SAUBLE BEACH, Ont. – September 21, 2017 – it took a full season, but Andrew Gresel finally found his way back to Victory Lane in the APC United Late Model Series season finale at Delaware Speedway last Saturday. Gresel’s victory also solidified his second-place finish in the overall championship standings.
“It’s definitely the best way to end the season, that’s for sure,” Gresel said. “It was a really good race for us.”
Gresel’s victory didn’t come easily. Instead, he overcame a good amount of adversity right until the final restart of the race.
“We didn’t qualify very well at all,” Gresel exclaimed. “In practice we fought some more power steering issues, which I couldn’t believe. We didn’t get a whole lot of practice, so we ended up qualifying 11th.”
That qualifying effort put Gresel right in the middle of the 22-car field for the Great Canadian Race, Delaware’s annual September bookend. Gresel immediately marched his way forward despite losing power steering on lap 15 until he ran second to leader Matt Pritiko over the final half of the race.
“We were catching him too,” Gresel said. “I couldn’t make the pass on him. With some lapped traffic, sometimes we could catch him and other times he would pull away. It was like our car was just as good as his. I may have heated things up a little too much by the time I got to him.”
The long green flag run ended with a final caution on lap 96 of the 100-lap race. On the ensuing restart, Gresel washed up the track in turn one, but got a second chance when the start was called back. Then, he made the most of the opportunity.
“It worked in our favour because the next restart the tires actually had some heat in them,” Gresel recalled. “It stuck going into (turn) one and it stuck really good coming out of two and I cleared him down the backstretch. Then we held him off for three laps.”
The victory was certainly a sweet way for Gresel to end his APC Series campaign. Over the of the 10-race series, Gresel recorded nine top-five finishes and never finished outside the top-10.
“We ended up finishing second overall. Just to win the last race, especially the Great Canadian Race and our third time winning it, is pretty awesome,” Gresel said. “It’s pretty sweet to have that title three times now. There’s a lot of good guys on that trophy.”
Gresel’s season will continue this weekend at Jukasa Motor Speedway’s Pro Late Model Fall Brawl before Frostoberfest at Flamboro Speedway on October 1.
SEASON STATS
Pro Late Model – 10 Starts: 1 Wins, 9 Top-5s, 10 Top-10s
Super Late Model – 4 Starts: 2 Wins, 4 Top-5s, 4 Top-10s
SAUBLE FALLS RACING MEDIA
Website: www.saublefallsracing.com
Facebook: facebook.com/saublefallsracing
Twitter: @SaubleFalls81
Andrew Gresel and the Sauble Falls Racing team are proud to partner with several dedicated marketing partners for the 2017 race season, including McRobert Fuels, Sauble Falls Tent & Trailer Park, CUSW – Canadian Union of Skilled Workers, Hy-Grade Roofing, London Recreational, Gallinger Ford Lincoln, F1 Freight Systems, Ron O’Brien Remax, Barry’s Construction and Raden Givari at Ehomes.
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