Fraserville , ON, September 23, 2013 – Alex Guenette won the Rookie-of-the-Year award in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, after finishing a troubled run in 17th place in Pinty’s 250 at Kawartha Speedway, the final race of the 2013 season.
As happened in Barrie two weeks ago, rain forced officials to postpone the race from Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon. This put additional pressure on Guenette and his No. 39 Moto Illimitees / DLGL / Polaris Dodge, and on his team members.
“We only had one practice session for me to learn the track and for my Jacombs Racing crew to fine-tune the car’s set-up.”
Having qualified 20th, Alex had to claw his way up to the lead pack right from the start of the race.
“The setup was not perfect but I had scrambled my way past several cars up to our first pit stop. The team changed my left tires and made some adjustments on that side, but decided to wait until another caution period to stop and change the right side tires. Unfortunately, that caution period came much too late in the race.”
Because of that unlucky tire strategy, Alex had to cover 235 of the 250-lap race on the same right side tires, the two that work the hardest on an oval track. In the end, the Terrebonne driver had to settle for 17th place, relieved to have at least finished the race without damaging the car despite the car’s poor handling. A post-race inspection showed an oil leak at the rear of the car and oil-covered rear tires that would have contributed to the poor handling in the second half of the race.
This incident, coupled with mechanical failures that occurred during the season, meant that Alex did not get to race a healthy car in six of the twelve races this season through no fault of his own. In the six races when everything went well, Alex finished five times in the Top-10, and twice in the Top-5. And despite all these issues, Alex Guenette did earn the Rookie-of-the-Year.
The winner was happy with what he and the team had achieved.
“We won the Rookie of the year award and I’m happy about that. I also finished 10th in the overall driver championship and became the youngest rookie of the year in the history of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. All of this happened while I was learning to drive that type of car and learning most of the tracks at the same time.” said the driver from Mascouche.
Winning the award means that Alex Guenette will attend the annual NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Series Awards banquet on December 14th in Charlotte, NC, where he will break bread with all of the key people in stock-car racing from around the world.
For more information on Alex Guenette please visit www.alexguenette.com
Follow him on Twitter @alexgracing or Facebook at www.facebook.com/AGracing39
You can visit www.nascarhometracks.com for more information on the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.
For additional information please contact Jacques Guénette at jaco.guenette@gmail.com, or Alex at 514 758-9200 or Alexrace9@live.com at:
Additional Information:
Jacombs Racing: After a career as a winning driver, Dave Jacombs has been preparing cars for top level drivers, first other series and now in NCaTS, for over twenty years. He has been the technical mind behind the successes achieved in NCaTS by drivers such as former F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani, Miguel Duhamel and Andrew Ranger. Jacombs Racing has two NCaTS Championships to its credit, with Andrew, and would like to achieve similar successes with Alex in the coming years.
GC Mortorsports International: This organization, directed by Steve Meehan, is associated with Jacombs Racing to promote the career of young Canadian racers.
Motos Illimitées: Starting with snowmobiles only in 1996 in a 10,000 sq. ft. shop, Motos Illimitées has now grown to a 50,000 sq. ft. multi-brand facility selling motorcycles, snowmobiles and ATV, as well as an extensive inventory of clothing and accessories. You will find there the complete product lines from Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Arctic Cat, Polaris and Victory, as well as an exhaustive choice of accessories and clothing in stock at the multi-level facility.
Motos Illimitées is located on the northern service road of Autoroute 640, just West of Terrebonne. You can also visit us using summer or winter trails that arrive directly at the dealership.
Please go to http://www.motosillimitees.com/en/index.spy to find out more about Motos Illimitées.
DLGL: Since 1984, DLGL has supplied state-of-the-art Payroll and Human Resources Management systems and services to large and very large employers. Amongst multiple other awards, DLGL has been part of “Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies”, an award sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC Commercial Banking, National Post and Queen’s School of Business, every year since 1999. DLGL is also a permanent member of Best Employer in Quebec – Permanent Pantheon Award.
Please go to http://www.dlgl.com/DLGL_main_en.asp for more information on DLGL.
From: Service Presse
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