BOWMANVILLE, ON – Paillé Course//Racing achieved a first podium finish this season, as Marc-Antoine Camirand almost made it to victory lane and scored a brilliant second place after an action-packed last lap. Andrew Ranger suffered mechanical failure early in the race and dropped to an 18th-place finish.
Heavy rain showers hit the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, on Saturday, and forced NASCAR to cancel all track activities, including practice and qualifying. The starting line-up has been set per 2022 points standings, with Camirand therefore starting on pole position.
Third in the 15-minute shakedown Sunday morning, Camirand was confident he could repeat his September 2022 victory at CTMP. He led the first laps of the eBay Motors 200 and then went into a great battle for the first spot. After pit stops for left-side tires and fuel, Camirand was back in the field and quickly came back in the leading pack.
He took the lead back at lap 43 of 51, but he knew pressure was coming from behind, as his adversary had taken all four tires later in the race. “I lost a few tenths of a second to pass a lapped car, and I knew he was catching up. I did all I could to hold him off,” said Camirand.
The move for the win finally came at the last turn of the last lap, after a contact from behind sent the GM Paillé/Chevrolet Canada n°96 Camaro wide into turn 10.
“I knew that move was coming, and, well, this is NASCAR. I’m not too disappointed. I would have liked to win back-to-back here, but it’s a good race for points. It’s a long season, and we’ll be ready for next race,” concluded Camirand.
His Paillé Course//Racing teammate Andrew Ranger had a much more disappointing day, as he was expecting a strong comeback after the last race. While Ranger had a brand new road course car prepared by Wight Motorsport, he was confident that he could achieve a great result for the first road course race of the season.
He didn’t have the chance to show how fast his GM Paillé/Chevrolet Canada n°27 Camaro could be. He took the start from the eighth spot, but after only a few laps in the race, a broken sway bar forced him back to the pits.
“I went back on track with a lap down, and I have never been able to go back on the lead lap. It’s a shame because we had high hopes for the weekend. I look forward to going back on track at Chaudière, where I won last year,” said Ranger.
Paillé Course//Racing, Marc-Antoine Camirand and Andrew Ranger will be back in action on June 10th, for the first race this season in Quebec, as the NASCAR Pinty’s series will be on the short-banked oval of Autodrome Chaudière, in Vallée-Jonction, QC, where Ranger and Camirand finished first and second last year.
