Scheduled to take place tonight and tomorrow night, the 4th and 5th rounds of the 2024 NASCAR Canada season presented on the oval track of Riverside Speedway, in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, were contested this Saturday, June 29. The reason was rain showers forecast for tomorrow in the Maritime Provinces that would have prevented the second race from taking place. It was therefore in the late afternoon and mid-evening that the two events, each of 150 laps, were contested, with the victory going to Kevin Lacroix both times.
Qualified in pole position ahead of Ontarian Jason Hathaway and Louis-Philippe Dumoulin, Lacroix led the majority of laps in the first race. In fact 147 of the 150 in this event which lasted 56 minutes and was neutralized 6 times for no less than 39 laps. It must be said that there have been numerous collisions, especially those involving Quebec pilots! Thus on the 89th lap, Dumoulin, pushed slightly by Camirand according to the video replays, collided with Alex Labbé, causing the latter to spin. Camirand was sent into a spin by Alex Guénette a few laps later while the same Marc-Antoine Camirand and Andrew Ranger made contact in a maneuver also involving Donald Theetge and which caused the pit stop of Ranger to remove a loose bodywork element from his car. Theetge fared less well and shortly after suffered a puncture on the front right which caused him to lose two laps in the pits.
Despite these incidents, the race was spectacular, led by Lacroix with Hathaway still threatening. 1.459 seconds separate the two drivers at the checkered flag. Very incisive, Guénette took advantage of LPDumoulin’s misfortunes to climb into 3rd place with 60 laps remaining. He never gave up the position again, finishing ahead of Thomas Nepveu, finally spared from mechanical problems.
We then find the quartet of drivers involved in incidents, Labbé 5th ahead of Ranger, Camirand and Dumoulin. Larry Jackson and Josh Collins complete the Top 10. Theetge is classified 12th and Maxime Gauvreau retired after 111 laps, following a suspension failure.
The second race in the evening, with 18 of the 19 registered still in action, was less uncertain, at least during the first two thirds. Lacroix took the lead from the first laps, while a great fight took place for 2nd place, Hathaway being very incisive to close the door against Dumoulin’s attacks. Behind, Theetge and Camirand were on the lookout. Nepveu had already retired (another mechanical failure!) and Ranger had lost 2 laps following a puncture, leading to the first neutralization of the race.
At the restart with 36 laps to go, a pile-up involving Camirand, Theetge, Labbé, Brandon McFarlane, Mark Dilley, Gauvreau and Glenn Styres led to the race being stopped. Theetge’s car, pushed towards the wall by Hathaway and then hit successively by Camirand, Labbé and especially by the local favourite McFarlane, was the most damaged and it took many minutes to free it from the middle of the track where it lay, before being smashed. Fortunately, no driver was injured in this “Big One”, rather rare in NASCAR Canada.
The race resumed with just 11 cars left on the track, with 31 laps to go. Lacroix, Hathaway, Dumoulin, Labbé and Guénette formed the top 5. But another yellow was waved less than 2 laps later, Labbé suffering a blown tire while Camirand entered the pits to retire.
The next restart (24 laps from the end), this time with Hathaway in control, was the right one and it gave rise to a constant battle for victory between the Ontario veteran and Lacroix. With 7 laps to go, Kevin took back control to race towards his second victory of the evening. Hathaway, Guénette, Dumoulin, DJ Kennington completed the Top 5. Sixth, rookie Maxime Gauvreau collected his best result in the series. He is ahead of Labbé, Ranger, Larry Jackson and Sara Thorne, the Maritime driver finishing 10th but 4 laps behind the winner.
