Bourque Claims Another Top-20 In NBES Competition At Adirondack

LOWVILLE, NY – NASCAR Busch East Series Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Pierre Bourque rebounded from a couple of tough races by collecting his fifth top-20 finish of the 2006 season by crossing the line 19th at Adirondack International Speedway last weekend.

Bourque turned the 27th fastest lap in the first practice session of the weekend guiding his No. 10 Chevrolet Monte Carlo to a speed of 18.128 seconds or 99.294 mph. “Adirondack is a very interesting racetrack,” said Bourque after the session. “It’s a very green track for me, but I think we have a pretty good racecar. There is endless turning here, we’re always turning which should make it a very interesting race. Hopefully we can improve throughout the weekend.

Indeed the second practice session mounted good results for Bourque. During the final practice session leading to qualifying, Bourque had turned a respectable lap of 17.824 seconds or 100.987 mph putting 24th on the speed charts.

In qualifying, Bourque continued to show his mass improvements from the first practice. During his mock session, Bourque picked up four-tenths of a second from the final practice session maneuvering a lap of 17.514 seconds equaling a speed of 102.775 mph good enough for 25th on the starting lineup. “We’re continuing to get better and that’s key,” Bourque said following qualifying. “I think we have a pretty competitive car for the race and we have good intentions for the race.”

The first half of the race, Bourque battled handling issues describing to the crew that he had no forward bite on a track that requires a lot of it. The only full time Canadian NASCAR driver continued to fight like a veteran until his Fast Track Racing crew could make the necessary adjustments to correct the handling on his driving.ca, canada.com, working.com and dose.ca Chevrolet.

At the first opportunity, Bourque ducked to pit road with crew chief Dave McClure bolting on fresh right side tires bringing back a competitive racecar to the driver. The change made all the difference allowing Bourque to gain ground in the second half of the race.

While it was a very quiet race for the Ottawa, Ontario native he soldiered home with a 19th place finish rebounding from a 26th place finish in his last outing at New Hampshire International Speedway. “We’ll take 19th,” he said. “We brought the car home in one piece and that was one of our goals. I’m really proud of the Fast Track Racing team we were solid all weekend. From the start of the first practice to the checkered flag we improved. We can’t complain about that. Hopefully the monkey is off our back and we can march forward with our next race in two weeks.”

With his finish at Adirondack, Bourque inched one spot up in the national point standings to 17th just 31 markers out of the top-15. “We don’t have a lot of races left, so hopefully we can have an impact for the remainder of the season. If we finish in the top-15 I’ll be happy with that. I’m trying to gain ground in the rookie standings and hopefully we can win the title that would be great.”

With another respectable finish under his belt, Bourque will refocus on the CASCAR Racing Series as he is scheduled to compete in his second of three CASCAR events this weekend at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec driving for Whitlock Motorsports.

“I’m really looking forward to competing in another CASCAR event this weekend. In my debut, we had an okay finish. We qualified and finished the race. That is good for your debut. Now, hopefully everything will work into my favor and we can put a top-15 finish together this weekend.”

Even with a two week break from NBES competition, Bourque won’t take a break as he’ll steer towards the ARCA RE/MAX Series a week from Saturday planning to make his second career start in the developmental series at Nashville Superspeedway. “I can’t wait to return to ARCA racing,” boasted Bourque. “The ARCA RE/MAX Series is a great series and full of a lot of talent. I made my debut at Winchester a short track. Now, I’m heading to a Superspeedway and I’m expecting a lot of good things. The Fast Track Racing team will put together a great racecar for me.”

After a two week breather from competition, the NASCAR Busch East Series will return to competition on August 19th at Waterford Speedbowl in Waterford Connecticut.

In addition to running the full NASCAR Busch East Series in 2006, Pierre Bourque and Fast Track Racing will make limited starts in the ARCA RE/MAX Series. Bourque will also make two CASCAR Series races later this year with Whitlock Motorsports.

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Prepared by Chris Knight, Fast Track Racing