Courtesy JAJ Entertainment
(Bowmanville, Ontario) – Don Thomson Jr. and his Home Hardware Chevrolet Monte Carlo arrived in the hills of Bowmanville, coming off two top-five finishes to open the 2005 CASCAR Super Series campaign. Those finishes put the four-time defending champion second in points heading to the site of his first career win from 1991 on the tricky Mosport road course, just nine markers behind pace-setter Ron Beauchamp Jr. Event number three of the tour was the Clarington 200, presented by Berms R Us, as part of the Father’s Day 500 festivities at Mosport.
The weekend started with a Saturday practice session and Thomson was quickest during the warm-ups.
Competition started later on Saturday afternoon with a pair of timed qualifying sessions. Peter Gibbons was the fastest in one session while Thomson took the fastest lap in the other session. When the results of the two sessions were combined Gibbons lap of one minute 26.183 seconds was less then four-tenths of a second faster then Thomson, enough to give Gibbons the pole and put the Home Hardware Chevrolet on the outside of the front row. “A session like that is very tough, because you have to get a clean lap. On my fastest lap I still had to deal with a couple of cars that were two wide through turn nine, or we might have had another pole.”
Sunday’s feature rolled off with Thomson on the outside of the front row, but before the field had completed one lap the # 4 machine had passed Gibbons and taken the lead. “I think Peter spun the tires on the start and I was able to take the lead.” Thomson would build his lead to over 10 seconds until lap 17 when he rolled to pit road at the attention of the Home Hardware crew. “There was a big wreck on the track and I figured that we would get a full-course yellow, so I came to the pits for our four tires and when the caution came out I caught back up to the field.”
After restarting at the back of the pack, Thomson worked his way through cars that were on old tires, carving towards the front, with road course ace Jeff Lapcevich in his back pocket. Kerry Micks, Mark Dilley, and Gibbons all took turns up front, but on lap 26 Thomson had reeled him in and both Don and Jeff moved by Peter.
Thomson would keep Lapcevich at bay for the final 25 laps to claim his second victory at the historic track, winning for the first time this season, and taking over the championship points lead on his ‘drive for five’.
“Everything went perfect for us today, and our pit stop strategy worked out very well. We were able to use the new tires to get back up to the front, and in the end I was able to hold off Jeff. It’s great to be leading the points again, and now we just have to keep rolling.”
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