By TOMMY LAVALLEE (Courtesty Les Gars de Courses)
GRANBY, QC – It was the opening night of the 2023 season at the Autodrome Granby. Modified, Sportsman, Pro-Stock, and Sport-Compact were on the program for the evening.
In the Modified Division, it was the second race of the American Racer Québec Series. Michaël Parent in the 25-p machine won the 50-lap Feature after starting from position #9 on the grid. Parent took the lead on lap 9 and was challenged by Félix Roy and Even Racine, but he never lost the lead. Roy got the best on Racine for 2nd in a young gun battle. Alan Therrien finished in 4th place, while defending champion David Hébert took position #5. Mario Clair won the hard charger award after taking the green in 26th and finishing 6th.
In the Sportsman division, veteran driver Alex Lajoie led all but 5 laps in the 40-lap feature. William Racine took the lead from lap 4 to lap 8 before Lajoie regained the 1st position. Racine was all over Lajoie’s bumper, but he never got past the 33. Alexandre Salvas was in the top 5 all race long, and on lap 35, he surprised Racine with a slidejob in turn 3 to take second place. They traded slide jobs for two laps, but Salvas kept the position until the end of the race. Racine finished 3rd in front of Donovan Lussier and Raphaël Gougeon. Karl Letendre won the B-Main and the hard charger award.
Sport-Compact offered us another great race. Mathieu Voghell led the first part of the race before having to go pit side. After that, we had a great fight between Dominik Blais and Bruno Lafontaine and it was Lafontaine who won it and got the checkered flag. Blais finished 2nd in front of Sylvain Marcoux. Stéphane Bélanger and hard-charging Patrick Delisle completed the top 5.
In the Pro-Stock division, the rain-shortened feature was all Bruno Cyr. He was alone in front while Robert Larocque kept 2nd place all race long. Jonathan Levesque had to go pitside at the beginning of the race but he was able to come back and finish 3rd in front of Gabriel Caouette and Jonathan Viens.
Autodrome Granby Speedway Modified Feature (50 Laps) – 1. 25P-Michael Parent[9]; 2. 91-Felix Roy[4]; 3. 54R-Even Racine[7]; 4. 39A-Alan Therrien[15]; 5. 1-David Hebert[16]; 6. 124C-Mario Clair[26]; 7. 44-Sebastien Gougeon[6]; 8. 49-Francois Bernier[8]; 9. 39X-Alex Therrien[14]; 10. 39-Clement Therrien[2]; 11. 37-Mathieu Desjardins[3]; 12. 90JR-Jeremy Roy[20]; 13. 54-Steve Bernard[12]; 14. 79-Maxime Plante[23]; 15. 25*-Steve Bernier[13]; 16. 41-Samuel Charland[22]; 17. 13-Kevin Hamel[17]; 18. 38-Jean Mathieu Raymond[24]; 19. 23-Yan Bilodeau[18]; 20. 36-Chantal Provencher[25]; 21. 5-Richard Courchesne[27]; 22. 35-Francois Bellemare[19]; 23. 92P-Martin Pelletier[10]; 24. 21-Yan Bussiere[1]; 25. 88-Jeffrey Lapalme[5]; 26. 29-Steve Turcotte[11]; 27. 97-Josianne Plante[21]
