CASCAR SPORTSMAN SERIES - 2001 SEASON

Sunday, June 24th, 2001 - 1:00 pm
LOCATION:  Capital City Speedway (Stittsville, Ontario)
RACE LENGTH:  150 laps  (57 miles)
STARTED:  21st of 26 participants. Qualifying time of 20.67 seconds.
RACE SUMMARY:  Since this was our first race of the season, we spent most of our time in the pits getting the car ready to pass technical inspection. The left side of the car carried 56% of the total weight which was one percent above the legal specifications. It seemed that no matter what we did, the percentage wouldn't drop below 55.6 and we were drastically running out of time before qualifying would begin. Finally, after many sway bar adjustments, brothers Reggie and Serge Bosse finally got the number down to 54.8% with only ten minutes to spare. However, in order to meet specifications, our cross-weight was much lower than we had planned. Jean took it easy during his qualifying runs as it was the first time the car had been on the track since last September. In fact, Jean played possum as despite the fact the car looked a bit slow taking 21.64 seconds on the first lap, he qualified a respectable 21st out of 26 by shaving nearly a second off of lap two. Jean would later state that the car felt absolutely perfect. Jean took it easy in the early going choosing his spots and passed Chad McGlynn in Car #18 and the Daniel Belanger in #52x. Due to overly agressive driving by Kenny Forth (#86), a major crash in Turn One occurred on Lap 34 taking its toll on six cars. Involved in the wreck included Forth, Cole Pearn (#24), Chad in the #18, Lyle Perkins in #9, Doug Brown in #10 and Jacques Leperle in the #72 car. After the restart, Jean found himself in the 15th position. The next incident happened on lap 68 in Turn Three when car #21 of Claude Leclerc tangled with Daniel Charest in the #05 car. Three of the top five cars took this opportunity to change tires thus leaving Jean in the eighth position. Steve Munro in the car #00, Al Long in the #51 and Ron Sheridan in the #52 all took on new rubber. Since Jean never came in to the pits, his tires started going away from him during the last 25 laps and he found it best to just feather the gas in the corners instead of over-braking. Due to the tire wear, Jean slipped to 10th place by lap 134. Sheridan, Long and Munro passed Jean in the final laps to push him to 13th. Despite pitting three times during the race, the organizers somehow credited Forth (#86), Pearn (#24) and Brown (#10) to finish ahead of Jean, so our final position was officially slated as 16th. Steve Robblee (#28) eventually won the race. Next race takes place at Autodrome St-Eustache on Saturday, June 30th.
FINISHED:  16th of 26 participants (150 laps completed)

Saturday, June 30th, 2001 - 6:00 pm
LOCATION:  Autodrome St. Eustache (St. Eustache, Quebec)
RACE LENGTH:  100 laps  (40 miles)   HAVOLINE 100
STARTED:  18th of 18 participants
RACE SUMMARY:  The Car #13 was running as good as it ever has and Jean was able to slice through the field. By Lap 25 he was up five positions into 13th place. The race was stopped twice due to rain before finally being called just past the halfway point at Lap 53. One can only imagine how well Jean may have finished if the race went the entire 100 laps but he did make the top ten and earned the team a respectable 9th position which was two spots ahead of the infamous Richard Beauchamp in Car #74. There is still much work ahead of the team as we need to find the right combinations earlier such that Jean can obtain better qualifying times and positions.
RED FLAG:  53 laps  (21.2 miles) due to rain.
FINISHED:  9th of 18 participants (53 laps completed)

Saturday, July 7th, 2001 - 6:00 pm
LOCATION:  Autodrome St. Eustache (St. Eustache, Quebec)
RACE LENGTH:  100 laps  (40 miles)   PROLAB-CADBURY 100
STARTED:  19th of 20 participants
RACE SUMMARY:  Jean started near the back of the pack so he took it easy and chose his spots for 25 laps before the wiring on his solenoid caught fire and he had to retire from the race.
However, the race was once again postponed due to rain after 48 laps. Since the race was not considered to be official, the rest of the contest would be completed on July 21st. With a new lease on life, Jean was determined to improve his position and gather some valuable information for the Superior Propane 100 race to be held a few hours later. Lap 60 saw Jacques Laperle in Car #72 spin in Turn 4 so Jean brought the car in for one crank of wedge. A communication error saw Jean come back in on Lap 64 (still under caution) to receive two turns of wedge in the opposite direction. During the yellow flag laps, Car #23 came into the pits with a major differential oil leak. Also,
Forrest "Gump" Cox in Car #8 was slow all day but Jean didn't have enough laps to catch him
so we called it after Lap 82 and finish second last in 19th position.
FINISHED:  19th of  20 participants (57 laps completed)

Wednesday, July 18th, 2001 - 7:30 pm
LOCATION:  Capital City Speedway (Stittsville, Ontario)
RACE LENGTH:   100 laps  (38 miles)
STARTED:  9th of 10 participants. Qualifying time of 20.48 seconds.
RACE SUMMARY:  With such a small field of competitors, Jean's plan was to cruise along early, picking and choosing his opportunities carefully before putting the hammer down in the second half of the race. Unfortunately for the team, however, the car had a malfunctioning master cylinder such that Jean only had rear brakes in operation. The first caution came out on Lap 17 due to the slow driving of Chad Malone in Car #21x. The yellow came out again on Lap 36 when Car #74 of Richard Beauchamp tangled with Claude Leclerc in Car #21. The pace car came out once again when David Hebert's Car #1 blew its engine. Jean took this opportunity to come into the pits to take two turns of wedge in the left rear to help counter the effects of minimal braking. The rest of the race went without incident and Jean would have surely moved up into 7th position if circumstances were different. Jean was faster than Steve Maheux in Car #60 but obviously couldn't out-brake Maheux in the corners where it counted the most. All-in-all, the team was pleased with their best finish of the racing season so far. The team must now prepare for the two races upcoming in St-Eustache.
FINISHED:  8th of 10 participants (100 laps completed)

Saturday, July 21st, 2001 - 7:00 pm
LOCATION:  Autodrome St. Eustache (St. Eustache, Quebec)
RACE LENGTH:   100 laps  (40 miles)   SUPERIOR PROPANE 100
STARTED:  19th of 24 participants. Qualifying time of 19.02 seconds.
RACE SUMMARY:  Expectations were high as the car was running beautifully after completing the previously suspended PROLAB-CADBURY 100 earlier in the day. Our hopes were dashed early when a major wreck involving six cars occurred on Lap 1 right in front of the grandstand. The initial accident included Dan Bergeron (Car #7), Jean-Pierre Ouimet (Car #73) and Peter Cohen in
Car #46. These three drivers were damaged beyond repair and would retire from the race. The only way Jean could avoid hitting anyone was to actually come to a complete stop. Unfortunately, two cars behind him did not foresee the situation. Both Martin Goulet in Car #38, and Car #8 driven by Forrest "Gump" Cox ran into Jean. Goulet hit Jean so hard that the Car #13 got knocked off the ground almost totally vertical with only the left side tires still on the pavement. Jean came in three times for repairs to the back bumper which was being held by only a thread of fibreglas. Finally, on Lap 24 Jean came in the pits as he found it very difficult to steer. Upon inspection, it was discovered that the right tie rod was severely bent, so we had to call it a day. Later, back home at the garage, Jean found that the engine block had been cracked as well. Repairs would be too extensive for us to make it in time for the race at Capital City Speedway on August 1st. The Superior Propane 100 race would be marred by six more cautions. On Lap 37 Ron Sheridan (Car #52) spun in Turn 4. Dion Verhoeven (Car #77) tapped Dave Brown (Car #10) in Turn 1 causing a spin on Lap 37.
Dan Belanger (Car #52x) did the same to Car #21's Claude Leclerc in Turn 3 on Lap 68. Just eight laps later Andre Coursol in Car #18 forced Verhoeven to crash with Car #26's Alain Perron in
Turn 2. This brought on a heated verbal argument between Perron and Coursol. Lap 94 saw
Steve Robblee in Car #28 push slow-moving Belanger off the track in Turn 4. Robblee was penalized to the back of the pack for his actions. Sheridan would spin again on Lap 97, but this time he did it in Turn 1. The race would end with home track favourite Steve Maheux in Car #60 winning a close one after swapping paint with several drivers during the last three laps.
FINISHED:  21st of  24 participants (24 laps completed)

Sunday, August 19th, 2001 - 1:00 pm
LOCATION:  Capital City Speedway (Stittsville, Ontario)
RACE LENGTH:   100 laps  (38 miles)
STARTED:   11th of 14 participants. Qualifying time of 20.63 seconds.
RACE SUMMARY: For some reason we had a difficult time setting up the #13 for this track. Thus Jean brought out the first caution of the day on Lap 14 when he performed a perfect 360 in Turn 4. He brought the car in and we made a major trackbar adjustment in the right rear but we had already lost a lap on the spin. Just 12 laps later, Jean brought out the yellow flag, this time by spinning in
Turn 3. This was unfortunate as Jean had passed Charlie Schnupp, John Ibey in cars 58 and 24 respectively while making a move on Peter Cohen in Car #46. This time we made trackbar adjustments on both front wheels. The pace truck didn't stay out the required amount of circuits and we lost yet another lap. On Lap 44 there was a major crash in Turn 1 which broke the right front wheel off of David Hebert's Car #1. Another caution flag flew on Lap 52 when Car #18 driven by Andre Coursol spun in Turn 1. On Lap 58, Lyle Perkins in Car #9 bumped the #20 car of
Scott Lindsay, who spun in Turn 1. The race continued eventless for the next sixteen laps before Cohen blew his engine in Turn 3. With five laps remaing, Ibey retired from the competition as he was running on only seven cylinders. Jean kept out of trouble for the rest of the race and finished right where he started in 11th position. The top three included Richard Beauchamp (Car #74),
Steve Young (Car #00) and Ron Sheridan in Car #52.
FINISHED:  11th of 14 participants. (98 laps completed)

Saturday, August 25th, 2001 - 7:00 pm
LOCATION:  Autodrome St. Eustache (St. Eustache, Quebec)
RACE LENGTH:   100 laps  (40 miles)   CASCAR 100
STARTED:   9th of 17 participants.
RACE SUMMARY: Jean maintained his usual race plan by cruising for the first 70 laps and keeping out of trouble as much as possible. With Jean choosing his spots to pass and with the regular attrition that occurs in racing, Jean was in 3rd position with 25 laps remaining. But that's when Jean tangled with David Hebert in Car #1 who was so perturbed about going a lap down that he made it difficult for the lead lap cars to pass him. Hebert hit our Car #13 while Jean was shifting and this made the gears grind for the rest of the way. On Lap #95, Jean's clutch finally broke and he was forced to cruise the final five laps, stuck in one gear, thus leaving Jean to fight with the car to a 6th place finish.
FINISHED:  6th of 17 participants. (100 laps completed)

Sunday, September 2nd, 2001 - 2:00 pm
LOCATION:  Delaware Speedway Park (Delaware, Ontario)
RACE LENGTH:   150 laps  (75 miles)   BUDWEISER 150
STARTED:   31st of 40 participants. Qualifying time of 20.968 seconds.
RACE SUMMARY: What looked like a horrendous weekend, turned out to be just fine by the end of the racing. Every hotel room was booked for 100 miles around so the entire team slept in their vehicles at a roadside truck stop in Ingersoll. Needless to say, we were all tired and cranky. To top it off, we were one of the three teams that were without a pit stall so we ironically shared a spot with the team that damaged us in the last race, David Hebert's #1. We were able to do a lot of testing and made many adjustments - especially to the carburetor intake. Before the race even began, it took its first casualty in the name of Paul De Jong in Car #16 who blew an engine in qualifying. The pace was fast and furious with Ron Sheridan (Car #52) and Steve Robblee in Car #28 battling it out such that they passed Jean by Lap #29. With way too many caution flags to mention as drivers found it difficult to steer through Turns 1 and 2, Jean crept up the field by staying on the track on brand new tires. The closest call for Jean was when he had to avoid the spun vehicle of
Larry Jackson in Car #87. Since we were in the very front pit box, we helped push Jackson into the garage area. At around Lap 50, Robblee got past Sheridan and held the lead the rest of the way to win the Budweiser 150. Jean kept up for the remaining laps and only lost the one to finish in 17th.
FINISHED:  17th of 40 participants. (149 laps completed)

Saturday, September 15th, 2001 - 7:00 pm
LOCATION:  Autodrome St. Eustache (St. Eustache, Quebec)
RACE LENGTH:   100 laps  (40 miles)   CASCAR 100
STARTED:  16th of 28 participants. Qualifying time of 18.62 seconds.
RACE SUMMARY:  After a phenomenal qualifying run, Jean kept true to form by picking his opportunities very carefully as he made his way through the field. Jean may have finished at an even higher position if it weren't for one quick dip into the pits for two turns of wedge in the right rear.
FINISHED:  11th of 28 participants. (150 laps completed)

POSTPONED DUE TO RAIN - RESCHEDULED FOR:
Sunday, October 14th, 2001 - 1:00 pm
LOCATION:  Autodrome St. Eustache (St. Eustache, Quebec)
RACE LENGTH:   300 laps  (120 miles)   CARI-ALL 300
STARTED:  15th of 16 participants. Qualifying time of 19.03 seconds.
RACE SUMMARY:
FINISHED:  8th of 16 participants. (298 laps completed)