By Mike Mallett
While most eyes were watching the racing up front, Quebec driver Felix Roy was quietly putting on a show, racing his way through the field on Wednesday night at Land of Legends Raceway in the SummerFAST finale.
The rookie Super DIRTcar Series driver was involved in the only yellow of the event on lap three when he tangled with Darren Smith. Smith slid up and made contact with Roy, which sent him spinning. Roy pitted with a left front flat, returned, and drove the wheels off of his No. 91 to finish ninth in the final tally.
“I got in a wreck early in the race, came back here to change the left front, and then after that, just went on the top side,” said Roy of his charge. “There was nobody up top, and I was the only one up top gaining position. It was just awesome. I finished ninth, and I think I got the hard charger. I’m super happy. The car was perfect.”
Roy was originally slated to roll off from the 21st starting position by virtue of winning the second Last Chance Showdown. The incident placed him at the tail of the 27-car field. That’s when he decided to let it all hang out on top. It worked.
The Napierville, Quebec, driver got as high as eighth in the feature rundown by motoring around the high side of the track. The 18-year-old driver got to the back bumper of Justin Haers for seventh as he battled with Kyle Coffey late in the race after fighting hard to get by Alex Payne. He changed up his line, which allowed Payne to take advantage of a wide open outside groove. He drove back by Roy, putting him ninth at the checkered flag.
“Payne was on the bottom, and I think I showed him the top,” said Roy. “I got around him, and when I got behind Justin Haers and Coffey, I was kind of stuck because they were doing a slider line from the bottom. I didn’t know where to go. When I went to the bottom, Payne passed me back up on top, but we had an awesome battle. It was fun.”
In Roy’s inaugural season on the Super DIRTcar Series trail, he’s taken his fair share of lumps. His best finish of sixth came twice when the series visited his home track, Autodrome Drummond, two weeks ago. His ninth-place effort on Wednesday was his third top-10 of the year. Land of Legends offered a rare opportunity for him to run a second series event on the same track.
“The Super DIRTcar Series is well organized, and I love to go to new tracks,” he said. “This is our second time here, so we’re getting better at it. Almost every track is our first time at it. When the series went to Quebec, we had two good runs, and that really helped us. We’re sitting like 13th in points in our rookie season, and we can’t complain.”
The hardest adjustment for Roy is just how slippery tracks in Central New York tend to get, like Weedsport and Brewerton Speedway on Monday night. He doesn’t get to see much of that in Quebec.
“The new tracks are slick tracks, and we’re not used to that,” said Roy. “The type of track here is what we’re used to in Quebec: tacky and winding it on the cushion. On Monday at Brewerton, it was dry and slick. We’re struggling on that, but we’re going to get better, I’m sure. My crew chief and I are really working hard.”
The results aren’t there yet for Roy, as he’s still finding his groove as a first-timer on the series, but keep an eye on the rookie as things are starting to come together.
