2019 Jukasa Motor Speedway

2019 marks the thirteenth season for the Canadian NASCAR championship. Pinty’s Delicious Foods continues to be the series title sponsor.

There were a couple of newsworthy stories for 2019. One of them was the addition of live streaming. TSN and TSN Direct subscribers will be able to watch six NASCAR Pinty’s Series races live on tsn.ca and the TSN App. In other news, the 2017 champion, Alex Labbe would return to the series after a year of competing in the NASCAR XFINITY championship. Labbe would team up with Dave Jacombs who guided him to his 2017 title. Also, coming back was perennial front runner, Jason Hathaway in the Ed Hakonson Chevrolet raced last year by Cole Powell. And finally, on the driver front, Mark Dilley will return to full-time competition for the first time since 2011. Lastly, the cars would be fitted with General Tires replacing Goodyears, which were the spec supplier since the series inception in 2007.

The series schedule mirrored that of 2018. For the ninth straight year, the title chase kicked-off on the Victoria Day Weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Following Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the series would travel to the ovals at Jukasa Motor Speedway and Autodrome Chaudiere. July would be a busy month with teams competing on the temporary street course at Toronto’s Exhibition Place. They would also be making their annual western Canada trip with a doubleheader at Wyant Group Raceway in Saskatchewan and Alberta’s Edmonton International Raceway. Returning to the east, drivers would be racing at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Riverside International Raceway in Nova Scotia, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Autodrome St. Eustache. For the second consecutive year, the penultimate round would be held south of the border at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The championship would end in September at Jukasa Motor Speedway. In all, the racers would visit ten different tracks in five provinces and one state.

The cars competing in the championship are constructed to specifications and rules common to most stock car series. The chassis is a steel tube frame design covered with a fiberglass body and is required to weigh no less than 3000-lbs. Body styles are from manufacturers such as Dodge (Challenger and Charger), Ford (Fusion) and Chevrolet (Camaro and Impala SS). Engine type and displacement are dictated by the make and model of the vehicle. The carbureted eight-cylinder motors produce approximately 550-horsepower. Depending on the gearing, these cars are estimated to have a top speed of 160-mph.

Round two of the 2019 NASCAR Pinty’s Series was held at Jukasa Motor Speedway. Drivers would be racing around the 5/8-mile semi-banked oval for 200-laps in the APC 200. A late race caution caused the event to go into overtime and competitors completed an additional lap.

On the pole for the twenty-fifth time in his Canadian NASCAR series career was Andrew Ranger. Ranger driving the No. 27 Mopar/Pennzoil Dodge recorded a time of 19.008-seconds. Sharing the front row with Ranger was he teammate, D.J. Kennington in the No. 17 Castrol sponsored Dodge. Kennington was just 0.014-seconds slower than Ranger. A field of eighteen starters took the green flag for the two-hundred lap event.

Based on Andrew Ranger’s practice result, which was eleventh quickest, it did not appear that the two-time series champion would be a factor at Jukasa Motor Speedway. All that changed in the qualifying session when the driver of the No. 27 Dodge recorded the fastest time. Starting from the pole, Ranger led a total of eighty-two laps and won by a margin of just 0.196-seconds. This was his twenty-fifth series victory.

Kevin Lacroix entered round two leading the title chase thanks to his victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Returning with sponsorship from Bumper to Bumper, Lacroix put the No. 74 Dodge eleventh on the starting grid. It didn’t take him long to move through the field and run with the leaders. In the closing laps, Lacroix performed a successful pass on Pete Shepherd and held on for a runner-up finish.

Once again, Peter Shepherd III proved why he should be competing in the series on a full-time basis. Shepherd’s racing resume includes five victories in the NASCAR Canadian Tire series. Last season, he competed in six events and finished in the top-five twice. At the APC 200, Shepherd qualified third in one of Dave Jacomb’s Ford Fusions. He remained in contention throughout the contest and finished third.

Many drivers that are usually at the front of the field after qualifying were at the rear of the grid for round two. One of these competitors was the reigning series champion, L.P. Dumoulin. Dumoulin the 2014 and 2018 titleholder was twelfth fastest during the qualifying session. Good progress throughout contest moved the WeatherTech sponsored Dodge up the race order. After two-hundred laps, Dumoulin finished fourth.

In the final race of the 2018 season at Jukasa Motor Speedway, D.J. Kennington scored his first victory since Trois-Rivieres in 2013. The two-time series champion appeared to be well positioned to make it two in a row at Jukasa after starting the APC 200 in second place. After leading sixty-eight-laps, it seemed to be going according to plan. However, a flat tire on lap-185 accounted for an eighth-place finish.

Julia Landauer, driving the No. 28 Dodge out of the DJK Racing stable qualified sixth and finished fifteenth. However, Landauer’s final result wasn’t representative of her performance during the race. For much of the contest, she ran up front and made history on lap-72, becoming the first woman to lead a lap in the series history. Unfortunately, contact with a lapped car in turn-four on a late race restart took her out of contention.

Despite not participating in a NASCAR Pinty’s event for two seasons, Jason Hathaway was immediately on the pace. In fact, Hathaway topped the timesheet in practice with a lap of 19.223-seconds. However, his performance slipped in qualifying and he started the race in thirteenth place. Unfortunately, ‘things went from bad to worse’ during the contest - a spin and less than 8-cylinders firing in the engine resulted in a finish of fourteenth.

Andrew Ranger’s season is off to a great start. The two-time NASCAR Pinty’s series champion (2007 and 2009) finished second in the season opener at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Not only was Ranger victorious at Jukasa Motor Speedway, but he also started on the pole and led the most laps. His results during the weekend gave him the championship lead albeit one-point over Kevin Lacroix.

FINISH	START	DRIVER	SPONSOR / CAR	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	1	Andrew Ranger	Mopar/Pennzoil / Dodge Challenger	201	-
2	11	Kevin Lacroix	Bumper to Bumper/Total / Chevrolet	201	-
3	3	Peter Shepherd III	National Exhaust / Ford Fusion	201	-
4	12	L.P. Dumoulin	WeatherTech Canada / Dodge	201	-
5	5	Alex Tagliani	EpiPen/Rona / Chevrolet	201	-
6	10	Marc-Antoine Camirand	GM Paille / Chevrolet	201	-
7	14	Mark Dilley	LeLand / Ford Fusion	201	-
8	2	D.J. Kennington	Castrol Edge / Dodge Challenger	201	-
9	16	Jason White	Powdered Ventures Exc. / Chevrolet	201	-
10	4	Donald Theetge	Circuit Acura / Chevrolet	201	-
11	7	Brett Taylor	Wing'n It Restaurants / Dodge	201	-
12	15	Shantel Kalika	Busch Racing / Dodge	199	-
13	9	Alex Labbe	Silver Wax / Ford Fusion	196	-
14	13	Jason Hathaway	Kubota Canada / Chevrolet	194	-
15	6	Julia Landauer	One Love Foundation / Dodge	192	Accident
16	8	Anthony Simone	MOPAR / Dodge	165	Panhard Bar
17	17	Brandon White	Early Detection is the Key / Chevrolet	51	Differential
18	18	T.J. Rinomato	Watson Building Supplies / Ford	5	Electrical

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