AVONDALE, NL – Paillé Course//Racing scored a fourth consecutive top five, while Marc-Antoine Camirand scored a well-fought podium finish after an eventful race, as the NASCAR Pinty’s series was at Eastbound International Speedway, in Avondale, Newfoundland. Andrew Ranger suffered a series of incidents and had mechanical issues throughout the race and scored a 17th-place finish.
Camirand had a fast car all day. He scored the fastest lap in practice, and carried this speed through qualifying, posting the second-quickest time. Camirand was in a good position to have strong start in the 250-lap race, but things became more complicated at the initial start.
“The leader was having a really slow start, and I beat him at the start/finish line, which we can’t do on the initial start. I had a drive-through penalty,” stated Camirand.
Starting from the tail of the field, he managed to climb back to the front. He was back in the top 10 after 50 laps, and was battling for second place just before the halfway break.
During the second half of the race, slowed by numerous yellow flags, he dropped a few positions, but quickly came back to battle with the leaders. “At a restart with about 10 laps to go, I was in a good position, starting inside, and I thought that I had the car to get the win. Unfortunately, just as I was working to pass him, there was another yellow and I had to restart on the outside,” said the driver of the GM Paillé/Chevrolet Canada n°96 Camaro.
Camirand fought hard during that last restart, and he crossed the finish line in a very close battle for second. He was scored on third place, 0,003 second behind second place.
Andrew Ranger also had an eventful race, but didn’t have the outcome he was looking for. Fast in practice and qualifying, Ranger started fourth and battled with the front pack at the beginning of the race. But quickly, his car became harder and harder to maneuver, and he lost some track positions.
After a restart, he spun his car after running on some fluid left of the track by a competitor, and was hit during this incident. “After this contact, I felt a very strong vibration in the driveshaft. I had to come back to pits,” told Ranger.
He went back on track, but he had lost over 90 laps during the repair. “It’s a shame, because our car was fast at the beginning of the day, and I really thought we could come back strong after bad luck at the beginning of the season. We are going to come back strong to Toronto, where we finished on the podium last year with the GM Paillé/Chevrolet Canada n°27 Camaro,” Ranger concluded.
Paillé Course//Racing will be back in action with Marc-Antoine Camirand and Andrew Ranger, as the NASCAR Pinty’s series heads to the Toronto Indy, on July 14th.
