Quaker State night at Autodrome Granby
A SECOND VISIT IN THE WINNER’S CIRCLE FOR ALAIN BOISVERT THIS SEASON
GRANBY, Qué., August 23, 1998 -- Young Alain Boisvert made a comeback in the winner’s circle for the second time this season last Friday at Autodrome Granby to the advantage of the sponsor of his Olsen Auto Transit.. But this time, it was behind the wheel of his own car. Earlier this season, Boisvert was able to register his first win with the X-Tend Bicknell that American driver Steve Paine drove to the victory in the last two Skoal races at Granby.
Fourth at the green flag, Boisvert only needed one lap to take the lead from Hugues Mercier. In this 30-lap feature in the modified division which was slowed down by only one yellow flag on lap 23 due to Denis Labonté’s mechanical problems, Boisvert was never seriously challenged. He was the driver of the fastest car on the speedplant.
Steve Poirier, the young sensation so far this season, held on to a second place finish in front of Dave Camara, the points’ leader in the Molson Championship trail. Camara tried as hard as he could to catch up to Poirier but the Teo driver refused to give up his position. Luke Plante, winner of the Quaker State Challenge Mod at the end of the program, finished fourth followed by Todd Stone who whished to hold on to the second spot in the standings till the end of the season.
By finishing eleventh, Dominic Dufault lost all he gained last week in the championship standings. He is back in the fourth spot while Poirier is now in third with only 19 points away from Stone and 15 better than Dufault.
Earlier in the evening, Dave Camara and Alain Boisvert were the winners in their respective heats.
In the sportsman division, Gerry Patenaude showed very strongly his intention to hold on to the season championship for a second year in a row. With his fifth win of the season, a new personal achievement for him, Patenaude is now at only three points of Alain Mathieu and the first place in the standings. It’s only with two laps remaining in this 20-lap feature that Patenaude took over the lead from Mario Clair, the early leader in that race.
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Clair hold on to finish second in front of Robin David and Alain Mathieu.
This feature race was costly for Louis Bouthillier. In route for the completion of lap 2, an accident involving more than six drivers happened entering turn 3. Mario Giguère and Bouthillier were forced to quit due to the damages to their cars. Bouthillier lost the second spot in the standings. He is now third with a 30 point-margin from Mathieu.
Bouthillier and Rock Poulin were the winner’s in the heats.
In the late models division, Yan Bussières registered his first success of the season by having the best on Stéphane Michaud and Daniel Messier while in the tourism class, Stéphane Ruel took a second checkered flag in a row. His victims were Gilles Ostiguy and Daniel Lacoste.
MODIFIED FEATURE (30 laps)
1- 73, Alain Boisvert 2- 28, Steve Poirier 3- 26, Dave Camara 4- L50, Luke Plante 5- 1X, Todd Stone 6- 27, Robert Ranger 7- 44J, Gino Clair 8- 71, Pierre Hébert 9- 3, Claude Brouillard 10- 50, Hugues Mercier 11- 63, Dominic Dufault 12- 4, Leon Gonyo 13- D50, Martin Roy Jr. 14- 85, Alain Langlois 15- R39, Clément Therrien 16- X5, Jean-Guy Primeau 17- 87, Richard Chauvin 18- 4X, Vern Bruno 19- X50, Renald Daoust 20- 1NY, Gregory Atkins 21- 8, François Becksted 22- 02, Mike Reyell 23- 7, Denis Labonté 24- 72, Mario Lajoie.
SPORTSMAN FEATURE (20 laps)
1-57, Gerry Patenaude 2- 22, Mario Clair 3- 33, Robin David 4- 77, Alain Mathieu 5 26, Mario Moreau 6- 14, Rock Poulin 7- 59, Yannick Mathieu 8-44, François Lareau 9- 15, Pierre Raymond 10- 88, Dany Lapalme 11- 11, Réal Grisé 12- 09, Réjean Fortier 13- 60, Wallace Stacey 14- 41, Michel Bergeron 15- 16, Éric Sundborg 16- 61, Louis Bouthillier 17-48, Mario Giguère 18- 68, Mark Cross 19- 83, André Salvas 20- 8, Christian McDermott.