Canadians Come to NASCAR Watkins Glen Races

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy/XSL Speed Reporter

Converging on the 2.46-mile road course at Watkins Glen on its traditional August state of New York weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is assembling for the Sunday's Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen race. Held in conjunction with the preparations of the Sprint Cup Series is the NASCAR Nationwide Series as well as the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car tour.

With the many NASCAR regulars assembled within the unfamiliar confides of a road course, the services of road racing professionals are called in as participants in the two major NASCAR organizations. For three Canadian drivers, their proficiency in handling twists and turns have earned them a call for various stock car race teams. Watkins Glen, Ron Fellows, Andrew Ranger and JR Fitzpatrick will battle in one or both NASCAR events as "Road Race Ringers".


Ron Fellows

NASCAR Sprint Cup: #36 TBR Chevrolet Impala
NASCAR Nationwide: #7 Canadian Tire Chevrolet Impala

Possessing a winning record in competition at the Watkins Glen course, accomplished Canadian driver Ron Fellows has again been a sought-after wheelman. Winning 6 NASCAR-sanctioned road course races, 5 of Fellows' victories were earned on the Watkins Glen track in either the Nationwide or truck series. Reteaming with JR Motorsports for the 2011 Nationwide Series season road courses, the driver/ownership pairing 4th season together comes with sponsorship from Canadian retail giant Canadian Tire covering the Chevy Impala.   
Ron Fellows will be making what is expected to be his only NASCAR Sprint Cup Series appearance in Watkins Glen, New York. For the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen, Fellows will be driving the Tommy Baldwin Racing #36 Chevrolet Impala for the second year in a row. In last year's event, Ron Fellows and the #36 car team retired just past the halfway point suffering suspension breakage. Fellows has finished in the runner-up position twice (2000 and 2004) at Watkins Glen in the 90-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup Series contest.


Andrew Ranger

NASCAR Sprint Cup: #32 Bully Hills Vineyards Ford Fusion
NASCAR Nationwide Series: #53 Bollegraaf/Lobo USA Dodge Challenger

Competing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event in the #53 Waste Management Dodge, the Watkins Glen weekend will also see the debut of French-Canadian driver Andrew Ranger in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. To drive the #32 Ford for Frank Stoddard Racing, Ranger will be wearing Bully Hill Vineyards sponsorship. As a race team backer, Bully Hill Vineyards is a motorsport mainstay that was ridden to Watkins Glen's victory lane in previous years by Canadian Ron Fellows.

A former open wheel driver, Andrew Ranger has been fighting to earn respect as a stock car racing star. A resident of Roxton Pond, Quebec, Ranger's stock car presence is becoming best expressed on road courses. Winning multiple times on the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (including the 2011 Honda Indy Toronto stock car event), other series Andrew Ranger have added as a conquest to his career were the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West divisions as well as the ARCA Racing Series with a May win at New Jersey Motorsport Park. Ranger's best finish in the NASCAR Nationwide Series is a 3rd at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve event in 2009.


JR Fitzpatrick

NASCAR Nationwide Series: #67 Go Canada Racing Ford Mustang

A talented stock car racing star from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, JR Fitzpatrick has demonstrated his skill on multiple occasions on ovals. Yet, Fitzpatrick is still regarded as a road race ringer on the basis of his Canadian stock car racing experience. On the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series tour, road and street course play a much heavier role in the championship with 5 of 12 races for the 2011 season.

For 2011, JR Fitzpatrick has been able to make more NASCAR Nationwide Series runs after teaming up with the newly-formed #67 Go Canada Racing organization. This season, Fitzpatrick's best effort with the freshman Go Canada Racing team was a 10th place result at Road America.

Racing for a third year at Watkins Glen, JR Fitzpatrick's previous two events in NASCAR Nationwide Series resulted in a 11th and a 18th place finish.

Steckly Scores 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Opener at Mosport



Photo Credit: Matthew Manor/NASCAR



Last year, the veteran Canadian stock car racer DJ Kennington took his first national series title. Triumphing after an intense 2010 battle with J.R. Fitzpatrick for the most Northern NASCAR championship, the 2011 season is a complete reset for an all-new season-long battle. While championship rival JR Fitzpatrick has committed to running select races in the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series with Go Canada Racing, DJ Kennington returns in full title defense as competitors such as Scott Steckly and Don Thomson Jr (now teamed with the #8 Dodge owned by Ed Hakonson) quickly want to assert themselves in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. Kicking off the eagerly-awaited 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series on a late May afternoon, the 1/2 oval at Mosport Speedway played host to a field of 19 stock cars for the Dickies 200. 

Competing in the series at least on dates not conflicting with planned runs in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, JR Fitzpatrick got back behind the wheel of the family-owned #84 Chevrolet for the first pole run of the 2011 season. In the #22 Canadian Tire Dodge, Scott Steckly started alongside Fitzpatrick as the field took green at Mosport Speedway.

While JR Fitzpatrick was able to led the race's first 10 laps, a new NASCAR Canadian Tire Series competitor flew around the #84 Chevrolet for an early lead. The #15 Ford driven by freshman Steven Matthews would sprint out front of the Dickies 200 on lap 11 and hold the position for 36 laps. A rookie of the year contender for the 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series tour, 20-year old from New Liskeard, Ontario would be strong earlier but show some inexperience as the race progressed. Making contact with fellow rookie Isabelle Tremblay on lap 45, Steven Matthews would spin his #15 car in turn 1 on lap 119 drawing the race's 2nd caution. Matthews rallied his damaged Ford back to a 10th place finish as the top rookie of the Dickies 200.

Following Steven Matthews' time at the front, reigning 2010 champion DJ Kennington surged to the lead on lap 47 in his #17 Castro-sponsored Dodge Challenger. The #22 Dodge Challenger of Scott Steckly followed Kennington by the #15 car of Matthews as the two Chrysler products fought for the Dickies 200 lead at Mosport Speedway. Spending 11 laps out front, Kennington was overhauled by Steckly. 

With only one caution in the first half of the Dickies 200 for fluid on the race track, the yellow flag slowed the field four times at Mosport in the second-half race stage. Many of the front running cars including Kennington and the #02 Ford of Kerry Micks were involved in the late race calamity.





Photo Credit: Matthew Manor/NASCAR





In the final circuits of the 200-lap event, Scott Steckly held off a last year's Kawartha Speedway winner Pete Shepherd for victory at the Dickies 200. Shepherd once narrowly able to beat the #8 Dodge of Don Thomson Jr to the line for the runner-up position. With Brad Graham collecting 4th, DJ Kennington coming home 5th and the #3 of Jason Hathaway 6th in the event, the new-for-2011 Dodge Challenger body in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series debut concluded with a sweep of the top-six positions at Mosport.  

Leading 112 of the race's 200 laps, Scott Steckly overcame pit problems in the latter half of the Dickies 200 at Mosport Speedway to collect an 8th series victory. The second time Scott Steckly won a season-opening event in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, his last time in 2008 was the stepping stone to the year's driver championship.

2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series

Dickies 200

Mosport Speedway

Pos # | Car #| Driver  | Sponsor | Car Make 

1. 22 Scott Steckly Canadian Tire Dodge
2. 7 Pete Shepherd, III National Exhaust/HY-Tech Dodge
3. 8 Don Thomson, Jr. Farmers Feed Families Dodge
4. 19 Brad Graham Holmar Plumbing Dodge
5. 17 DJ Kennington Castrol Edge Dodge
6. 3 Jason Hathaway Snap-on Tools/Vortex Brake Pads Dodge
7. 84 JR Fitzpatrick Equipment Express Chevrolet
8. 23 Jeff Lapcevich Tim Hortons Dodge
9. 60 Ron Beauchamp, Jr. Mopar/Mobil 1 Dodge
10. 15 Steven Mathews Bill Mathews Motors Ford
11. 5 Pete Vanderwyst EMCO Dodge
12. 99 Derek White Mohawk Market Chevrolet
13. 2 Kerry Micks Dickies/Beyond Digital Imaging Ford
14. 7 Isabelle Tremblay Groupe Beton Brunet/ADF Diesel Ford
15. 21 Jason White A&W Dodge
16. 55 Dexter Stacey WJS Motorsports Dodge
17. 82 Dave Connelly Schneider's Dodge
18. 9 Mark Dilley Rheem/PartSource Dodge
19. 97 Hugo Vannini Vannini Motorsports Ford

2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Schedule Announced

Photo Credit: Christopher Nagy/XSL Speed Reporter

Released on Wednesday, the 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series shows off another balanced diet of stock car racing on ovals as well as street circuits and road courses.

Starting at the Mosport Speedway 1/2 mile oval on May 28th, the series concludes at Kawartha Speedway on September 24th. Many favourite tracks return next year including Delaware Speedway, the Honda Indy of Toronto race weekend event, a dice on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and the closing race at Kawartha Speedway. Consisting of 7 ovals and 5 road courses, the 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series is one of the few North American stock car series featuring such diversity.

A new addition in 2011 is a June 5th round on the 1.86 mile (3 kilometer) Circuit ICAR road course.  An ASN and FIA approved road course from an airport 20 minutes outside of Montreal in Mirabel as part of a multi-purpose motorsport complex. The Circuit ICAR has played host to the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship and Canadian Superbike championship events. This race for be the NASCAR Canadian Tires Series' inaugural run on the track.

Removed from the schedule is, of course, the event at the Edmonton City Airport. Cancelled along with the IZOD IndyCar and Firestone Indy Lights cars, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series had a long-stemming history on the temporary course dating well into the mid-1990s when the division ran under the CASCAR Super Series guise. Since the Motoplex Speedway race has been scheduled into the spot for where the Edmonton road course round was scheduled, NASCAR Canada might have been less optimistic concerning the probability a race even had a chance on the airport next year.

Also missing on the 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series is the Autodrome St Eustache race which was held early in the 2010 season. The ICAR Circuit road course race in Montreal appears to be a direct replacement to the former Quebec oval event.  

Running only 12 events in 2011, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed the Canadian NASCAR schedule is not giving the fine stock car talent more opportunities to slam fenders and dice for victories. Personally, I would like to see at least 15 rounds of competition for this stock car series which is enjoying an increasing acceptance in Canada. The popularity of some tracks in fact could justify a second date.



2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Schedule

May 28    Mosport Speedway (0.5-Mile) Bowmanville, Ont.

June 5      Circuit ICAR (1.86-Mile road course) Montreal, Que.
June 11    Delaware Speedway (0.5-Mile) London, Ont.
June 26    Mosport Int'l Raceway (2.459-Mile road course) Bowmanville, Ont.
July 9       Toronto Exhibition Place (1.765-Mile road course) Toronto, Ont.
July 23     Motoplex Speedway (0.5-Mile) Vernon, B. C.
July 27     Auto Clearing Motor Speedway (0.333-Mile) Saskatoon, Sask.
Aug. 7     Circuit de Trois-Rivieres (1.53-Mile road course) Trois-Rivieres, Que.
Aug. 20   Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (2.709-Mile road course) Montreal, Que.
Sept. 10   Barrie Speedway (0.333-Mile) Barrie, Ont.
Sept. 17   Riverside Int’l Speedway (0.333-Mile) Antigonish, N. S.
Sept. 24   Kawartha Speedway (0.375-Mile) Peterborough, Ont