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Tag: NASCAR Canadian Tire Series

  • NCAT: Mark Dilley Looks To Turn Season Around in Toronto

    NCAT: Mark Dilley Looks To Turn Season Around in Toronto

    Going in Toronto, Mark Dilley is looking for the season to turn around as so far the best finish for the No. 9 Rheem/PartSource Dodge team is a fifth place finish at Circuit ICAR.

    The bad luck this season that has the hurt Dilley sees him sitting 10th in points, almost 200 points behind points leader Scott Steckly.

    “It hasn’t been very good for us,” he said of the season so far. “We’ve had a lot of bad luck, that’s for sure. But hopefully that’s all behind us and we just look forward to get going again and getting everything switched around here.”

    Heading into the Honda Indy Weekend in Toronto this weekend, Dilley is looking turn things around with a strong run.

    “It’s just a great event,” he said. “Anytime you can race through the streets of the biggest city in Canada, it’s pretty exciting. It’s a great event and we get to showcase ourselves from the NASCAR side in front of a lot of people who wouldn’t see us, if it wasn’t for that event. So pretty excited about it. We’ve always been pretty good there. Just need to have a good, strong run.”

    Last year wasn’t that great for Dilley in Toronto as he finished 24th due to a rear-axle issue after qualifying ninth.

    Unlike the top NASCAR levels, the Canadian Tire Series is split down the middle almost with ovals and road courses, as there are five road courses in the 12 race schedule. With that said, there are those who have brought up the discussion of which they’d perfer, in which Dilley points more towards ovals for him.

    “I’m more of an oval racer,” he said. “I raced ovals all my life, but I just think that unfortunately, the biggest events in the country are the road course racing so we have to be at those, too. I can see both sides of the coin, but for me personally,  I’m more of an oval racer.”

    Though on the bright side of things, things have been good for Dilley once he’s outside of the racecar this year. The track in Innisfil, Ontario, in which he manages called Sunset Speedway has seen a very good season so far with lots of success. Its not the easiest job for Dilley to have, however he thanks his staff for their work they do in helping.

    “It’s tough,” he said of trying to balance racing and managing the track. “There’s a lot of stuff that goes on at the same time; that’s the biggest thing. We do have good staff that work for us at Sunset that can take up a lot of slack, but there’s just a lot of things that happening on the same weekends. Like, this weekend for example, we have Toronto Indy Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we also have two events at Sunset on Saturday and Sunday, so I’m going to be back-and-forth and running around and that, but its been pretty good so far.”

    He got into the ownership side of things back in the 1990s when he was the part-owner of Barrie Speedway.

    “Well, I actually owned Barrie Speedway back in the early 1990s with a buddy of mine – Brad, who actually runs the Canadian Tire Series now, we owned Barrie before,” he said. “I’ve just always liked it. When we got involved in this, they put a team of owners together that had money to back it and really wanted to make a difference and they’ve done that by the investment they’ve made into the track, redoing the track. Just whatever they said they’d do, they’ve done and it’s been good to work with partners like that where they have the money to repave the track, redo it and a real fast and exciting place to be. So that was really what the biggest part of me was when they put the owners group together, they made a commitment that they’d put money in and they’ve stayed to their word 100%.”

    So far this season, the competition level at Sunset Speedway has been great with the amount cars and differnet winners, however Dilley admits the crowds have been down.

    “The crowds have been a bit light,” he said. “On the initial part, but its just weather, but now its getting better. But when it rains every weekend on Saturday, its hard to get people to come; nobody is going to sit around in the rain, that’s for sure.”

    This summer marks an important time for Sunset Speedway as the Sunset will be one of the five tracks that are part of the Richard Petty Driving Experience Canadian Summer Tour.

    “I’m excited about it,” he said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for people to be able to get in a car, the same as what they see on Sundays with the Sprint Cup level. I think that its very exciting and I really believe that the pricing is right with it and I think it’ll be a huge success once it gets rolling. I just think that it’s an awesome opportunity and it’s really awesome of the Richard Petty Driving Experience to come to Canada and showcase what they have.”

    Dilley got his start in racing through go-karts at the age of six after watching his grandpa race and has since been winning races, with his most memorable coming in Nova Scotia a couple years ago.

    “It was pretty good for me,” he said of the win. “My mom had just passed a couple weeks before so it was kind of a big one.”

  • NCAT: Scott Steckly Carries Momentum and Points Lead in Toronto

    NCAT: Scott Steckly Carries Momentum and Points Lead in Toronto

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”200″][/media-credit]The beginning of the 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Season couldn’t had gone any better for Scott Steckly as so far he sits first in points, 48 points ahead of J.R. Fitzpatrick.

    “It’s a great start to the season that we’ve had so far,” he said. “We have a win, two seconds and a fifth place finish, which is very important to get off to a good start in our series, which only has 12 races. One or two bad races can take you out of the points so to get out off to a good start is very important and that’s what we’ve done.”

    The win, which came in the first race of the season at Mosport Raceway, opened up the gates to a season that has been full of success for the driver of the No. 22 Canadian Tire Dodge. The win was followed by a pair of second place finishes at Circuit ICAR and Delaware. The last race for the series was last month back at Mosport, though on the road course, which resulted in a fifth place finish after starting on pole.

    This weekend, the Canadian Tire Series will be running the Exhibition Place course located in Toronto, as part of the Honda Indy Toronto weekend.

    “It’s a very important race for us,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of cars at Toronto so we definitely don’t want to get a DNF. The road courses attract a lot of cars so we need a good solid finish here at Toronto. We definitely are going to try for a very first road course win. It’s definitely very important for our sponsors to be in Toronto racing at the Indy so we’re looking for great things this weekend.”

    For Steckly, his first start in Toronto came last year in which he finished 11th after starting 10th. Though for the most part, road courses aren’t the better area of emphasis for the driver from Milverton, Ontario as he grew up racing on ovals. However, the current Canadian Tire Series schedule has five road courses with a total of 12 events.

    “I would rather have more ovals,” Steckly commented. “That’s just because I grew up racing on oval tracks. We get better results on oval tracks, that’s for sure. We do decent on the road courses. We’ve had four or five second place finishes. We can normally run in the top five, but we’ve never got a win on a road course. We getting closer every year so we’re putting a lot of emphasis on the road courses this year and trying to get a win.”

    Steckly got into racing originally through some friends, which saw them build a street stock and have him as the driver in 1992. From there, he progressed through the local ranks till he joined the CASCAR ranks in 1999, winning rookie of the year his first year out. He continued to compete in CASCAR till it was renamed the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in 2007.

    Since the series has been called the Canadian Tire Series, Steckly has won one championship, which came in 2008 after winning four races and having four second place finishes that season.

    Throughout the years, there have been many memorable highlights, though a win in 2009 at Auto Clearing Speedway in Saskatoon is the highlight.

    “I would say my most memorable win is Saskatoon in 2009,” he said. “We blew a motor in practice. We had to borrow a motor from another competitor and we started at the rear of the field and we came from the rear of the field to win the race. So I’d say that’s my memorable win.”

    There also have been many lessons learned behind the wheel, but the one that still stands out is respect.

    “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to treat the other competitors and people the way you would like to be treated. Its not like anybody is going away in this sport. I’ve raced against the same guys for the past 10 years so I think its really important to be yourself and treat people the way you would want to be treated.”

  • NCAT: Jarred Whissell Scores Best Career Finish of 12th at Mosport

    For some drivers, its about going for the wins while for others, its accomplishing those smaller goals. For Jarrad Whissell, he accomplished the lather of the two as he scored a best career finish of twelfth at Mosport International Raceway near Bowmanville, Ontario this past weekend.

    “With all the little issues we had this week twelfth would seem like a pretty good finish, but when you’re running tenth and fighting for another spot or two it’s a bit frustrating too,” he explained.

    The Calgary, Alberta native struggled in practice with his No. 44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu Ford with mechanical issues as the team worked on diagnosing an engine miss.

    “One of the fuel lines to the carburetor wasn’t hooked up properly,” Whissell explained.  “We expected to be better in qualifying but never got the opportunity to try things out.”

    Qualifying wouldn’t be an issue as it was rained out with the field lined up according to NASCAR rule book, which set Whissell in the 23rd starting position. Whissell knew he had to begin his march early, though ran into more mechanical issues.

    “The car had a pretty bad vibration right from the start of the race,” he said.  “We made a couple of pit stops and the team figured out it was a wheel bearing.  Unfortunately we lost a lap while they made repairs.”

    The problems would continue throughout the race as, “The car was a handful to drive throughout the race.  The power steering would come and go as the wheel was turned and post race we found a loose tie rod end.”

    Though Whissell would continue to work his way through and a caution came out, which allowed Whissell to get back on the lead lap, with another quick caution bunching the field up so he could try to gain more positions. Whissell kept working his way up through the field, though a battle with Howie Scannell, Jr. slowed his progress.

    “I got a run on him and was looking to make the pass up the inside but he kind of pushed me onto the grass,” he explained after the race.  “Instead spinning him out I gave way.  When I tried again on the final lap he came across the nose of my car and to avoid him I spun and couple of cars got by me so we wound up finishing twelfth.”

    Jarrad Whissell will be ready to tackle the next Canadian Tire Series race next weekend on July 9th at Exhibition Place in Toronto.

    For more information on Whissell, check out www.jarradwhissell.com and follow him on twitter, @jarredwhissell. All of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series races  will once again be shown on TSN.

  • Race #4 for NASCAR Canadian Tire Series: Vortex Brake Pads 200 at Mosport

    Opening in 1961, Mosport International Raceway is a track that many Canadian motorsports fan know of and have been too. The 10-turn, 2.459-mile road course also has been on the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series schedule since the first year in 2007.

    On that first race on June 17, 2007, it was then 20-year-old Andrew Ranger winning the event in just his third stock car start after switching from open-wheel racing. Ranger won the 2009 event, as well, though will not be racing in this year’s event.

    Winning the other two races was JR Fitzpatrick, who will attempt the Road America-Mosport double. On Saturday June 25th, he will run the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Road America for Go Canada Racing after scoring a top 10 there last year for JR Motorsports. He follow that by running the Vortex Brake Pads 200 on Sunday at Mosport. The Cambridge, Ontario native has led 72 laps on the Mosport road course and is known for how he runs on them as five of his six career wins have come on road courses. So far this year, he has had a successful start to the season, finishing in the top 10 all three races.

    The 10-turn course, though, will pose a chalelnge as according to Robin Buck, series competitor and instructor.

    “The pretty drastic elevation change along with a couple blind turns makes Mosport fairly unique,” Buck, who got his career win earlier this year at Circuit ICAR, said. “It’s a driver’s course, but long straightaway from Moss Corner to The Esses requires horsepower regardless of what kind of car you are in.”

    One of the parts of the track to watch is the Mario Andretti Straightaway.

    “If you have a car that can’t pull up that straightaway, then you’re going to have a long day at Mosport,” Fitzpatrick said.

    Another part of the race to watch will be the pit stops as with this being the longest of the five road courses, it requires at least one pit stop. Once a caution comes out, teams will have a tough decision to make as series rules mandate teams cannot change tires and fuel the car under the same stop.

    “There’s going to be a caution at some point,” veteran driver Kerry Micks said. “The odds of the race going green-white-checkered are pretty slim. So, when a caution does come, you have to decide what’s most important at the time – fuel or tires. Obviously, a fuel stop under green is easier than changing tires but everything depends on those yellows.”

    Last year, Micks scored his best finish ever at Mosport as he finished fifth, well the previous three starts resulted in a high finish of 16th. He has had success on the road courses despite that as he has two road course wins, both coming in 2007.

    Depending on how a driver works the strategy and drives the course will depend if they find success or not. For those who do, it will mean a lot.

    “Practically every racing fan in Canada has heard of Mosport and knows of its history,” defending champion DJ Kennington said. “For sponsors, it’s an easy drive from Toronto. The setting at the track is comfortable. It’s not cramped. All in all, it’s a good setting and if your sponsors are there, then you want to win.”

  • Race #3 for NASCAR Canadian Tire Series: Keystone Light 200

    This weekend’s race at Delaware Speedway on Saturday June 11th marks the third race of the 12 race schedule for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. It also marks the third visit to the half mile oval.

    The past two visits there, defending series champion D.J. Kennington is two-for-two as he won both races after starting third in 2009 and on pole last season. In the 422 laps at Delaware, Kennington has led 246 of them and has nine victories overall. It was Delaware last year where the Canadian Tire Series began their season and the win marked the beginning of the championship run. Sitting seven in the points, 97 points behind Scott Steckly, Delaware is definitely a welcoming sight to the No. 17 team.

    Meanwhile, it was Steckly winning race number one at Mosport Raceway and having a solid finish at Circuit ICAR to now lead the standings, 30 points over Don Thomson Jr. Steckly, the 2008 series champion, finished third in 2009 and 16th in 2010 so Delaware looks to be a mixed bag as he goes for his 10th career victory.

    Thomson Jr. comes into Delaware Speedway with a new team this year, though is looking for more success to add to the last couple of years as he had had seven straight top-five finishes dating back to last year. Delaware hasn’t been the best track for Thomson, however, as he finished 21st last season after radiator issues and 10th in 2009.

    The only other driver to have any type of success at Delaware besides Steckly is Mark Dilley, who holds the track record at 19.133 seconds, after winning the pole in 2009. He hasn’t been able to crack the top-10 in regards to finishing as he finished 16th in 2009 and 12th last season.

    While most drivers come into Delaware Speedway with a lot of experience, rookie Steve Mathews doesn’t as he looks to continue the success he’s had this season this weekend. Last weekend, he finished 18th on the road course. Though at the first of the race on the oval, he got his second career top-10 of 10th.

    “Delaware is a fun place to race and I am excited to return as I am comfortable and confident there after many late model races and a strong 2010 outing,” Mathews said in his team’s preview.

    While race is set to be run Saturday, it won’t be televised till  Sunday, June 26 at 1 p.m. ET on TSN.

  • Jason White Scores First Top 10 at Circuit ICAR in NASCAR Canadian Tire Series

    After having a frustrating weekend last week at Mosport, Jason White was ready to rebound strong this weekend at Circuit ICAR north of Montreal, Quebec. White did that as despite not having a lot of experience on the road courses, he brought home the No. 21 A&W Dodge in the top 10.

    “I knew there was going to be all kinds of carnage on those final two laps,” White said of the final green-white-checkered.  “I just kept my wits about me and stuck it in there when I had the chance and made a couple of passes in those last two laps.”

    This marks the first top-10 for White with his new crew chief Derek Lynch.

    “It’s been a long time coming” he said afterwards.  “My Crew Chief Derek Lynch and the whole team gave me a car I could drive and not have it drive me.  I’ve got to thank all the guys for their hard work this weekend.  This whole team is super excited to get back into our oval car and get to Delaware next weekend.”

    Following testing, White said he was just looking for a solid run on the 2.11 mile road course that was laid out on the Mirabel Airport.

    “It’s a very tight course and really technical,” White explained.  “Our team wanted to set the car up to run very consistently throughout the race” he added.

    Qualifying wouldn’t be as perfect as he would’ve liked as he’d qualify 17th for the 30-lap race.

    “I really wanted to get under a time of one minute forty for a lap and we just missed,” White said.  “But I was able to run those laps times all through practice and qualifying which set us up nicely for the race.”

    So when it came to the beginning of the race, White knew he had be patient and slowly work his way up front.

    “Through the first part of the race the #21 A & W Dodge Challenger was really consistent and we picked up a couple of spots and got up close to tenth and I thought we were in pretty good shape,” White said.

    The next event for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will be this coming Saturday June 11th at Delaware Speedway near London, Ontario.  The race from Circuit ICAR can be seen on TSN Sunday June 12th at 11AM Eastern.

    Race fans can follow Jason White through his website http://www.jasonwhiteracing.com and on twitter @racinjasonwhite

  • Robin Buck Scores First NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Win at Circuit ICAR

    In the final laps, Alex Tagliani and Andrew Ranger made contact, which opened up the door for Robin Buck to capitalize and score his first career NCTS victory in the inaugural visit to Circuit ICAR.

    On lap 28, Tagliani and Ranger made contact as they battled for the lead heading into turn 11 on the 15-turn, 2.113-mile road course. The incident caused Tagliani, who had led a race-high 24 laps after winning the Keystone Light Pole Award, to hit the guard rail, which brought out the caution. NASCAR then penalized Ranger a pass-through penalty for aggressive driving.

    Ranger had made his way through the field after starting at the back after missing qualifying yesterday due to another racing commitment. The penalty caused Ranger to finish 21st, while Tagliani worked is way back to eighth on the final green-white-checkered.

    Scott Steckly, last week’s race winner, finished second, followed by Don Thompson Jr., L.P. Dumoulin and Mark Dilley. Jeff Lapcevich finished sixth while JR Fitzpatrick fought his way back to seventh after having a flat tire on lap 26. Tagliani was eighth while John Farano and Jason White rounded out the top 10.

    The race was slowed by a total of four cautions as the first came out on lap seven for debris in turn 13. The second caution was for Isabelle Tremblay stopping in turn 11 on lap 14 while the third was on lap 24 for debris in turn three.

    The race will air on TSN at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday June 12th while the next Canadian Tire Series race is Keystone Light 200 at Delaware Speedway on Saturday June 11th.

  • Race #2 For NASCAR Canadian Tire Series: Grand Prix ICAR

    This weekend’s race on June 5th marks the second race of the season for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, though the first ever visit for the series to Circuit ICAR in Mirabel, Quebec.

    While the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series drivers only visit two or three road courses a year, the Canadian Tire Series competes on a number of different road courses across Canada. The 2.113 mile course marks the sixth different road course, joining Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Circuit de Trois-Rivieres, Edmonton City Centre Airport, Mosport International Raceway and Toronto’s Exhibition Place.

    The series has competed on road courses for a total of 17 times, with only four drivers accounting for wins – Andrew Ranger (9), J.R. Fitzpatrick (5), Kerry Micks (2) and Alex Tagliani (1). With all four entered into this weekend’s race, it’s no question that it’s going to be a fight down to the checkered.

    Ranger is the driver that most fans focus on when it comes to choosing a winner as he has nine road course wins, including three last year at Montreal, Toronto and Trois-Rivieres. He knows how to compete well in the series as he is a two-time series champion and has won eight of the last 10 Canadian Tire Series road course races that he has ran. Ranger has experience beyond the Canadian Tire Series as he won a K&N Pro Series West race on a road course and won the ARCA New Jersey Motorsports Park road course race earlier this month.

    Meanwhile, a lot of people believe that Fitzpatrick is a stronger oval driver, however some would argue that his stats showcase him as a better road course driver. He has six wins in the series to date, in which five of those have come on road courses – Mosport, Edmonton and Montreal. He is also very consistent as he has finished in the top five nine times in his 16 Canadian Tire Series road course starts, with four of those starts coming from the pole position. He also has experience beyond the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series level as he scored two top 10s last year for JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series on road courses.

    Though one of the most talked about drivers coming into this weekend is Alex Tagliani after he qualified on pole for the Indianapolis 500 last month. The Quebec born driver has had a good season to start as he currently sits ninth in IZOD IndyCar Series Championship points and look to continue that success this weekend. He has made eight Canadian Tire Series road course starts, with one lonely win coming at Edmonton City Centre Airport in 2008.

    The last past road course winner to watch is Kerry Micks, who is a driver with probably the most experience. He is one of seven drivers who has competed in all 52 series races to date and has two wins, eight top-fives and 12 top-10s in 17 starts on the road courses. He also was one of the most consistent drivers last year on the road courses as he finished inside the top five in four of the five events and has top 10s in six of his last eight starts dating back to last year.

    Beyond those who have tasted champagne at a road course before, eyes will also be on Scott Steckly, who won the race at Mosport last weekend and currently leads the point standings, 15 points over Pete Shepherd III. Like Micks, Steckly has ran all 52 races in series history and in 17 road-course starts, he has nine top-fives and 11 top-10 finishes.

    While the race is set to be run on Sunday, practice and qualifying will be run on Saturday. The race will be shown on TSN on June 12th at 11 a.m. ET while live updates will be available through http://hometracks.nascar.com.