INNISFIL, ON- In a moment 6 seasons in the making, former Sauble Speedway champion Jason Parker claimed his first career Sunset Speedway feature victory on July 27th after a thrilling late-race battle with race leader Brandon Watson.
“We’ve been coming down here since 2007, working to get a win, this feels incredible”, exclaimed a jubilant Parker in victory lane.
“Sunset draws some of the very best cars in Ontario. There are no slouches here. You have to work your heart out just to break the top-10, and that’s why we wanted a win here so badly”.
‘The New Age Punisher’ time trialed 2nd fastest in the 20-car field with a time of 15.011 seconds, and was confident he would have a contending car all afternoon long.
“Right from our first practice session, it felt like we had something for these guys”, explained the veteran. “We had a team meeting last night, and we went over everything we wanted to change for this race. We took some big swings. It was a lot of work, but I’m happy to say it paid off”
Parker spent the entirety of the 75-lap race’s second half running amongst the top-3, before closing on Watson in the final 15-laps.
“We had to run the car pretty hard just to make it to 2nd, once we got there we tried to ride for as long as we could before trying to close on Brandon”, said Parker.
“He’s such a phenomenal talent, it was tough getting a run on him. I ended up sliding into him in turn-2, and I think we hooked wheels because it pulled the car pretty hard to the right. I have to apologize for that, it was definitely unintentional”
The win marks Parker’s 5th of the season, and sends the Port Elgin, ON veteran back to Sauble Speedway with momentum on his side.
“This really has been a dream season. I couldn’t have scripted a better year for our team. This is a busy week for us, we have the Dash for Cash at Sauble on July 30th and the Beat the Heat 150 on August 3rd, so this win will definitely come in handy as motivation”
“I can’t thank my team enough. My guys put in a lot of hours to get this car where it is. I also have to thank Mike McColl for building an excellent chassis, my sponsors for keeping us on the racetrack and my wife and kids for letting me put so much of my time into this sport. I wouldn’t be able to do any of this on my own”
Jason Parker’s 2014 season is powered by Prestige General Contractors, Saugeen Shores Transmission, MacDonnell Fuels, BAXI / Marathon Industries, Keeprite, Candue Homes, Ron Gibbons Construction and Crabby Joe’s of Port Elgin/Hanover.
For information on Jason Parker’s upcoming events, visit www.SaubleSpeedway.ca.
By Spencer Lewis (@itsspencerlewis)
Discussion about this post