Yan Bussière wins the Lucas Oil Canadian DIRT Challenge at Drummond

By Martin Bélanger

Drummondville, PQ– Monday August 6th, 2007 – It was the presentation of the fourth race of the Lucas Oil Canadian DIRT Series. Even thought heavy rain precipitations felled during the day in the Drummondville area, promoters and officials decided that the show would be done. A total of 29 modifieds showed up for this 100-lap event presented by Coffrage 20-20.

Gino Clair took the lead in 100-lap feature race with Yan Bussière in second. Bussière closed in on Clair and the two of them battle for a few laps as they started to get into traffic on lap 10. Clair was able to hold off the charges of Bussière. The first caution came on lap 13 for Eric Landry and John Mulder who got tangled in turn 2. Clair kept the lead on the restart and Stéphane Lafrance took the opportunity to jump in second and was now right on the back bumper of Clair. The leaders got into traffic again as Clair did some good moves to stay in front while Lafrance was waiting for a chance to pass him. The caution came on lap 29 for Réal Lafrance who had problems with his car. Clair was still the leader followed by Lafrance and now David Hébert in third spot by passing Bussière on the green. Hébert was now challenging Lafrance for second and they went side by side for several laps. The yellow came back on the track for Michel Dusseault who had problems with his cars and headed to the pits on lap 41. Third place car David Hébert had to go to the pits also. On the restart, Clair was still leading with Lafrance second and series point’s leader Laurent Ladouceur now in third. Sébastien Gougeon slowed down in front of the grandstand and this brought the fourth caution of the feature after 47 laps completed. Clair got another good start with Lafrance in seconde and Bussière getting back in third spot. At the halfway point, it Gino Clair, Yan Bussière, Laurent Ladouceur, Stéphane Lafrance who lost two spots and Kayle Robidoux. Ladouceur and Bussière went into a battle for second and Ladouceur passed him and took the first spot on Clair on lap 55 but Bussière was coming on strong and took the outside lane to take the first spot on the next lap. Bussière got too high on lap 59 and Ladouceur was back on top. Ladouceur took a good lead while getting into traffic. JF Corriveau slowed on lap 69 and this slowed the field down. Ladouceur and Bussière got a good start and he used the outside to pass Ladouceur on lap 75 and got a great lead over him while Stéphane Lafrance was third. On lap 85, Bussière had a 15-car length lead over Ladouceur and the number 23 had about the same length over Lafrance. Kayle Robidoux was now looking to take the third spot of Lafrance and he did pass him on lap 93 with an inside move in turn 4. Bussière led the 25 last laps of the feature to collect his first win in this series, Laurent Ladouceur finishes second while Kayle Robidoux was third, Stéphane Lafrance was fourth and Gino Clair rounded out the top 5. The heat winners were Sébastien Gougeon, Clément Therrien and Pierre Dagenais. The fastest car during the time trials was defending series champion David Hébert who ran a time of 17.666 seconds.

It took about 45 minutes to run the 100-lap feature on track that a lot of people would have thought in morning that it wouldn’t be race able. The track preparations did a great job in trying to get the facilities as good as possible. The fifth and last race of the series will be done tomorrow night at Granby; Laurent Ladouceur still leads the points with 375 points, Clément Therrien is second with 343 and Yan Bussière is third with 323.

Full Results:

Lucas Oil Canadian DIRT Series Modified Feature (100L)

1) Yan Bussière, 2) Laurent Ladouceur, 3) Kayle Robidoux, 4) Stéphane Lafrance, 5) Gino Clair, 6) Brian McDonald, 7) Clément Therrien, 8) Mario Clair, 9) Dany Bilodeau, 10) Pierre Dagenais, 11) Steve Bernard, 12) Eric Gauvreau, 13) Fred Gamache, 14) Eric Landry, 15) Alex Fortier, 16) Sébastien Gougeon, 17) Patrice Demers, 18) André Gauthier, 19) JF Corriveau, 20) Gilles Bessette, 21) John Mulder, 22) David Hébert, 23) Michel Dusseault, 24) Jasmin Léveillé,25) Réal Lafrance, 26) Jacques Poulin, 27) Jocelyn Cordeau, 28) Claude Marcoux,

Modified heat 1: Sébastien Gougeon, David Hébert, Gino Clair, Steve Bernard, Réal Lafrance

Modified heat 2: Clément Therrien, Yan Bussière, Kayle Robidoux, Stéphane Lafrance, Michel Dusseault

Modified heat 3: Pierre Dagenais, Mario Clair, Laurent Ladouceur, Fred Gamache, Dany Bilodeau