COLDWATER, ON- Jordan Latimer returned to Barrie Speedway on May 24th to continue his Rookie of the Year campaign in the Thunder Car division. After grappling with his car through much of practice, Latimer got a handle on his ride for the feature, and withstood a rough 30-lap affair for a 6th place finish.
Latimer began his afternoon fighting a loose handling car through practice and qualifying, working overtime to keep a handle on his ride through a pair of heat race qualifiers.
“We were loose all day”, explained Latimer. “I couldn’t get off the corners or drive in as deep as I wanted to because the car kept wanting to break away from me”
“But, my team was as great as they’ve been all year, and did all they could to make it drivable for the feature”
The third-generation star started outside of row-3 in the 30-lap feature, eager to follow up on the top-5 recorded by the team just one week earlier.
Latimer worked feverishly early on to dodge a number of on-track incidents, as a number of perennial contenders simultaneously looked to push their way to the front of the field.
“The beginning of that race was pure mayhem”, said Latimer. “Everyone was beating and banging and trying to win on the first lap. Our car was still awful loose, and the only strategy we were trying to work with was to dodge everyone else’s mess”
Still tussling with an ill-handling racecar, Latimer began to develop brake issues midway through the event. As the laps waned and the cautions continued, the rookie contender did his best to hang on for a 6th place finish.
“The car started off really good in the feature”, began Latimer. “I have to thank the Ridge Road Racing team for that. Because it was a lot better than what we had in our heat races”
“But I kept getting hung out on the outside, and because I couldn’t get the drive off the corner like I needed to, we ended up losing quite a bit of track position. The handling got worse as the race went on, and once the brakes started to fade I was just trying to hang on for dear life. We just couldn’t drive it in deep enough to stay with the leaders late in the race”
The finish marked Latimer’s third straight top-10, and keeps Latimer atop the Rookie of the Year standings entering Week 4 of competition.
Jordan will return to Thunder Car action at Barrie on Saturday, May 31st for another 30-lap contest. Gate times and ticket prices for the event are available at www.BarrieSpeedway.com.
Jordan Latimer is proud to carry sponsorship from KICX 106 FM, The DOCK 104.1, A/C Electric, Creetures Designs of Orillia, T&C Construction & Welding, Progressive Waste Solutions, Cookstown Auto Parts, Tax$mart of Orillia, Get Jack @ Re/MAX, Krueger Electric, K&K Racing Karts,Kitchen Tire and Shepherd Trucking through the 2014 season.
Be sure to check out the JL Motorsports page on Facebook, and follow Jordan on Twitter @LatimerJordan.
By Spencer Lewis (@itsspencerlewis)
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