(Montreal, Ontario) – Following a fourth-place finish in the 2005 CASCAR Super Series season opener at Delaware Speedway on Victoria Day weekend, Don Thomson Jr., and his Home Hardware Chevrolet Monte Carlo arrived at Autodrome Ste. Eustache for the Whelen Industries 200 sitting third in the championship point standings.
The day began with an hour-long practice session and Thomson was fifth-fastest of the session with a quickest lap of 18.047 seconds.
Don looked to continue his pole run of seven consecutive events in qualifying, but came up one position short, as his 17.778 seconds was 6/100ths of a tick behind pole-sitter Peter Gibbons. “We had a problem with the carb that was hurting us off the corner in practice, and that was showing on the speed chart, but we got it fixed for qualifying, and just missed the pole by the smallest margin.”
With a furry of fireworks lighting the sky, Thomson took the green from the outside of the front row and raced Gibbons tough on the outside for the first few laps before falling into line in second. Thomson continued applying pressure to Gibbons, and on lap 17 he was able to take the lead.
Dave Whitlock had found his way to second, and was close enough to take advantage of some lapped traffic and shuffled Thomson back to second. He would fall to third on lap 52 as Kerry Micks found his way around the Home Hardware machine. “Kerry was really putting a lot of pressure on me, so I let him go and was hoping he could get both of us by Whitlock.”
For the next 65 laps, Thomson stalked Micks, while Kerry tried to find a way around Whitlock. On lap 117 Micks made his move for the lead and place Whitlock in the upper lane. Don brought his # 4 to the bottom and followed through to second.
With just 18 laps to go, and Thomson sitting second and pressuring Micks, Whitlock found a way by Don on the bottom, but a few laps later Whitlock got up in the marbles, spinning, and handing the position back to Thomson.
The evening’s final yellow set up a five-lap shootout, while Thomson coming to the line second. Micks got a better restart and opened up three car lengths entering turn one. By the time the duo got back to the start / finish line, Thomson had reeled in Micks again, but Whitlock, who had served a stop-and-go for rough driving emerged from pit lane and raced Don into turn three. The pair pushed up the track, and in the end, both D.J. Kennington and Ron Beauchamp Jr. rushed past, and Thomson came home with a fourth-place result.
“I don’t know if I would have got Kerry. Our car was awesome all night long, and I was just waiting for him to make a mistake, and in the end Dave got into me a bit in three and four, and opened the door for D.J. and Ron to get by. It was still another top-five for us, and we ran strong all night, but Kerry didn’t make a mistake.”
The next event for Don and the Fitzpatrick Motorsports Team will be June 18-19, as the CASCAR Super Series takes on the world renowned Mosport road course as part of the Father’s Day 500 Weekend. The weekend will feature Super Series qualifying on Saturday afternoon with the Power Water Sportsman Series taking to the Mosport oval on Saturday night. The Super Series main event will be run on Sunday afternoon.
Thomson is looking forward to the Series’ annual trek through the hills north of Bowmanville, “I got my first win at Mosport in 1992, and have been close to winning a few other times, so I’m sure we’ll be fine this weekend. Jeff Lapcevich is probably the man to beat, and Peter Gibbons will be tough too.”
For more information on Don Thomson Jr., Fitzpatrick Motorsports, CASCAR, Autodrome Ste. Eustache, or Mosport, please visit, www.cascar.ca, www.autodrome-st-eustache.com, or www.mosport.com. Or contact Maudsley Motorsports at maudsleymotorsports@sympatico.ca
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