Courtesy Doug Brown Racing
Instructions for The weekend…Turn Left Right Here. We’ve all heard the story about the harried driving instructor’s messages to his new student. You know the one…Hurry up and stop! … Go ahead and back up! And of course … Turn left, right here!
Those words and many more are certain to be a major part of the communications between drivers and their spotters this weekend at Mosport International Raceway as CASCAR teams take to the historic 10–turn road course track north of Bowmanville for the Clarington 200 and race #3 on the 2005 Super Series schedule.
With practice and qualifying sessions scheduled for Saturday and the race itself on Sunday, you can bet there will be some missed turns, treks to the sand/gravel catch basins and missed shifts, even for those with at least a few laps of experience on the 2.5-mile circuit. And for those making their first start on the track with more right turns than lefts, it will be no doubt an experience they’ll remember (or perhaps want to forget).
For Doug Brown and his NAPA Autopro team, it’s a race they are anxious to get on with having experienced a misadventure in last year’s event that they hope to atone for in this year’s tour stop on the Super Series schedule. In that event, Doug ended up in the “rhubarb” patch when he missed his entry point in turn eight and severely damaged the car’s transmission. He lost precious laps in the pit area for repairs and finished 20th.
“We had some good lap times a few weeks back in pre-season practice and hope we can carry that over to this weekend”, Doug responded when questioned on his thoughts for the Father’s Day race. “It’s not always a case of how fast you go on this track, but how smooth you are in shifting and navigating the turns. Rhythm is the key.”
This will be only the third event on the Mosport road course for the veteran stock car driver, but he believes his chances of finishing in a respectable position are greater than in the past provided he stays out of trouble both with the turns and while working his way through traffic.
Brown currently sits 17th in the early season points after a DNF on opening weekend at London’s Delaware Speedway on Victoria Day weekend but he bounced back with a solid seventh place run at Autodrome St. Eustache on June 4th.
The Mosport race will also serve as a tune-up for CASCAR’s annual appearance at the July 8th through 10th Molson Indy in Toronto.
Following Mosport, the CASCAR Super Series teams get another weekend off before heading to the recently reconfigured Barrie Speedway for race number 4 on the Canada Day weekend.
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