(Three Rivers, Quebec) – Don Thomson and his Home Hardware Chevrolet Monte Carlo were coming off his second top-five of the season as the team headed to Quebec on the Civic Holiday weekend for The Grand Prix of Trois-Rivieres, and their event, the Arctic Cat 100. The event was number seven on the 2006 CASCAR Super Series trail, and just the second visit to the festival of speed by the series, and the first since 2001, an event that Thomson dominated.
“I hate to say that a track owes you anything, because after a while, all the tracks are just tracks,” Thomson explained, talking about an event he led until a couple of hundred yards from the finish when his transmission gave out. “We were so fast all weekend the first time we were there, and that was one that I hated to see slip away.”
The weekend started with practice and Thomson was among the fastest cars. “It was good from the time we unloaded. I was trying to learn as much as I could about the track and get ready for qualifying.”
The cars hit the track for time trials and Thomson turned the second-fastest lap during qualifying, missing out on the pole to Kerry Micks by fractions of a second. “It will be another good starting position for us, and that’s important here at Three Rivers, because it’s so tough to pass. Kerry just got me by a hair.”
The feature rolled on Sunday and Thomson took the green from the outside of Micks. A lap one crash would slow the field, and it was just two laps on that Thomson got the break he needed to make his tour through the streets of the quiet Quebec town a success. With teammate J.R. Fitzpatrick on his rear decklid, Thomson clicked off laps, and held the other Fitzpatrick Motorsports machine at bay.
Throughout the 42-lap affair, J.R. hung close to Thomson, but couldn’t make a pass. He took a quick look down the backstretch on the final lap, but Don held serve in the next corner and brought his Home Hardware Chevy home with his first feature win of the season.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend for the Fitzpatrick Motorsports Team. This was just an awesome day. We finished one-two in the race, and were now one-two in points, and there is a pretty good gap back to number three. I’m so proud of everyone. We’re together throughout the race season, and spend a lot of time with each other as a family and to have something like this happen is pretty rewarding.”
The finish also allowed Thomson to move to second in the points standings, 15 points behind Fitzpatrick as Don chases his sixth consecutive championship. “I’ve been here before, and you can’t let the points change your program. We’re going to keep on taking it one race at a time, and I’m sure the points will play out.”
1. Don Thomson Jr., 2. J.R. Fitzpatrick, 3. Ron Beauchamp Jr., 4. Robin Buck, 5. Mark Dilley.
Official Points Standings – (after six of 11 events) – 1. Fitzpatrick (1064 points), 2. Don Thomson Jr. (1049), 3. Scott Steckly (1029), 4. Micks (1013), 5. David Whitlock (988).
Thomson and the Fitzpatrick Motorsports team will be back in action next weekend for a 200-lap affair at Mosport Speedway. It will be the second visit for the series to the incredible complex just outside of Toronto, as this time the stock cars will take to ‘Canada’s Fastest ½-mil Oval’ under the lights on Saturday night. “We’ve won four or five times there now, so you could say I’m pretty excited about getting back to Mosport. We had a great car there last year and lost the race late, but I’ve always seemed to run really well there, so we’ll see what happens under the lights Saturday night.”
For more information on Don Thomson Jr., Fitzpatrick Motorsports, CASCAR, The Grand Prix of Trois-Rivieres, or Mosport, please visit www.cascar.ca, www.gp3r.com, or www.mosport.com.
For more information on Home Hardware, please visit www.homehardware.ca.
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