Outlook For St. Eustache

St. Eustache is a speedway that I have only competed at once in my career. It is a flat 3-8 mile oval located just outside of the city of Montreal. We raced there in 1994 and were fortunate enough to win a 100 lap American Canadian Tour race. Although we won there years ago it was in an entirely different type of car so the learning curve will be a little steeper than hoped for. Most of the current NASCAR Canadian Tire Series drivers have been running there yearly during their time in the former CASCAR series. Last year marked the first time in the last 6-7 years that the series was not there.

I am looking forward to getting back to a track that I have not been to in years and the challenge of figuring it out with the current cars we compete with. It is my goal to nail down a top 5 finish and maintain our position in the points standings.

Crown Jewel 200 Recap - Cayuga Speedway

Our first race was a great event for the Allied Steel Buildings, Canadian Shield Dodge Avenger. Our focus through out the day’s practice session was spent on our race set-up rather than qualifying, which resulted in a 16^th place starting spot with a car that we knew would race well all night long.

At the drop of the green flag we steadily progressed up through the field into the 8^th spot by lap 60. Around the 75 lap mark we made contact with Andrew Ranger which caused us to lose a lap to the leaders, forcing us to re-think our race strategy as we no knew we would be out of sync with the race leaders during pit stops around the half way mark.

We were able to get to the front of the group of cars running one lap down and qualify for the Free Pass which put us back on the lead lap. After another 15 lap green flag run we caught a yellow and were able to pit for right side tires and get back in the hunt. After re-starting in the rear with fresh tires we slowly worked our way back to the front and ended the race in a heated battle with Mark Dilley, Peter Gibbons and Dave Whitlock. At the line we came home in 6^th spot which was great considering the misfortune we encountered early in the event.

All in all it was a great start to the 2008 season. We leave Cayuga sixth in the point standings and a great foundation to build on for the season.