Jeff Lapcevich and the #23 Tim Hortons Chevrolet team had put in many late nights and long hours at the race shop in preparation for round number one of the NASCAR Canadian Tire series this past weekend at the Autodrome St. Eustache just outside Montreal. During practice and qualifying it appeared they would be rewarded for their hard work. However the Tim Hortons Chevy was bumped out of the action before the conclusion of the race.
Early in the days activity things went well for the team and they were a consistent top-ten runner. “Everything went well in practice and qualifying” said Lapcevich. “We’ve got a new motor program this year, we’ve gone to the NASCAR spec motor and we were pretty solid all day, and pretty happy with where we were. We had a bit of a popping sound that we heard during qualifying, we’ve had some kind of exhaust leak but it didn’t slow us down at all” he added.
Lapcevich would qualify the #23 Tim Hortons Chevrolet in the eighth starting spot and planned to take things easy in the early going of the 250 lap main event. That plan would change very quickly. “We talking about how we’d approach the race on the pace laps” said the driver. “We just wanted to cruise around for the first half and the car was really good and it’s unfortunate what happened. We weren’t forcing anything and we’d already moved up a couple of spots and I guess somebody wanted fourth or fifth spot a lot more than I did in the early going and got us turned around” said the disappointed driver.
Now at the back of the field and only one tenth of the way through the race the #23 Tim Hortons team looked to regroup and get back in the fight. Unfortunately when you’re deep in the field at the flat 4/10ths of a mile track that is Autodrome St. Eustache trouble often finds you. That was the case with Lapcevich.
Knowing there was still a long race ahead Jeff was attempting to cautiously move the #23 Tim Hortons Chevrolet forward when there was another incident on the track. As he attempted to avoid contact the #23 Tim Hortons Chevy was collected and sent spinning hard into the inside wall on the front straightaway ending their night prematurely. “Everything happens so fast here, we just got caught up in somebody else’s mess and we got the worst of it I guess”.
It was a disappointing way to end a night that had started out with plenty of promise. “I feel bad for all the guys that have worked really hard” said Lapcevich. “There have been a lot of late nights getting ready for this race and I think from the few laps we ran the new spec motor and the car is pretty good” he said enthusiastically. “I don’t think we showed everything that it’s got but there’s still some work to do and now we’ve got a lot of other work. The car is hurt worse than it looks right now. I it appears there is a lot of suspension damage. But this Tim Hortons team will dig in and we’ll be ready to really show something at the next race in Delaware. He added.
The 2009 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series continues with round number two at Delaware Speedway near London, Ontario on Saturday, June 6th. This years thirteen events will consist of ovals, road courses and temporary street circuits from coast to coast in Canada. All events are once again scheduled to appear on TSN. For More information about Jeff Lapcevich and Lapcevich racing log onto www.lapcevichracing.com.
Attached Photo Caption: Jeff Lapcevich’s 2009 #23 Tim Hortons Chevrolet // Photo Credit: Todd Lewis
This release prepared by TL Sports & Entertainment
0 comments:
Post a Comment