Sunday, August 16, 2009


August 16, 2009. A last minute change in plans by Ron Beauchamp Jr. and the #60 Mopar Parts Dodge Avenger team worked out very well at round number nine of the 2009 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at Trois Rivieres, Quebec. The team had planned on debuting a newly built road course car at the event, but instead of rushing it to completion converted one of their oval cars for the race and grabbed a top-five finish.

The team really didn’t now what to expect when they first put the Mopar Parts Dodge on the track for practice but the speed was there from the beginning session and right through qualifying. “I’ve got to give the crew a lot of credit for getting the car ready for this weekend” said Beauchamp. “We had a very good race car right from the time we pulled it off the truck” said the driver.

Beauchamp would begin the 100km main event Sunday afternoon from the eighth starting position and decided to proceed with caution in the early laps knowing there were several notoriously hard chargers in the race. “At first everyone was going hard, so I had to go pretty hard” he stated. “And then mid race I backed it off a little bit. Afte going pretty hard it was kind of heating things up a bit and I had to adjust some rear brake out of the car, it was starting to get a little free in the corners” stated the driver.

As the race passed the mid point there were a couple of full course caution periods that also worked in the favour of the Mopar Parts Dodge Avenger driver. “The cautions came at the right time and kind of cooled everything down a bit” said Ron Jr. “After everything cooled off I could go pretty hard again” he stated.

The race would come down to a green, white checkered finish and in the final two laps Beauchamp had his sights set on improving his fifth place position but the former Indy 500 and Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve was the man he had to pass. “on the final restart I was on him pretty good and he was slowing me down in a couple of corners” said Beauchamp “I really had some good runs on him, we had a bit more horsepower but I just didn’t have quite enough time to get around him” said the Mopar Parts Dodge driver.

Claiming a fifth place finish, Beauchamp would make it six top-five finishes this season for Team Mopar. “The converted car worked really well for us” he stated. “We ran some really good laps and it was a great decision to run that car. We got a really solid finish and we have that little bit of extra time to prepare the new car for the next race in Montreal” he added.

After nine races Ron Beauchamp Jr. moves up one spot to third in the overall championship standings.

The 2009 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series heads back to Quebec in two weeks for round number ten on Sunday August 30th as part of the Nationwide series weekend at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Team Mopar will participate in all thirteen events that take place on ovals, road courses and temporary street circuits. You can follow the action all year long with the television broadcasts on TSN. For more information about Team Mopar and Ron Beauchamp Jr. at http://www.beauchampmotorsports.com/ and don’t forget to vote for Ron Jr. as the series most popular driver. Click here to cast your vote.

Photo caption: Ron Beauchamp Jr. in the Mopar Parts Dodge




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