Two In A Row For Danny Johnson At Autodrome Granby

15th annual Molson International

GRANBY, Qu=E9., July 12, 2000=97Nothing seems to stop veteran driver Danny

Johnson in the battle for the most two important titles on the DIRT

circuit. Last Tuesday, at the occasion of the 15th annual Molson

International, the Sweetners Plus/Troyer driver, went on to register his

second consecutive success at Autodrome Granby and also his second

straight win in this Molson International. After winning the

Sunoco/Hoosier race for Modified 358 last June, Johnson, by having the

best on Brett Hearn and Vic Coffey, scored his third win in this Advance

Auto Parts Series. Young sensation Steve Poirier was the best Quebecer

with an eighth place finish.

Twelfth of a 32 car field at the start, Johnson saw Mike Perrotte taking

the early lead in this 100-lap feature race. Then, on lap 10, following

the first of four yellow flags, Brett Hearn was able to make a move on

Perrotte. At this stage, Johnson was sitting in fifth place. Following,

a second restart, one lap later, Johnson with his well-known skill,

took the second spot by winning a serious challenge with Vic Coffey and

Mike Perrotte. A few laps before, Paine, the winner the night before at

Drummondville, was doing fine until he tried to pass between Hearn and

Coffey. Unfortunately,the cars collided together and Paine was forced to

do an unexpected pit stop.

At thatmoment, Johnson started to challenge seriously Hearn and little a

visit out of the groove on lap 40 gave a chance to Johnson to take the

first spot. Following that pass, Hearn tried to regain his lead=20 but,

Johnson never let him go by. From lap 70 till the end, Hearn couldn=92t

give a serious shot at Johnson due to heavy traffic on the speedplant.

He finished second followed by a steady Vic Coffey who preserved=20 his

third place all night long.

Kenny Tremont, Tim Fuller, Alan Johnson, Billy Decker and Steve Poirier

were the ones who animated this Molson International by looking for the

best finish in the first ten spots. Most of the fans were watching Steve

Poirier, the local favorite. Seventh at the start, Poirier, early in the

race, was able to gain one spot but after, due to used tires, he dropped

back in eighth place.

Finally, Fuller is the one who was able to take the fourth place

followed by Al Johnson, Billy Decker and Steve Paine who had made a good

comeback from the end of the field.

In the heat races, Vic Coffey, Danny Johnson, Mike Perrotte, Andy

Bachetti and Denis Labont=E9 were the winners while in the time trails,

Tim McCreadie was the fastest driver of the evening with a lap of 20,367

seconds. Dominic Dufault was the best local driver with a time which

was of 20.656 to equal Alan Johnson. As for Danny Johnson, he made the

seventh best time, not good enough to take part in the dash cash that

was won by Tim McCreadie followed by Steve Paine, Alan Johnson, Billy

Decker and Dominic Dufault.

In the supporting classes for this Molson International, Robert Gagn=E9

scored his first victory of this season in the Late Model division. He

was followed Daniel Messier and Normand Voghell while in the=20 Tourism

class, Jocelyn Cordeau had the best on Andr=E9 Gauthier and Benoit B=E9rub=E9.

MOLSON INTERNATIONAL (100 laps)

Advance Auto Parts Series (Race 6)

RESULTS

1- 27j, Danny Johnson 2- 3h, Brett Hearn 3- 32c, Vic Coffey 4- M1, Tim

Fuller 5- 1p, Alan Johnson 6- 91, Billy Decker 7- 7x, Steve Paine 8- 28,

Steve Poirier 9- 115, Kenny Tremont 10- 56, Pat Ward 11- 27h, Doug

Hoffman 12- 35, Mike Perrotte (99 laps) 13- 18, Bobby Varin 14- 63,

Dominic Dufault 15- 22, Mario Clair 16- 4b, Andy Bachetti 17- 46, Gary

Tomkins (98 laps), 18- 124, Pierre Dagenais (97 laps) 19- 9j, Josh

Skarzenski (96 laps) 20- 9, Tim McCreadie 21- 66, Louis Bouthillier (68

laps) 22- Pr 27, Robert Ranger (65 laps) 23- 50, Hugues Mercier (53

laps) 24- 39, Cl=E9ment Therrien (50 laps) 25- 73, Alain Boisvert (48

laps) 26- 31, Richard Chauvin (45 laps) 27- 29, Jeff Brownell (40 laps)

28- 3, Claude Brouillard (28 laps) 29- 7, Denis Labont=E9 (23 laps) 30-

11, R=E9al Lafrance (5 laps) 31- 31c Todd Milton (1 lap) 32- 7xxChuck

Bower (1 lap)