BROWN CHARGES TO SEVENTH PLACE AT ST. EUSTACHE
Courtesy Ken Spencer, Marketing and Media Relations, Brown Auto Racing
A pre-race penalty imposed during post qualifying inspection that relegated Doug Brown to the rear of the 25-car starting field didn’t deter the Brantford racing veteran’s efforts at St. Eustache on Saturday night.
He simply shrugged of the incident (for failing to meet the roof height requirement) as one of those things to be more cognizant of for the next event then focused his attention on his racing strategy.
That strategy led to a solid seventh place finish in the Whelan 200 and a major jump from 29th to 15th place in the early season CASCAR Super Series points’ standings.
At the drop of the green flag Doug knew he had to make some moves early and by lap 15 had worked his NAPA Autopro Monte Carlo halfway through the starting field.
With caution flags for accidents and debris on the track slowing the pace 10 times during the event, some of the restarts became a game of chance. Several times the #10 car was involved in bruising fender-to-fender and bumper-to-bumper skirmishes that fortunately resulted in no significant damages. As the laps wore down, Brown had moved to within a few car lengths of Mark Dilley’s Dodge (running sixth) and had his sights set on Dave Jacombs’ Ford (fifth place runner) but the final caution flag on lap 194 broke his momentum.
On the final green flag lap Doug made a desperate attempt to get past Dilley but backed off for fear of spinning both cars out of contention especially with John Fitzpatrick and Brad Graham closing fast on his tail.
Kerry Micks of Mt. Albert captured the event in his Power Water Ford leading D.J Kennington of St. Thomas (Castrol Dodge) and points’ leader Ron Beauchamp Jr. of Windsor (MOPAR Parts Dodge) to the checkered flag.
The traditional post race fireworks weren’t the only sparks flying during the event as a number of cars went home minus body panels, overheated engines and an assortment of other physical damages.
Among those incident was the contact between Hamilton’s Don Thomson and Wyoming’s Dave Whitlock on lap 183 that caused Whitlock to spin in turn 3 costing him a lap and what appeared to be a top-three finish. In what appeared to be a retaliating move following his return to the track, Whitlock made contact with Thomson again with just a few laps remaining dropping Thomson from second place to a fourth place finish and allowing Kennington and Beauchamp to gain their positions on the podium.
The next event of the NAPA /Autopro team is Fathers’ Day weekend on the road course at Mosport International Raceway.
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