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  • Race No. 9 of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Season: NAPA Autopro 100 in Montreal

    For race no. 9 of the 12 race schedule, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will be heading to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the NAPA Autopro 100. This marks the fifth and final road course for the Canadian Tire Series drivers this year and fifth time they’ve been to this particular track in series history.

    In two of the races on the 2.709-mile road course, Andrew Ranger has two victories, including one last year that came as a result of a  controversial last lap wreck.

    On the last lap, Ranger and Jason Bowles went into turn 10 side-by-side, where contact forced Ranger outside of the racing groove. Then down in turns 13 and 14, contact was made sending Bowles into the wall.

    “I don’t talk a lot about it,” Bowles said recently. “I know what he did. He knows what he did and things like that come back to you at some point.”

    Bowles, a native of Ontario, California, is looking for his first NASCAR Canadian Tire Series victory after competiting in the NASCAR K&N West Series and winning four road courses as well as the 2009 championship. This weekend’s race will mark his fifth start in the Canadian Tire Series.

    Ranger, meanwhile, is looking for his 14th Canadian Tire Series victory and 11th road course win. He has one road course victory this year, which came at Toronto in July. The 2-time series champion is an accomplished road racer as to go with the wins in 2008 and last year, he finished second in 2007 and 2009 in Montreal.

    The only other two drivers to win at Circuit Gilles Villenueve are J.R. Fitzpatrick and Kerry Micks.

    Fitzpatrick, a native of Cambridge, Ontario, won the 2009 NAPA Autopro 100 while finishing 18th last season due to mechanical problems early in the race. He has led the most laps at Montreal (42) and five of his six career wins have come on road courses.

    Micks, a native of Mount Albert, Ontario, won the first race in Montreal in 2007 and has since scored a pair of thirds, along with a sixth last season. Micks has two road course victories.

    Though the driver to watch this reason is Robin Buck, who is a road course instructor. Earlier this season, he scored his first Canadian Tire Series victory at Circuit ICAR in June, followed by a win at Circuit de Trois-Rivieres on August 7th. He has had success at Montreal, too, as he finished third in both 2007 and 2010.

    As the seaosn draws to a close, everybody will also have their eyes on the championship as Scott Steckly comes into this weekend leading D.J. Kennington by 47 points.

    Steckly’s best finish at Montreal came in 2008 when he finished second, to go with the fifth in 2007 and fourth last year. The 2008 series champion has been on a roll as he has finished inside the top five in seven of the last eight starts.

    Meanwhile for Kennington, the defending series champion, he finished fourth in Montreal three consecutive times before finishing 28th in 2010.

  • NCAT: Jason Bowles Wins The Pole For The Streets of Toronto 100

    NCAT: Jason Bowles Wins The Pole For The Streets of Toronto 100

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    Jason Bowles ready to go out and practice.

    Jason Bowles, the one lone non-Canadian driver in the 33 car field, won the Keystone Light Pole Award with a lap of 1 minute, 16.260 seconds to break Andrew Ranger’s track record.

    “It was a good lap,” he said. “When we first went out, there was a little bit of speedy dry on the track, so it was a little bit tricky to get through that section on the second lap. But the car’s pretty good. It’s good to have Fuel Doctor on board this week and get the pole for them, our first one of the year. My guys have brought me a great car. I think it’s going to be a great race. Andrew and Scott will be tough tomorrow. We’re going to go out and I think we’re ready.”

    The pole marks the first NASCAR Canadian Tire Series pole for the driver from Ontario, California. Bowles has been a successful road course racer as he has nine K&N Pro Series West wins on road courses.

    Ranger, who set the record at 1:16.659 last year, qualified second for this weekend’s race with a fast lap of 1:16.526.

    “Well, I think its been alright,” he said. “I think we have a really good car. Jason is a little bit quicker than us, but its going to be a good race tomorrow. It’s a long race, a lot of things can happen here in the streets in Toronto. But above that, I think we’ve got a really good car for tomorrow.”

    The pair, Bowles and Ranger, finished 1-2 in last year’s race with Ranger coming out the winner.

    Points Leader Scott Steckly, meanwhile, qualified third with a lap of 1:17.002.

    “It was just another qualifying run,” he said afterwards. “Toronto isn’t one of our best tracks, that’s for sure. We put a lot of extra resources in it trying to get better here and car’s been good here so far so we’re just happy to be starting upfront.”

    Kerry Micks and Don Thomson Jr. rounded out the top five. Defending series champion D.J. Kennington qualified sixth, followed by Robin Buck, Peter Klutt, J.R. Fitzpatrick and Jeff Lapcevich. Louis-Phillippe Dumoulin was the highest rookie in 11th.

    After crashing during practice, John Farano, Noel Dowler and Ray Courtemanche Jr. did not  attempt to qualify as they were still repairing their cars.  Hugo Vannini and Kennington were also involved in wrecks, however both made a qualifying attempts with Kennington ending up 6th and Vannini in 30th. Kennington’s team continued repairs after qualifying, which could see Kennington starting at the rear as a result of unapproved changes.

    Many teams experienced mechanical difficulties during practice as Micks stalled during practice, Mark Dilley made an engine change although he qualified 14th and Jason White changed a drive train before qualifying 18th. None of the above will have to drop the rear as their changes were made before qualifying and therefore don’t fall under the Canadian Tire Series Impound procedure.

    The race is set for 2pm EST on Saturday, with it being shown on TSN on July 17th.

  • Jason Bowles Wins NASCAR All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway; Pastrana Sixth

    Jason Bowles Wins NASCAR All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway; Pastrana Sixth

    Every year, the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway produces high-octane excitement that includes chaos at every end of the track with wrecks and debates. The 2011 showing didn’t disappoint as it included controversy, lots of wrecks and a brand new winner.

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    (C)NASCAR Home Tracks
    Jason Bowles has won nine K&N Pro Series races, has come close before – though had never won the overall event to date. That all changed on January 30th as Bowles took the checkered flag after some of the other leaders ran into problems.

    “I knew I had a good car going into the race and there were so many things that happened that was I able to avoid,” Bowles said after the race. “I just got a huge jump there and that was it.”

    Being the race leader didn’t seem to be the position to be wanted most of the night as most drivers who fell into that sport didn’t fare too well.

    Pole sitter and series rookie Derek Thorn started on pole and led all the first 100 laps to the first break, though falling back, he got passed for the lead by Andrew Myers. Myers led all the way to lap 191, when he had a flat right rear, causing him to make an unscheduled pit stop. Bowles inherited the lead, though it didn’t last long as Paulie Harraka bumped and banged his way past.

    “We got a good racecar,” Harraka said under the break that followed. “To be honest, I didn’t know we had taken the lead. I knew we were marching to the front, I knew we’d be in the top five, but I didn’t know we’d be the leader. I’m having a blast. I’m having a lot of fun. We never get a 100 green flag laps ever at Toyota Speedway but I am having a lot of fun.”

    Harraka then led all the way till 16 to go when Thorn slid up to him, taking him out with others.

    “He came down on me,” Thorn told his crew on the radio after the incident

    “He flat took me out,” Harraka told his crew.

    As a result of Thorn’s intentions, NASCAR black-flagged Thorn for rough driving, sending him to the tail end of the lead. Bowles once again inhereited the lead, though this time it was Greg Pursley passing him with 14 to go. The caution then came out with 11 to go as Dale Quarterly, Troy Ermish and Cole Cabrera got caught up in a wreck, setting up a restart with nine to go.

    “We’re going to need to pull out nine qualifying laps here,” Pursley said under the caution. “This is what we’ve worked for – staying up front and staying out of trouble so we’re going to need nine qualifying laps,:

    However on a restart, Pursley’s plans fell through as he  had a flat tire, pulling out of the racing line to allow the field to past. Bowles then held off a late race charge from D.J. Kennington to win the race.

    Kennington, the 2010 Canadian Tire Series Champion, finished second in his first NASCAR outing south of the border.

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    (C)Sal Sigala Jr.
    “Absolutely, really really proud of everybody on this race team,” Kennington said afterwards. “All my guys are here – its so amazing. I watched this race last year on my couch, its great to be here.”

    Meawwhile, Jonathan Gomez finished third after smoking for most of the race due to an oil leak.

    “It was a handful out there,” Gomez said. “The middle section – 100 laps straight, no cautions, that was a nice break as we know what the last one was going to be. The first run, the car was a little free, made an adjustment and the car was a little tight – didn’t have the forward bite for the win.”

    Luis Martinz Jr. and Johnny Borneman rounded out the top five, while Travis Pastrana finished sixth.

    The Showdown marked the first-ever NASCAR start for the 11-gold medal x-game winner as he begins his stint in NASCAR with Michael Waltrip.

    “Man, it’s awesome,” Pastrana said afterwards. “I can’t say enough about the entire Waltrip crew. (Matt) Crafton did an awesome job guiding me through all this chaos. I finally got the car loosened up those last 25. I finally felt that I had something going. Three-wide is awesome – I actually got to go four-wide sometimes. I had an awesome time out there. I am super pumped. This sport is so much fun out there and I’ve got a lot to learn.”

    Pastrana went through the learning curve as both times under the breaks, the team made the adjustments on the car that were needed.

    “I’ve been tight so I said I want it loose,” Pastrana commented under the second segment. “Harry said loose is fast so I wanted to drop the Days of Thunder on this. So hopefully we don’t spin the car out on the first lap as we drop the hammer on this one.”

    He also fought through the field like a veteran, fighting hard with competitors to stay on the lead lap and get his sixth place finish.

    Derek Thorn, Travis Motley, Moses Smith and NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Steve Wallace rounded out the top 10.