MOPAR at Kawartha Speedway

NASCAR Canadian Tires Series (NCTS) crews running Dodge vehicles gathered at Kawartha Speedway to get their cars ready for the race season under the sponsorship of MOPAR (Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram car parts and accessories).

There was 7 teams on hand including the 2010 Champion DJ Kennington of the #17 car. The drivers as shown above are  Noel Dowler Jr #5, Jeff Lapcevich #23, Jason Hathaway #3, Ron Beauchamp Jr #60, Pete Shepherd III #7, Jason White #21 and DJ Kennington #17

See lots more pictures after the jump (click on Read More >>, below).

Jason Hathaway #3

Jeff Lapcevich #23

DJ Kennington #17 (above and below)

Ron Beauchamp Jr #60

Pete Shepherd III #7

Jason White #21

NASCAR NCTS ready to race

The 2011 racing season is getting ready to roll and the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (NCTS) will start at Mosport Speedway on May 28 with the Dickies 200.

You can meet and greet your favourite stock car racers, get autographs and see the thunder and smell of fast paced racing around the large street course. Several of the drivers have moved into the American head office NASCAR teams, like J.R. Fitzpatrick and Quebec superstar Andrew Ranger, pictured above.

And the crown jewel of racing in Ontario remains the Honda Indy Toronto taking over the Exhibition grounds starting on July 8, 2011 where the NCTS drivers will be out on the track during the full weekend of events.

See more pictures of Canadian stock car racing after the jump (click read more >>, below).

JR Fitzpatrick

2010 Champion DJ Kennington

NCTS Champ 2010 #17 DJ Kennington

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (NCTS) 2010 Championship title was awarded to D.J. Kennington of the #17 Castrol Edge car. D.J. (second from the left) shares a laugh with some of the other NCTS drivers during recent qualifying laps for a race at Barrie Speedway, he later went on to win that race. The NASCAR website says that as the Champion he "earned a starting spot in the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown, the prestigious post season event that has earned the title as 'the Daytona 500 of short-track racing."

from left to right: J.R. Fitzpatrick, D.J. Kennington, Ron Beauchamp Jr., Scott Steckly and Mark Dilley

Here are some pictures of D.J. during a 2008 race in Cayuga when his sweet Castrol ride was a little green.

NCTS at Barrie Speedway

The Nascar Canadian Tire Series race - the Wild Wings 300, was held at Barrie Speedway and it was a good day for racing. The main event was a night race and the brakes of the stock cars became so hot as they entered the corners that they glowed a deep red (Scott Steckly leads JR Fitzpatrick above). 

The racetrack is up Highway 400 and onto Highway 11 just north of Barrie. Turning off 11 I thought that this race was going to be huge. Parking lots full of cars, traffic guys directing traffic, there were a lot of people in this area. It turns out that a large hunk of the crowd were there for the 40th annual fall auto flea market, but a lot did stay for the race which had a large turnout. Here I am on the track following the driver autograph session.

Barrie Speedway is a small oval race track with not a lot of straight runs available. You hit the corners and when you come out of the corner you have to get setup for the next one. It is tight and with a large field of high speed vehicles you are just waiting for trouble. So there were a number of contacts and turn arounds (there were eight cautions in the race, JR Fitzpatrick takes a little detour, below, while Jeff Lapcevich goes by and Kerry Micks of the 02 car seems to be missing a few parts) during the race and it is always funny to see mangled race cars stripped of broken parts and exposed engines running the race.

The race day starts early in the afternoon with a one hour practice (Jason White of the 21 car, below, is sponsored by A&W and the team always gives out free A&W Root Beers) and later a two lap qualifying run which determines a car's start position. A short time later the cars are lined up on the track and the fans are allowed onto the track to get autographed photos from the Nascar drivers.

DJ Kennington (#17) and Don Thomson Jr (#4) battled it out and finished so close at the last lap as they finished side by side with a 0.015 second difference. The rest of the top five were Pete Shepherd III (#7), Scott Steckly (#22) and JR Fitzpatrick (#84).

See more coverage of the race after the jump.

Here are the race winners as they cross the finish line side by side. Car 17 squeaks into the lead and takes the checkered flag for the winner's victory lap. 

The top three get their trophies, from left to right - Pete Shepherd III (3rd), DJ Kennington (1st) and Don Thomson Jr (2nd). After this photo they sprayed each other with the traditional champagne showers.

The day's schedule also included race Pure Stock and Thunder Car events. Daisy Duck rides with Desiree Walt in the Halford's Tax Service  21 Thunder Car.

Nascar Canadian Tire Series - Canadian Tire Jumpstart 100

The Nascar Canadian Tire Series drivers said that the track would be slippery after 5 laps and many figured that they would crash within those five laps, then they would continue crashing every five laps. I think that they did keep to that schedule and still managed to finish the race. Andrew Ranger (passing by the Princes' Gates above) in the #27 Dodge Dealers of Quebec car won the event, followed by Jason Bowles in the #11 Rusty Wallace Racing Experience car and in third place was DJ Kennington of the #17 Castrol Edge car. Andrew leaves the Nascar paddock with TSN's Tod Lewis, below.

The track is narrow and the concrete barriers keep the drivers guessing on how close they can get to the edges of the track. Add in the slick racing conditions and drivers inexperienced in the Toronto street course and the collisions add up.

More pictures after the jump.

Fans of NASCAR line up in the Thunder Alley autograph tent on Saturday. The drivers sat on two sides of the tent and signed pictures, hats and shirts as the crowds passed along a path.

At the end of the line was Jason Hathaway of the #3 Vortex Dodge Avenger. Jason is co sponsored by two primary companies - Rockstar Energy Drink and Snap-On. Team manager Jamie Hakonson of Fast Eddie Racewear sponsors both Jason and Alex Tagliani of the IndyCar Racing League. Jamie is in the pits during the Canadian Tire Jumpstart race (left, picture at bottom).