LONDON, ON - With new sponsor ALTRUCK International Truck Centres on board for this Victoria Day Weekend race at Delaware Speedway, Scott Steckly was looking to get off to a good start this season by trying to finish in the top-10. Qualifying for the Mopar 250 was held on Saturday May 21.
Steckly was on of the last drivers to take their 2 laps around the half-mile oval. The Erb Group/ ALTRUCK International Pontiac struggled to a 16th place start in the field of 30. Realizing something was wrong with the car Crew Chief Ken Gropp decided that a change of engines would be the way to get the #22 car to the front on race day. The crew worked late on Saturday night changing the engine. However, CASCAR rules state that if a team makes any changes after qualifying they must start at the very back of the field. Steckly would start in the 28th position on Sunday.
Prior to the race Steckly said that “starting from the back would be a big challenge, to get to the front” but he knew he would be up to the test. The Erb Group/ ALTRUCK International Pontiac narrowly avoided a collision three-laps into the race, when the #60 of Ron Beauchamp Jr. spun #44 of Marv Wilder. Steckly had to drive high up the track to avoid the cars. The Milverton native, Steckly continued to move up the positions and by lap 85; he was up to seventh place.
Twenty laps later the first of Steckly’s problems on the day started. While under caution on lap 105, the Erb Group/ ALTRUCK International Pontiac Grand Prix came to a halt on the back straight. He ended up being stopped on the back for over a lap until the tow-truck came and pushed the #22 car into the pit.
The problem was deemed to be that two wires going to the distributor had melted together and caused the engine to stop. Shortly thereafter, under another caution the problem started up again. This time an extended stop on pit road was needed to fix the same problem that had happened before.
The Erb Group/ ALTRUCK International pit crew pulled the original two wires replaced them with two new ones and with that the problem was fixed. However, by the time Scott Steckly returned to the race he was 18 laps down to the leader. Scott had to ride out the final 100 laps, unable to make many real significant passes for position. Steckly ended up finishing in 22nd position. Following the race Steckly said “one race doesn’t determine the season, but we know that we are going to need some consistently high finishes to have a chance of winning the championship”.
Steckly will look get on a roll in 2 weeks when the CASCAR Super Series travels to St. Eustache, Quebec for the Whelen Engineering 200 on June 4th. Steckly’s last visit to St. Eustache resulted in a 2nd place finish. The 22 Racing team is looking forward to a strong finish at a track Steckly has done well at. The #22 Pontiac will be making a show appearance at Metro International St. Laurent on Friday, June 3rd. Metro International St. Laurent is the sponsoring International dealer for the St. Eustache race. Metro has locations in St. Laurent and Les Coteaux, PQ, Toronto, ON, as well as Moncton, NB and Dartmouth, NS.
Immediately after the St Eustache race the 22 Racing Pontiac Grand Prix will be traveling to the Atlantic Truck Show in Moncton, NB which is held at the Moncton Coliseum on June 10 and 11. Stop by your local International Truck and Engine dealer or visit the Atlantic Truck Show and see all the new International Trucks!
- From Kyle Erb
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