FINALLY, MARIO MOREAU MAKES IT TO THE WINNER'S CIRCLE
GRANBY, Qué., August 10, 2002—Unlucky more than often, Mario Moreau finally registered his first career win in the Modified division, last Friday at Autodrome Granby. In fact, Moreau hadn’t visit the winner’s circle since June 1998 while he was racing in the Sportsman division. With a second place finish in front of Alain Boisvert, American driver, Donald Scarborough of Brandon, Vermont, took back the first place in the Carquest Auto Parts championship standings while veteran driver Pierre Raymond was able to clinch the Mr. Sportsman title.
Moreau, behind the wheel of his Bicknell, managed very well to achieve his goal. First on the starting grid of this 30-lap Modified feature, Moreau didn’t let this unique occasion go by. From wire to wire, he led the entire race resisting to the challenge of Scarborough who was sitting 11th on the grid at the green flag. Scarborough had two excellent chances to get Moreau, specially on two restarts with one lap to go, but Moreau didn’t let that happen. Alain Boisvert was the third driver to cross the finish line followed by Luke Plante and Kayle Robidoux.
Veteran driver Claude Brouillard was not able to get a better result than a seventh place finish after starting 16th. Unofficially, Scarborough is now back on top of the standings with a 5-point lead on Brouillard who is still looking for a first title in 17 years. This night marked the debut of Bertrand Godin, an Atlantic Formula driver. Not familiar with this type of racing, specially driving without any mirrors, Godin managed very well. He stayed out of trouble all night and enjoyed his first ride in a dirt speed plant. It is too soon to know if that popular driver will repeat the experience.
Earlier in the evening, Scarborough, Luke Plante and Gino Clair were the winners in their respective heats.
Three in a row.
After winning two feature races in the Sportsman division a week ago, Pierre Raymond led the entire 30-lap feature in this category to clinch the Mr. Sportsman title.
In the final, Raymond, in route for a hat trick, had the best on defending champion and Castrol points’ leader, Alain Mathieu. Those two veterans were followed by rookies Yannick Ledoux and Jean Boissonneault.
In the late Model division, the 15-lap feature was the affair of Frédéric Lussier who was later disqualified for illegal pressure on springs valves. Finally, in the 4 Cylinders class, Patrick Dupont had a perfect night.
RESULTS
MODIFIED (30 laps) 1- 5, Mario Moreau; 2- 11vt, Donald Scarborough; 3- 73, Alain Boisvert; 4- 2, Luke Plante; 5- 46, Kayle Robidoux; 6- 39, Clément Therrien; 7- 3, Claude Brouillard; 8- 11J, Jerry Pinnock Jr.; 9- 61, Steve Poirier; 10- 90, Martin Roy; 11- 78, Vince Quenneville Jr.; 12- 4, Leon Gonyo; 13- 11, Réal Lafrance; 14- 63, Dominic Dufault; 15- 24, Stéphane Michaud; 16- 22J, Gino Clair; 17- 31, Richard Chauvin; 18- 66w, Wallace Stacey; 19- 91, Michel Pelletier; 20- 09, Mario Lajoie; 21- 46L, Benoit Langelier; 22- 32, Guy Ouellette; 23- 2B, Bertrand Godin; 24- 66, Martin Gagné; 25- 02, Mike Reyell.