08.28.04 :: Thomson boosts points lead with win at Peterborough; his second CASCAR victory in as many weeks
PETERBOROUGH, ON – After his drought-ending CASCAR Super Series win last week at Mosport, Don Thomson Jr. wasn’t about to wait another two years before making his next trip to victory lane. The Home Hardware Chevy driver started on the pole in Saturday night’s Power Water 200 at Peterborough Speedway and led twice for a total of 125 laps en route to his second win in as many weeks.
Thomson passed race leader Peter Gibbons with 57 laps remaining in the 200-lap affair and cruised through traffic to reach the finish line over two seconds ahead of Gibbons’ Canadian Tire Chevy. The third and final podium position went to Power Water Taurus driver Kerry Micks, who came from 11th at the start and battled his way back toward the front after pitting for tires with 80 laps to go.
After the race, Thomson attributed his success to the more aggressive approach he’s taken to the last two events, as well as to the team’s decision to pit early in the race for two right-side tires. “Like I said after Mosport, we’re going for it,” said Thomson. “And we were set on our strategy for the race, which was to pit earlier for good tires. I can’t say why we didn’t win races for the two years before Mosport, but this is a great time to get hot,” concluded Thomson, who left Peterborough with a 22-point lead over Gibbons in the Championship chase with a pair of events remaining (1725 to 1703).
Not usually content to settle for second-place, Gibbons noted that he was involved in contact with another car earlier in the race that hurt his car’s handling for the rest of the night. Under better weather conditions, the Stouffville, ON racer might have pitted for a late charge, but with a light rain falling at various times during the race, Gibbons was reluctant to forfeit track position by pitting and then having the situation turn disastrous by a race-shortening downpour.
As for Micks, the Mt. Albert, ON racer was the fastest car on track, at times, but his final pit stop didn’t improve his car’s handling and he advanced to third when Brad Graham’s engine expired with seven laps to go. DJ Kennington and Pete Shepherd rounded out the top five finishers in the Power Water 200. Shepherd was the top-finishing rookie racer at Peterborough. Round #11 of the CASCAR Super Series takes place next weekend at Delaware Speedway, near London.
PETERBOROUGH NOTES: During time trials for the Power Water 200, Don Thomson earned his sixth pole of the season (in 10 events) when he lapped the high-banked, 1/3-mile Peterborough oval in a time of 14.261 seconds, which translated into 84.061 mph. The effort earned the Home Hardware Chevy driver the 20th pole of his Super Series career. Thomson became the all-time CASCAR leader in that category earlier this season… Former CASCAR regular Neil Fair made his second Super Series appearance of the season in Saturday’s Power Water 200…
CASCAR SUPER SERIES POINTS AS OF AUG. 28, 2004: 1. #4 Don Thomson Jr. (1725 points); 2. #1 Peter Gibbons (1703); 3. #39 Dave Whitlock (1661); 4. #02 Kerry Micks (1610); 5. #23 Jeff Lapcevich (1578); 6. #64 Mark Dilley (1556); 7. #22 Scott Steckly (1506); 8. #17 DJ Kennington (1483); 9. #60 Ron Beauchamp Jr. (1464); 10. #50 Pete Shepherd III (1417); 11. #19 Brad Graham (1408); 12. #84 J.R. Fitzpatrick (1384); 13. #55 Rob Graham (1337); 14. #25 Jim Lapcevich (1328); 15. #88 Dave Jacombs (1288)
RESULTS: POWER WATER 200
Round #10 // August 28, 2004 // Peterborough Speedway
Peterborough, ON // 200 Laps // 1/3-Mile, High-Banked Oval
FIN. ST. # DRIVER (HOMETOWN) SPONSOR / MAKE LAPS
1 1 4 Don Thomson Jr. (Hamilton ON) Home Hardware ChevroletMonte Carlo 200
2 6 1 Peter Gibbons (Stouffville ON) Canadian Tire / MonroeBrakes Chevrolet Monte Carlo 200
3 11 02 Kerry Micks (Mt. Albert ON) Power Water Ford Taurus 200
4 13 17 DJ Kennington (St. Thomas ON) Castrol Canada Dodge 200
5 5 50 Pete Shepherd (Brampton ON) R ATTO Dodge 200
6 9 22 Scott Steckly (Milverton ON) ERB Group Pontiac GrandPrix 200
7 12 28 Steve Robblee (Dorchester ON) Sunoco / Grogan Taurus 200
8 15 84 J.R. Fitzpatrick (Ayr ON) R Cambridge Rigging ChevroletMonte Carlo 199
9 7 39 Dave Whitlock (Wyoming ON) Avenue Motor Works / NMTDodge 198
10 16 42 Sean Stafford (Springfield ON) Mid-America FreightSystems Chevrolet Monte Carlo 198
11 18 88 Dave Jacombs (Mt. Hope ON) Lou’s BBQ / Inroble /FAG Ford Taurus 198
12 19 3 Stu Robinson Jr. (Holland Landing ON) R Snap-On Tools/ General Electric Dodge 197
13 8 25 Jim Lapcevich (Hamilton ON) Retrocom Growth Fund/ Fastline Chevrolet Monte Carlo 197
14 23 32 Mike Alguire (London ON) A-Dor Construction PontiacGrand Prix 197
15 10 55 Rob Graham (Bothwell ON) R G-Dox / Doering BrownMonte Carlo 196
16 24 00 Steve Munro (Carp ON) Chevrolet Monte Carlo 195
17 25 86 Kenny Forth (Lynden ON) Parkinson Tours / 820 CHAMFord Taurus 193
18 2 19 Brad Graham (Glencoe ON) Challenger Motor Frt. /Volvo Trucks / Logel’s Pontiac Grand Prix 191
19 4 64 Mark Dilley (Barrie ON) NTN Bearings Dodge 190
20 3 23 Jeff Lapcevich (Caistor Centre ON) Tim Horton’s /Fastline Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo 166
21 21 93 Joe Goncalves (Concord ON) Bolt-On Performance ChevroletMonte Carlo 156
22 22 60 Ron Beauchamp Jr. (Windsor ON) MOPAR Parts / ExideDodge 134
23 20 33 Neil Fair (Ancaster ON) Fairway / Two-Way Dodge 86
24 14 10 Doug Brown (Brantford ON) NAPA / Autopro ChevroletMonte Carlo 76
25 17 71 Bryan Cathcart (Peterborough ON) www.berms-r-us.comChevrolet Monte Carlo 9
R after the hometown denotes Rookie contender.
TIME OF RACE: 1 hour, 19 minutes and 51 seconds // MARGIN OF VICTORY: 2.215 seconds // CAUTIONS: 8 for a total of 60 laps // LAP LEADERS: #4 Don Thomson Jr. (1-68), #02 Kerry Micks (69-129), #1 Peter Gibbons (130-142) and #4 Thomson (143-200).
Prepared by Inside Track Communications.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 30, 2004
Petey Shepherd – Top-Five Finish – Controls Rookie Race With Two to Go
(Peterborough, Ontario) – Petey Shepherd and his Team ATTO / Performance Racing News Dodge arrived at ‘Canada’s Fastest 1/3rd-mile’ on the heels of two consecutive top-ten finishes, and still heading up the CASCAR National Rookie-of-the-Year standings. The Power Water 200 last Saturday, August 28th, was the 10th race of the 12-event tour and Petey entered with a 24-point advantage over J.R. Fitzpatrick in the freshman fight.
The event began with an afternoon practice session and the # 50 machine turned the fifth-quickest lap, turning the bullring in just 14.416 seconds, less then 2/10ths of a second off the fastest time of the afternoon. “The car was pretty good all day. We made a couple of air pressure adjustments, but didn’t make any chassis changes at all.”
In qualifying, Shepherd blistered the track and rolled in with the fifth-fastest time trial lap, ripping the circuit in 14.399 seconds, good enough for the fifth-fastest time. “That was awesome. We’ve been bang on with our setups since the first Cayuga event, and I was able to put a good lap down. That gives us a good starting spot for the feature.”
The main event rolled off under the lights with the Team ATTO machine accepting the green from the inside of the third row. Shepherd faded early in the event, falling back to eighth by the time 50 laps were on the board. Petey was able to climb back up into the top-five by the halfway point as a number of the leaders pitted for fresh tires. “The first half of the race went very well for us. Our car was good, and I was just waiting patiently for the shootout at the end.”
The Team ATTO strategy was to run without a stop, but as the race moved along, fresh tires made a tremendous difference and many of the leaders were able to cut through traffic with the new rubber. Shepherd would again be shuffled back outside the top-five with 50 laps to go, but he used a yellow flag a few laps later to come to pit road. “Unfortunately after lap 150 you’re only allowed to change one tire per yellow, so we only had one fresh one at the end. We also put a little fuel in. Not really because we were scared about running out, but rather because the car was a little loose and we could use the weight in the rear of the car.”
During the final 40-lap shootout, Shepherd was able to climb from seventh through to a fifth-place finish. “If we had gotten that yellow a few laps earlier we could’ve taken two tires, but we could only take one. We still closed the race strong and put up another top-five.” The finish, coupled with Fitzpatrick’s eighth-place result bumped the point lead in the rookie battle up to 33-points for Shepherd.”
Don Thomson Jr. won his sixth pole of the season, with Brad Graham qualifying second. Thomson took the lead at the drop of the green and led the first 68 laps before Kerry Micks passed Thomson to take command. Thomson pitted for fresh tires and was blitzing his way through the field when Micks pitted under yellow as well, turning the lead over the Gibbons. When Thomson got back to the front he overpowered Gibbons and took the lead with 57 to go, holding on for his second consecutive win. Gibbons held off a late charge from Micks to finish second.
1. Thomson, 2. Gibbons, 3. Micks, 4. D.J. Kennington, 5. Petey Shepherd.
Points Standings (after 10 of 12 events) – 1. Thomson (1725), 2. Gibbons (1703), 3. Whitlock (1661), 4. Micks (1610), 5. Jeff Lapcevich (1578), 10. Petey Shepherd (1417).
The next event for Petey Shepherd and Team ATTO will be this weekend, Labour Day, at Delaware Speedway in the APC / CANUSA Great Canadian 300. For Shepherd it will be his third Delaware start, and he’s looking forward to putting up his fourth consecutive top-ten finish, and maybe even his first trip to the podium. “We just need a little luck this weekend. We’ve had luck the past few races, don’t get me wrong, but we have to redeem ourselves for our Delaware performance earlier in the season. We have a lot better setup under the car now, and I think it’s showing in our results. The 300 at Delaware is such a big event. It’s the biggest oval track race in this country and I really want to run well.”
For more information on Petey Shepherd, Team ATTO, CASCAR, Peterborough Speedway, or Delaware Speedway, please visit www.cascar.ca, www.peterboroughspeedway.com, or www.delawarespeedway.com. Or contact Maudsley Motorsports at (519) 670-3278, or maudsleymotorsports@sympatico.ca.
