BRETT HEARN TRIUMPHS DURING THE SNAP-ON 200
GRANBY, QuŽ., August 17th 1997 -- The excellent Brett Hearn, Mr DIRT title-holder, demonstrated his talent once again last Sunday night at Autodrome Granby by winning the fourth edition of the Snap-On 200 quite easily. This is HearnÕs second consecutive win for this annual event which attracts the best dirt track drivers.
Hearn wisely chose his tires for this competition. After starting in the 20th position, he slowly gained on the other drivers while the 78-lap run was lead by Mike Romano. Most of the competitors took advantage of Jimmy HortonÕs slowdown to make a mandatory pit stop. At that moment, Bobby Varin took the lead ahead of Romano and Hear found himself in the second spot.
Because of David HŽbertÕs slower pace at the 89th lap for the second yellow, Varin chose to join his teammates thus abandonning all chances of winning the $1000 bonus offered by Molson to the leader at mid-point. Hear suddenly found himself in first place and obtained the bonus on a silver platter.
Faster than before and unbothered by the deterioration of his tires, Hearn then took hold of the situation. Despite six more yellow flags, he was never threatened by other drivers. Hearn finished with a confortable advance ahead of Danny Johnson, Billey Decker, Bob McCreadie and Dave Camara, the best regular of Autodrome Granby.
Among the other regulars at Granby, it is Mike Romano who was the best with an eleventh place. This is a disappointing result given he mostly lead the pack during the first half of the competition. Alain Boisvert stood out among the Quebecers. The Auto-Hebdo driver managed to take the twelfth position even through he made two pit stops.
Steve Paine, winner of the Molson International and champion title-holder at Granby, had problems with his tires with 30 laps to go. Earlier, he had been among the top five since the 94th lap.
There were no collisions and tow trucks did not have to intervene despite eight slowdowns for 36 laps.
During the preliminary heats, Doug Hoffman, Bobby Varin, Danny Johnson, Pierre Dagenais and Kenny Tremont paraded in the winnersÕ circle. The unluckiest of the brunch was certainly Luke Plante who was forced to watch the race from the sidelines because of a motor failure.
Winners of competitions inother categories were StŽphane Messier who had a perfect night in the Late Models class and Gaby Cordeau in the Tourism division.
Results of the Snap-On 200
1- 3 Brett Hearn - 2- 6 Danny Johnson- 3- 91 Billy Decker 4- 9 Bob McCreadie- 5- 26 Dave Camara -6- 19 Tim Fuller 7- 87 Jack Johnson - 8- 1h Doug Hoffman 9- 111 Bobby Varin - 10- 12B A.J. Romano - 11- D50 Mike Romano - 12- 73 Alain Boisvert - 13- 88 Frank Cozze - 14- 94 Tim McCreadi - 15- 33 Jeff Heotzler 16- 24R alan Johnson - 17- 63 Dominic Dufault - 18- 28P Steve Poirier - 19- 96 Claude Brouillard - 20- 1 Steve Paine - 21- 115 Kenny Tremont - 22- 27 Robert Ranger - 23- 124 Pierre Dagenais 24- 71 Pierre HŽbert - 25- LP2 Marco Potvin - 26- 1P Pat OÕBrien - 27- 99 David HŽbert - 28- M1 Jimmy Horton - 29- 59 Benard Mathieu - 30- 92,1 Mario Lajoie.