From ESS
St-Marcel-de-Richelieu, QC — (August 23, 2014) — Michael Parent has made only handful of Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints this season after suffering a severe injury near the conclusion of the 2013 racing season. Saturday night at the Le RPM Speedway the Granby, Que., driver lucked into his first win in over a year in the 25-lap Le Groupe Ultra Tour of Canada, Fondation 4 Saison series main-event.
Parent was the second Quebec native to grab a feature win in the weekend in his home province after Steve Poirier captured the prior night’s race at the Autodrome Granby.
“We’ve been really good, even at Granby last night, just missing the setup a little bit,” commented Parent. “I think I was a little bit rusty. Finding my groove now is a little bit tougher than it used to be when I did 40 races a year. We are pretty happy and it means a lot to me. It means I can still drive a race car.”
Parent started on the front row alongside Yan Bilodeau. The race went green then quickly red as Bilodeau flipped after contact with Cory Sparks. Bilodeau was done for the night with Sparks heading to the work area for repairs to his No. 7. He returned to the field at the rear.
Jeff Cook now moved alongside Parent on the front row of the feature. Parent got the jump on Cook at the second attempt at a green flag and led the field into turn one with Cook in pursuit. The pair exchanged slide-jobs in the opening laps with Parent settling in as the leader for the first few circuits.
On lap five Cook was able to get a good run off the bottom of the second corner allowing him to stay even down the backstretch with Parent. He went low into the third turn and slid up in front of Parent to take the lead away for the first time. From here Cook continued to set the pace as Parent battled with Paul Kinney and Matt Tanner.
Etienne Girard’s night ended on lap 10 as he was involved in a single car accident in turn four. Girard got to close to the outside wall catching it with the right rear Hoosier causing the car to get upside down. He was unhurt but could not continue.
Cook remained the leader at green before Parent pulled a slide-job of his own exiting turn four to lead lap 11. Cook then utilized the bottom of turns one and two to put his No. 10 back out in front to lead lap 12. That’s the way the top two continued.
“It was fun racing Jeff Cook like that,” said Parent. “He is a good friend and I always racing with him. I know I’m not going to bump him and he isn’t going to bump me so we can slide job each other. It is fun racing and we won’t touch each other. I respect him a lot.”
Lap 15 saw the third and final red flag of the event as Paul Kinney caught the outside retaining wall and flipped in turn four. His incident was much like that of Girard’s as he got too close to the wall and flipped after catching his rear tires. He walked away uninjured.
Action lined up with Cook and Parent sharing the front row yet again. As was the case the prior restarts it was Cook holding the race lead at the green flag. He opened the advantage slightly on Parent in the next few laps.
As the race neared conclusion Cook caught slower traffic with only two laps to go. He battled to the bottom of turns one and two while using the middle lane through turns three and four. On the final circuit, Cook got loose coming off the fourth turn after the air was taken off his wing causing him to spin and do a complete 360. As he spun Parent went by for the win.
“I hate to win a race like that but we’ll sure take it,” said Parent. “I was expecting to catch traffic before that. Jeff had a different line then me and I was hoping to catch them before that to see if I could take advantage. Jeff had to think twice about his move, I think he wanted to change his decision and he spun out. That was bad, I hate to see that, but we’ll take the win.”
Sparks rebounded from his first lap crash and missed a spinning Cook off the fourth turn to grab the second position at the checkered flag. The Edinburg, N.Y., driver was happy with the finish although he wished he didn’t have to go to the tail of the field and work his way up through.
“We came from last to get back up to second,” stated Sparks. “That is an awesome feeling. It is almost as good as a win right there. I just tried to keep my nose clean but at the same time go like hell. We made a good tire call cause I really had to abuse the car. I think having to work so hard to get up through I used it up and I was just hanging on at the end.”
Tanner ended up crossing the line in the third spot. His run came with some assistance from Kevin Ward Sr. Tanner was using a Rider Racing Engine powerplant supplied by the Ward family in his GF1 for the weekend.
“The motor is Kevin Ward’s,” said Tanner. “We had talked before his accident about borrowing one and after everything happened his dad still wanted us to run it. We went and got it this week and dropped it in. Last night it was really noticeable to my motor. It runs real well. Tonight we had to take some gear out of it cause it had so much power I couldn’t keep it hooked up. I can’t thank the Ward family enough for everything they’ve done for me. Hopefully we can get a win this week coming up for him.”
Cook ended up finishing in the fourth spot as he continued on after spinning. Steve Poirier battled his way forward from the ninth spot to finish fifth while earning the Fondations 4 Saisons Quebec series title.
Le Groupe Ultra/Fondations 4 Saisons A-Main – Michael Parent ($2,050), Cory Sparks, Matt Tanner, Jeff Cook, Steve Poirier, Dave Axton, Chris Donnelly, Paul Pekkonen, James Hanson, Dale Gosselin, Will Hull, Jason Barney, Paul Kinney, Etienne Girard, Billy Applebee, Yan Bilodeau.
DNS – Tim Beard
Lap Leaders – Parent 1-6, Cook 7-11, Parent 12, Cook 13-24, Parent 25
Car Mate Custom Built Trailers Heat 1 – Parent, Barney, Girard, Bilodeau, Applebee, Beard
Car Mate Custom Built Trailers Heat 2 – Axton, Poirier, Cook, Tanner, Pekkonen, Hanson
Car Mate Custom Built Trailers Heat 3 – Kinney, Sparks, Donnelly, Hull, Gosselin
Bonuses:
Westward Painting Company Halfway – Cook $100
Insinger Performance Hard Charger – Tanner (7 pos.) $50
Fondations 55 Pick 5 – Poirier $50
Lacaillade Masonry In Memory of Kevin Ward Jr. – Kinney $50
Car Mate Custom Built Trailers Heats – Parent, Axton, Kinney $25
Go Nuclear Late Models Go Fast Award – Poirier (13.747) $25
Bitner Automotive Blistering Fast Time Award – Parent (12.752) $25