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Pat O’Brien is the winner of the Lucas Oil Canadian DIRT Challenge at Brockville
By Martin Bélanger
Brockville, ON – Saturday, July 28, 2007 – It was the second race of five in the Lucas Oil Canadian DIRT Challenge. Another superb field of cars showed up for this event as 37 drivers signed in. A brief shower before the start of the event, soaked the track but all the drivers came on the surface to pack it in and get the evening underway. A great crowd was also on hand to see this 100 lap event.
Mark Hitchcock took the lead on the start over David Hébert, the leaders got into traffic really early and Hébert took advantage of it by passing Hitchcock on lap 11 by an inside move in turn 1 and 2 to take the lead. The first caution came on lap 18 for Ron Valade who had a problem with his rear axle. Hébert kept the lead on the restart over Hitchcock. Todd Stewart slowed down in turn 4 on lap 24 and this brought the second caution of the race, Hébert is still the leader and now followed by Danny O’Brien. O’Brien grabbed the lead on the issuing green after a good battle with Hébert. After leading for 5 laps, O’Brien broke his left front wheel on lap 31 and Hébert regain the lead. Yan Bussière who second on the restart, out powered Hébert and took the lead. Mike Adderly brought the fourth caution with some problems in the backstretch. Bussière manage to keep the lead on the following green. Second place runner, Hébert had some problems and headed to the pits on lap 43. Pat O’Brien is now sixth after starting in 25th spot. Bussière got the lead again on the green and Steve Bernard is now second. At the halfway point, the top 5 were Bussière, Bernard, Lance Willix, Hitchcock and O’Brien. Bussière got a good lead over Bernard. A small tangle occurred in turn one a brought the field back together on lap 60. Bussière was again the leader but he had some company with Willix trying some moves from the inside but Bussière was able to hold off. Pat O’Brien has cracked the top 3 on lap 70 by a move on Willix and has eyes on Bernard, the field went for almost twenty laps on without a caution until Michel Dusseault stopped in turn 3. Bussière was still the leader and O’Brien is now second and his chasing Bussière and he finally got him on lap 91. Frederic Gamache stopped on lap 94 to bring the seventh caution. On the restart O’Brien kept the lead to win this 100 lap feature, he was followed by Yan Bussière and Laurent Ladouceur who completed the top 3. The heat winners were Mark Hitchcock, Yan Bussière, Sébastien Gougeon, Danny O’Brien. Pierre Dagenais had won the consolation race. The fast timer was Stéphane Lafrance with a time of 14.153. The top 25 drivers were within a margin of only one second with Lafrance.
The feature race ran rather quickly, the racing surface was really good with two lines of racing. It was a really great event; Pat O’Brien showed his great talent by passing 24 other cars to win this race. The series will continue tomorrow night at Cornwall Motor Speedway with the third event out of five. Over 40 cars are expected to show up for another 100 laps race. The time trials will start at 6:30pm and the first heat race is schedule for 7pm. Do not miss another great show.
Canadian DIRT Challenge Full Results (100 laps):
Pat O’Brien, Yan Bussière, Laurent Ladouceur, Steve Bernard, Kyle Dingwall, Clément Therrien, Mario Clair, Lance Willix, Brian Rogers, Mike Adderly, Stéphane Lafrance, Todd Stewart, Sébastien Gougeon, Paul Pekkonen, Dany Bilodeau, Fred Gamache, Pierre Dagenais, Lee Ladouceur, Mark Hitchcock, Michel Dusseault, Ron Valade, Brian McDonald, David Hébert, Ryan Poole, Robbie Grant, Bobby Herrington, Danny O’Brien, Kyle Robidoux, Jasmin Léveillé, Claude Marcoux
Modified heat 1: Mark Hitchcock, Stéphane Lafrance, Paul Pekkonen
Modified heat 2: Yan Bussière, Lance Willix, David Hébert
Modified heat 3: Sébastien Gougeon, Steve Bernard, Clément Therrien
Modified heat 4: Danny O’Brien, Laurent Ladouceur, Bri
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