Alex Tagliani had motor issues in practice and are changing them in hopes to get a couple of laps in the second practice to be ready for qualifying.

Andrew Ranger was sixth quickest, followed by Jason Hathaway, Tagliani, Peter Klutt and Joey McColm.

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will have one more practice at 1 p.m. EST before taking to the track for qualifying at 4:40 p.m. EST. The Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200 is scheduled for a 10 a.m. EST start on Sunday.