2016 CTMP - NASCAR Pinty's Series

The big news for the 2016 Canadian NASCAR series was Pinty’s Delicious Foods replacing Canadian Tire after nine seasons as the title sponsor.

For the most part, the championship schedule mirrored that of 2015. For the fifth straight year, the series started on the Victoria Day Weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) – there would be a second event held in September with the NASCAR Trucks. The title chase would end in September at Kawartha Speedway. In all, the series would visit eleven-tracks in five-provinces. The major exception to the schedule was the return to the high profile Toronto Indy event at Exhibition Place.

In 2016, round ten of twelve was the NASCAR Pinty’s Series’ second visit to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The event sponsored by Can-Am would be fifty-one laps (201.8-kilometers) around the ten-turn 2.459-mile road course.

The start of round ten and pole-sitter Alex Tagliani driving the Epipen Chevrolet Impala leads the field into corner one. Behind Tagliani are second and third place qualifiers – Kevin Lacroix in the Bumper to Bumper Dodge Challenger and driving the Mopar sponsored Dodge Challenger is Andrew Ranger. There was a total of twenty-four entries making this one of the better subscribed events.

Rookie, Kevin Lacroix was the man to beat at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The driver of the Bumper to Bumper Dodge Challenger shared the front row with pole-sitter Alex Tagliani. Lacroix fell to third at the start but was in the lead by lap-13. He dropped down the running order as teams cycled through their pit-stops but was in first place for the final twenty-six laps to score his second win of the season.

It was a big point’s day for another rookie – Cayden Lapcevich. Lapcevich was having a stellar season – with two victories and ten top-10 finishes to his, credit Lapcevich was leading the points chase. He qualified the family backed Dodge Challenger sixth and made steady progress during the race which included leading two-laps. At the checkered flag, he was third but more importantly he increased his points lead over Andrew Ranger.

Road course specialist, Robin Buck has done more laps around Canadian Tire Motorsport Park than any driver entered in the race. Buck demonstrated his extensive track knowledge and road racing experience when he finished second in the opening round. Making his third appearance of the 2016 season, Buck started from the fifteenth grid position but moved through the field and was fourth at the finish.

Pole-sitter and early race lead, Alex Tagliani is followed down the front straight by eventual winner Kevin Lacroix. Tagliani led the first twelve laps. He was in contention for a victory until he suffered a power-steering problem and pitted. Six-laps later with the issue corrected, Tagliani returned to the race in the twentieth position. At the checkered flag, he was six laps behind the winner in seventeenth place – his worst finish of the 2016 season.

For all the ‘good luck’ that Jason Hathaway had in 2015, he was having an equal amount of ‘bad luck’ in 2016. After a number of disappointments, things did not turn around for Hathaway until round nine at Riverside International Raceway when he finished third. At Canadian Tire Motorsport Park he qualified and finished fifth.

Yet to earn a victory in the 2016 season was 2014 series champion L.P. Dumoulin. Dumoulin started fourth in the WeatherTech sponsored Dodge Challenger and led laps nineteen through twenty-four. At the checkered flag, he was second, 3.871-seconds behind race winner Kevin Lacroix. This was Dumoulin’s fourth runner-up finish of the year.

The Can-Am 200 started out as a promising event for Andrew Ranger. Ranger was second in the driver standings and his season included two-wins and eight-top-ten finishes. He started third on the grid for round ten and led two laps. But on lap-28, Ranger experienced an engine failure and was classified twenty-first. He left Canadian Tire Motorsport Park trailing Cayden Lapcevich by 30-points with two events remaining.

Battling for position, late in the race are Peter Klutt in the Legendary Motorcar Chevrolet Impala, D.J. Kennington driving the Castrol Dodge Challenger and in another Dodge with Pioneer Family Pools sponsorship, Gary Klutt. In the middle of these three and six-laps down is Alex Tagliani. Gary Klutt would pass D.J. Kennington and Peter Klutt to finish sixth. Peter Klutt would hold off Kennington for seventh place.

FINISH	START	DRIVER	SPONSOR / CAR	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	2	Kevin Lacroix	Bumper to Bumper/Total / Dodge	51	-
2	4	L.P. Dumoulin	Bellemare / Dodge Challenger	51	-
3	6	Cayden Lapcevich	Lapcevich Racing / Dodge Challenger	51	-
4	15	Robin Buck	Ontario Chrysler Dealers / Dodge	51	-
5	5	Jason Hathaway	Raybestos/HGC/DSI / Chevrolet Impala	51	-
6	7	Gary Klutt	Pioneer Pools / Dodge Challenger	51	-
7	12	Peter Klutt	Legendary Motorcar / Chevrolet Impala	52	-
8	9	D.J. Kennington	Castrol Edge / Dodge Challenger	51	-
9	14	Kerry Micks	Leland/Avenue Auto Parts / Ford Fusion	51	-
10	19	Brett Taylor	Redtree Inc. / Dodge Challenger	51	-
11	11	Patrick Dussault	MultPlis/Perry Auto / Dodge Challenger	51	-
12	24	Larry Jackson	CBRT/Piloti / Dodge Challenger	51	-
13	20	Jocelyn Fecteau	Metal Mulisha / Dodge Challenger	51	-
14	21	David Thorndyke	Thorsons EVT / Chevrolet Impala	50	-
15	8	Kaz Grala	Descartes / Dodge Challenger	50	-
16	23	Martin Cote	GO-VR.com / Dodge Challenger	48	-
17	1	Alex Tagliani	Epipen/Cantorque / Chevrolet Impala	45	-
18	18	Adam Martin	Candy Tree/Secure Drive / Ford Fusion	40	-
19	13	Anthony Simone	Innovative Plumbing / Dodge	38	Rear End
20	10	J.F. Dumoulin	Spectra Premium / Dodge Challenger	32	Engine
21	3	Andrew Ranger	Mopar/Pennzoil / Dodge Challenger	28	Engine
22	22	Bryan Cathcart	OMVIC/Kleen Flo / Chevrolet Impala	20	Oil Leak
23	17	Alex Labbe	Can-Am/Kappa / Ford Fusion	5	Engine
24	16	Carlos de Quesada	Insync Healthcare System / Dodge	2	Suspension