(Dorchester, ON) – After a breakout win, his first as a FT Garage Late Model driver, Jamie Cox and his RCR Racing Team were looking to follow it up on May 24th as the team unloaded their London City Chrysler / APC / Total Lubricants Dodge Charger at Delaware Speedway.
With a frost warning in effect overnight the mercury had dipped as practice started, but Cox’s Charger was fast right out of the box. He sat out the first practice session, but in the second set of hot laps it only took him seven laps to turn the fastest lap of the entire practice with a time of 19.137 seconds, almost 1/10th of a second better than anyone else. “We didn’t change the car one bit from last weekend,” explained Cox. “It was so good last Friday night, so we only did 10 laps, made sure everything was fine and figured we could adjust it after the heat race.”
Coming off a win on opening night, Jamie drew the assignment of starting from the back in his 10-lap qualifier, but it didn’t take long for him to work his way through traffic. By lap two he was showing fourth on the scoreboard, and on lap four he was able to get Cole Powell for third, but he was unable to put a move on Stephen Richmond, or eventual winner Matt Pritiko, finishing third. He was still pleased with the finish, as he turned the fastest lap of the race, faster than his quickest lap in practice.
Cox rolled off ninth for the feature and cracked the top-five by the time there were four laps on the scoreboard. The next lap he passed Doug Stewart for fourth, and three laps later he picked off Tyler Hendricks to move to third, while Jay Christie and Pritiko showed the way. Pritiko took the lead on lap eight, with Cox diving to the bottom as well, shuffling Christie back as Jamie claimed second position. “I got a great start. I guess I was in the right line, and I just went towards the front quickly.”
From second position, Cox started to hound the leader, before a restart just before halfway started the pair even at the drop of the green. Cox was unable to get to the point and fell into second, but a few more yellows gave him additional chances at it, and he finally was able to pull off the pass. “Matt seemed faster than me on the long run, as well as coming off turn four. Once I got to second, he started to get away from me, so I knew my best chance was on a restart. I tried him a couple of times, but I also didn’t want to lose second either, and I thought we were going to just have to settle for second. On the restart when I got the lead I just stuck it in there as hard as I could on the outside. The car had enough grip, and I was able to grab the lead.”
Cox would turn the fastest lap of the feature, and held off Pritiko on a couple of late restarts to take his second consecutive feature win, with Matt second and Cole Powell third.
1.Jamie Cox, 2. Pritiko, 3. Powell, 4. Richmond, 5. Shawn Thompson.
Points (after 2 of 12 events) – 1. Jamie Cox (176 points) 2. Pritiko (171), 3. Thompson (160), Richmond (160), 5. Powell (156).
The RCR Team will get a well deserved Friday night off next week before getting back into action on Friday June seventh, as Cox looks for a hat-trick of wins to start the season. “If you had told me at the start of the season that two weeks in we would have won both races, I wouldn’t have believed you, but wins like this are what helps win a championship and that’s our goal. As nice as it would be to race again this Friday, we’ll take a week off, do some maintenance on the car and get ready to go for June seventh.”
For more information on London City Chrysler, CANUSA, APC, Total Lubricants, or Delaware Speedway, please visit www.londoncitychrysler.com, www.canusa.on.ca, www.total-us.com, or www.delwarespeedway.com, or contact Luke Ramsay at (519) 268-7070.
From: Jamie Maudsley/ www.maudsleymotorsports.com
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