It was just one year ago at London’s Delaware Speedway that Doug Brown and his teammates experienced a dreaded DNF in the season opener of the CASCAR Super Series season. Oil pressure problems forced an early end to their afternoon after 132 laps of the scheduled 250-lap event.
This year it was deja vous (all over again) as the NAPA Autopro team suffered a similar fate in the Series opener only this time it was lap 32 when the problem forced an early ending for the Brantford-based team.
Brown had a strong qualifying run, good enough for 14th in the 30 car field and actually started the event 13th when a problem was detected in Ron Beauchamp’ new Dodge Charger during post time trial inspections.
The Brantford driver was running strong and had moved up to 12th during the early going pacing himself with the leaders until the problem arose following a restart.
"Sure, it’s disappointing to start the season this way but we battled back last year and we’ll do it again this year," the upbeat Brantford veteran commented when discussing his 28th-place finish. "There were other contenders who also had their problems, so we are not alone, " he added, looking at the results of Sunday’s race.
Ron Beauchamp Jr. of Windsor led an all-Dodge sweep of the podium finishers in capturing the MOPAR 250 with Dave Whitlock of Wyoming and Mark Dilley of Barrie bringing their Chrysler products home in second and third spots respectively.
The win for Beauchamp was particularly sweet in that he had to start at the back of the 30-car field after being penalized for a height problem by technical inspectors.
Defending Champion Don Thomson Jr. of Hamilton finished fourth followed by J R Fitzpatrick of Ayr, Jim Lapcevich of Hamilton, Ron Sheridan of Strathroy, Peter Gibbons of Stouffville with Jeff Lapcevich of Caistor Centre rounding out the top nine finishers on the lead lap. All were running Chevrolets.
Doug Brown wasn’t the only one suffering from an early season disappointment during the Victoria Day weekend event.
Last season’s Rookie of the Year, Pete Shepherd Jr. of Brampton had a strong run going with the leaders until a similar engine problem developed in his Atto and Associates sponsored Dodge forcing him to retire on lap 165. Perennial championship contender Kerry Micks of Mount Albert had oil pump failure on lap 195 and wound up 24th. Other early retirees included Chad McGlynn of Petersburg (oil leak –lap 53), Stu Robinson Jr. of Holland Landing (damaged radiator –lap 32) and Ron Van Es of Smithville (broken rocker arm –lap 117). Scott Steckley of Milverton and Brad Graham of Glencoe also finished several laps down due to mechanical problems.
The next event of the CASCAR Super Series schedule is June 4th at the flat 4-10th-miile oval at St. Eustache on the outskirts of Montreal.
No comments:
Post a Comment