At the start of the feature the field bunched up coming to the green flag and there was a bumper tag incident on the inside line that resulted in The Look Company car falling nearly to the back of the pack. More importantly at the end of the first lap, the top three cars from the previous week's feature had gone by and Keith had a huge task ahead to get to the front from 14th in only 35 laps.
With lots of patience and some opportune passing on both the inside and outside, Keith put the car into first place before half distance. After getting to the front the race was far from over as a series of caution flags bunched the field and gave the second place challengers opportunities on the restart. After a couple of close calls including one where Keith saved the car after having been knocked sideways in turn two, Keith was able to nail the victory. The win moved him to 4th place in the early season standings, only 6 points out of first.
It also firmly announced his candidacy for the 2008 Championship after a 2007 season that left the team a handful of points back in 2nd. In his best season to date Keith won 4 features, had 17 top 5 finishes and 19 top 10s in 22 starts and set a new track lap record. He ended up the NASCAR Provincial standings 2 points out of first.
After finishing so close to the championship, the team had the winter to think about the things that needed improvement for the 2008 season. Reflecting back on the long season identified several areas. The first obvious answer was to work harder on reliability as two early season DNFs put the team behind early on. Another change made was a return to Dodge power from Howard Race Engines after running the GM crate engine last year from week 2 onwards. The car is dubbed the Real Dodge as one of the few Late Models in the province with a Dodge engine to match the body.
Opening night on May 10 started to seem like a bad case of déjà vu as a practice night problem with a leaking oil seal resurfaced in warm-ups. The team refused to give up and set about the onerous task of removing the driveshaft, transmission, bellhousing and clutch to make the oil pan repairs with the engine in the car and in time for the first heat. Their hard work was rewarded with a 5th place finish on a night that could have easily been spent on the trailer.
Ironically after winning the May 17 feature, the Speedway tech team checked clutches so for the fourth time in ten days the crew was again taking most of the driveline apart. On a long cold night of racing, no one was complaining.
The Look Company – Lewis Motors Team team is competing throughout the summer of 2008 in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series at Barrie Speedway in Oro-Medonte, Ontario.
About the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series: The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is North America's number one weekly short track program with thousands of competitors racing at over 50 premier facilities throughout North America. Barrie Speedway is the first racetrack in Ontario competing in this new series and one of only three tracks in Canada. NASCAR currently sanctions over 1,600 events each year, of which 80% are NASCAR Whelen All-American Series events. NASCAR weekly series programs have recognized thousands of drivers, launched the careers of many NEXTEL cup superstars and awarded millions of dollars in prize money.
For more information about the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. see these websites:
Barrie Speedway – http://www.barriespeedway.com
Whelen Motorsports – http://www.whelen.com/motorsports/
NASCAR Local Racing - http://localracing.nascar.com/news/3
About The Look Company: The Look Company is the world's leading provider of Look solutions with a comprehensive suite of products and services for large-scale sports, cultural and entertainment events, as well as corporate retail. Established in 1998 in Barrie, Canada, The Look Company has studios and manufacturing facilities in Toronto, Edmonton, Doha, Qatar and Johannesburg, South Africa. For more information about The Look Company. please contact: Ed Burke, CEO // E eburke@thelookcompany.com // http://www.thelookcompany.com
By Rod McLeod
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