Courtesy Fitzpatrick Motorsports(Barrie, Ontario) – Following an absence of almost 10 years to the day, Don Thomson Jr., and his Home Hardware Chevrolet Monte Carlo returned to the newly remodeled Barrie Speedway for the Dodge Charger 300. It was race number four of the 12-event CASCAR Super Series season and Thomson entered the weekend with a 27-marker lead in the point standings over Ron Beauchamp Jr., as Don chases his fifth consecutive National championship.
The weekend started with practice and Thomson was lurking near the top of the speed charts all day, with a fast lap of 14.387 seconds.
When the cars hit the track again, it was for real during pole qualifying and Don backed up his hot laps with the second fastest time of the session, lapping the 1/3rd-mile in 14.449 seconds, a mere 21/100ths of a second behind fast qualifier Kerry Micks. “Our car was good all day on Saturday. It’s going to be tough to pass here, so starting up front is so important.”
After getting caught on the high side when the green came out, Thomson slid back to third, but he was able to climb back into the runner-up spot before 25 laps were on the board. Shortly after that, Thomson was involved in a chain reaction, and the hood on his Home Hardware machine got crunched. “We had to come to pit road and fix the hood, because I couldn’t see. The track was really starting to come up as well, and make the outside lane useless, so we decided that track position was going to be everything. We took our two right side tires and were set for the day.”
The plan worked well as Thomson used a few passes, some attrition, and others visiting pit road over the next 100 laps to find his way to the front of the pack, taking the lead on lap 150. It looked like it could be the # 4 cars race to win as the laps wound down, but with D.J. Kennington, Mark Dilley, and Micks breathing down his neck, Thomson made a mistake trying to lap a car. He went to the outside, but couldn’t clear the car, and watched as Kennington darted underneath him on lap 208 to take the lead. Thomson would lose two spots late in the event to Dilley, and Micks, and wound up with a solid fourth-place finish.
“The big problem was all the marbles on the outside. As soon as you got out there it was like racing on ice. Our tires weren’t worn out at all, because you couldn’t get any grip with them. You just had to stay on the bottom, and we went to the top trying to lap a few cars, but it cost us. We’ll still take the weekend we had. We sat on the outside of the front row, led a few laps, and finished in the top-five. We still have the points lead, and we’re already looking forward to next weekend.”
Dilley held off a late charge by Micks to win his first feature of the season, while Kennington stood on the final step of the podium.
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