Markham, ON – Marc-Antoine Camirand continued his dominance in the NASCAR Canada Series with a win in the inaugural event on the new Streets of Markham track.
The 12-turn, 3.52-km (2.19-mile) temporary street course replaces the Exhibition Place track on Toronto’s waterfront, with the suburban location hosting Canada’s lone IndyCar stop. NASCAR Canada was the Saturday headliner, returning to the Greater Toronto Area for the first time since 2023.
Camirand started on pole for the 35-lap event, with drivers getting used to a new circuit on limited practice time, having only a combined 30-minute practice/qualifying session on Saturday morning after track preparations cancelled the hour-long session on Friday.
The start and re-start zone was located on the straightaway before turn six, meaning the first portion of each start lap would be run under caution. Second-place starter Tyler Gonzalez had trouble early, getting into the wall in turn two on lap two, with a flat tire, bringing out a caution.
Camirand continued to lead, with L.P. Dumoulin up to second, before a Lap 9 caution due to a medical emergency unrelated to the series. Camirand and Dumoulin continued to hold the top-two spots during an extended green flag run.
On Lap 19, Sam Fellows got into the wall and runoff area in turn six, but was able to get his car to another runoff area to avoid causing a caution; he was running sixth at the time.
With 5 to go, Jonathan Woolridge got into the wall in turn six, bringing out the yellow flag. The field restarted with 3 to go, where Kevin Lacroix battled Dumoulin for second; Lacroix got into the wall near turns eight and nine, dropping way back and ultimately finishing 18th with a DNF, continuing his rough stretch turning left and right.
Lacroix now has an average finish of 16.8 in nine street/road course events since his last win on a street/road course, at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2024. He has an average finish of 3.5 in 16 oval races since then.
With 2 to go, caution for Woolridge stopped on track. That set up an Overtime restart, with a lap and a half to decide the outcome. Dumoulin stayed side-by-side with Camirand on the restart, allowing Andrew Ranger to get in position to take second as the lap continued. Camirand went on to win the Markham 125 ahead of Ranger, Dumoulin, Connor Bell and Alex Guenette.
Camirand’s seventh victory of the season ties him with Treyten Lapcevich (2023) and D.J. Kennington (2012) for the most wins in a year. He’ll have three chances to set a new record. Next up for the NASCAR Canada Series is Complexe ICAR on August 29.
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