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Carlson Notches 1st Mr. DIRTcar Pro Stock Series Win Of ‘08 At Canandaigua
Canandaigua, NY – September 20, 2008 – By Dan Kapuscinski, Canandaigua Speedway PR Coordinator
Don Carlson held off the late race advances of Joey Ladouceur in the Mr. DIRTcar Pro Stock Series RaceFest 30 at Canandaigua Speedway on Saturday night to claim the evening’s top prize. Carlson took the top spot from Ricky Thompson on an early restart and never looked back on his way to victory.
“Someone was sleeping there on that restart,” said Carlson in victory lane. “We took the point from there, and just kept going. I knew Joey was there, but we had a good car tonight. I want to thank my guys… running this series is really tough on a team, but my guys are great.”
Ladouceur, Louie Jackson, Thompson, and current Series points leader Pete Stefanski rounded out the top-five runners at the end of 30 laps.
Dion Oakes and Stephane Lebrun brought the field to the green flag Saturday night, but it was Thompson from the outside of row two gaining the early advantage. However, a caution with one lap in the books for David Papineau’s no. 188 brought the field to a slow early on.
On the restart, Thompson failed to pick up the throttle on time and Oakes breezed into the race lead heading into the third turn. Carlson took over the next circuit with Oakes dropping into the runner-up spot ahead of Thompson. Just 5 laps later though, Thompson found the fast lane again, pulling back by Oakes to re-take the second position.
Carlson would lead the field through to a lap 16 caution for a stopped Travis Back in the no. 6x. Holley hard Luck recipient Back looked to have overheated on the front straight while running fourth, which would force the yellow lights to come on. Back would head to the pit area, but returned to the race 2-laps down.
Carlson continued to lead at the restart with Thompson, Ladouceur, PJ Peters, and Oakes in pursuit among the top-five. When the field went back to race speeds Carlson again pulled away, but Ladouceur and his no. 92 began to mount a charge.
Ladouceur finally worked around Thompson on lap 24 and set his sights on Carlson at the front of the pack. Nobody had been able to mount a charge on Carlson all night, but Ladouceur was fit for the challenge. With just 2 laps remaining Ladouceur pulled up to the back bumper of Carlson erasing a one second lead, but in the end the no. 26 was too much for the rest of the field.
Capturing his first career Series win last year on the Syracuse Mile during Super DIRT Week, Carlson would sail on to victory in race number seven of the Mr. DIRTcar Pro Stock Series Championship. Louie Jackson and Pete Stefanski made a great charge through the field from deep in the pack to end up third and fifth in the final run down.
Neither driver qualified for the 12-car re-draw at the end of the two qualification events. They started 15th and 16th in the 19-car rundown.
Fifteen drivers ended the event on the lead lap, with rookie of the year contender Bruno Cyr being the final car to complete the prescribed distance.
Mr. DIRTcar Pro Stock Championship Series Race #7 – Canandaigua Speedway, September 20, 2008 ‘RaceFest 30’ Event Summary Feature
FIN ST CAR# DRIVER / HOMETOWN
1 6 26 Don Carlson/Richfield,CT($1,000)
2 9 92.1 Joey Ladouceur/Alexandria,ONT
3 16 18 Louie Jackson/Akwesasne,NY
4 4 37w Ricky Thompson/Hogansburg,NY
5 15 2 Pete Stefanski/Wheatfield,NY
6 7 88 Allen Peters/Massena,NY
7 3 73 P.J. Peters/Akwesasne,QUE
8 10 05 Jocelyn Roy/St-Helene,QUE
9 5 72 Denis Gauvreau/Gatineau,QUE
10 2 6 Stephane Lebrun/Gatineau,QUE
11 12 98t Jack Terrell/Jamesville,NY
12 1 48 Dion Oakes/Akwesasne,NY
13 14 4 Roch Aubin/Alexandria,ONT
14 11 188 David Papineau/Akwesasne,NY
15 18 33 Bruno Cyr/Carignan,QUE
16 8 6x Travis Back/Akwesasne,NY
17 17 6z Butch Zimmerman/Burt,NY
18 13 2m Mike Martin/Lockport,NY
19 19 ba98 Steve Johnston/Ingelside,ONT
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