Johnny finished 5th Place in Peterborough Speedway

June 6, 2009 – Race 3 Report

Peterborough Speedway – The Full Throttle Racing team and the INEX Ontario Legends Series returned to Peterborough Speedway after a rained out Mosport race the previous Saturday.

With clear skies and seasonal temperatures we were gearing up for a great night of racing. Johnny would have a couple of test sessions to shake down the car to make sure things were good. After the first session Johnny was not overly pleased with the handling. He was saying that the car was extremely loose, but most of the driver’s were experiencing the same. Once his second session was over Johnny wanted the car’s front end looked at as he felt a slight vibration mid way through the corners and was still unhappy with the handling. With the help of Paul Pierik we went over caster, camber and toe to see if there was a problem with the front end. Sure enough, Johnny had reason to be concerned as the toe was out 9/16” which may have been from the slight contact with the #16 of Paul De Jong at Mosport the previous week.

Now with the #36 Martin-Coleman Sales, Doug Parmenter Auto Service and Vetteworks of Canada sponsored Ford Coupe dialed in; it was time for the Heat races. Johnny would draw a starting position of 6th for his first heat. The top 5 drivers in standings were in his heat so the going would be tough. When the green flag dropped it would be the outside row making a good charge through corner one and Johnny would be tucked into 3rd place. Driving hard on the bumper of #33 Paul Pierik down the back straight, Johnny would cut to the inside and make a clean pass for 2nd. Going through turns 3 and 4 the #36 Coupe would exit the turns at the lead of the pack as he would find his way past the #27 of Bungaro.

The lead would be short lived as the series point’s leader and two time series champion #88 Bruce Grimes would charge past the #36 to take over the number one spot. Johnny would spend the next 7 laps on the bumper of Grimes looking for a way by, as the two cars pulled comfortably ahead of the chasing pack. As the leaders came around turn 4 for the checkered, a corner 1 mishap would bring out the yellow. A track official would spot oil on the track and the clean up crew would spend the next 25 minutes cleaning the entire race line as one of the cars had a huge oil leak.

The track now covered in Speedy dry was determined to be safe for racing so we would line up and the #36 would be on the outside row in the number 2 spot. A green, white, checkered was supposed to be in order but as the cars took the green, it appeared that we were coming around to a checkered. With Johnny pinned on the outside for the entire lap because the 3 inside cars were nose to tail and not budging, Johnny would cross the line in 4th. Johnny was a bit disappointed with that result because he was originally 30 feet from the line and was going to be second before the caution, and then, not having the appropriate finish of green, white, checkered.

In his next heat Johnny would again start in the 6th position on the outside of row 3. A good clean start would see Johnny tucked in the 4th position by the time they hit the back straight. Johnny would make a great move to find his way by #1 of Kevin Fletcher to take over the 3rd position by the end of lap 3. The #36 Ford would make another pass at the start/finish line in lap 5 to take over the second spot behind once again the #88 of Grimes.

Just as Johnny made the pass a really bad crash was happening on the back straight into turn 3. The #71 which was being driven by Late Model driver Amanda Connelly for the first time appeared to lock up the brakes and hit the wall extremely hard and collected the #27 and the #58 into the mess. The #71 Connelly was uninjured, but the car sustained major damage. The #27 and #58 would return to the race with minor damage and would start at the rear of the field.

Due to the incident the race was to go back a lap to restart which would mean Johnny would have a great starting position because he was in third on the previous lap. Well….the way the night started we knew that when Johnny did not get moved out of the number 2 spot we would be faced with possibly the same result. So once again the #36 would be outside row 1 with 2 laps to go. Johnny would have a good start, but just could not get out in front of the #88 enough to drop down to the inside.

Now the inside cars would close up and keep the #36 pinned on the outside. Johnny would push hard to find his way down into the race line but got into some dirty track and would have to slow to keep control, allowing 2 more cars up the inside. He would cross the line in 6th.

In the other heat race there were more crashes which ended the night for a few more cars…Full Moon Fever perhaps! The feature would see 21 cars take the green. Johnny would start in 8th. #88 Grimes and #55 Foisy would lead them to the green and Johnny would find a spot in line by the time they hit the back straight, in 6th.

There was hard racing for the first half of the race and would see some jostling at the front. An incident in corner 4 would bring out a caution and the #36 was scored in 6th position. Three laps later another yellow was thrown due to the #58 hitting the wall in turn 3. On the restart Johnny would challenge the #24 of Andy Warbutton for 5th and would spend the next few laps hunting him down.

On the last lap and final corner, Johnny would exit turn 4 at its lowest point and hoped he could hold the Coupe down to avoid contact and he made it stick and drag raced the #24 to the line. Johnny would end up with another top 5 finish as he crossed the line ahead of the surprised Warbutton to finish in the 5th spot. A fantastic result for a tough night of racing, Johnny rolled through tech with no issues and we loaded a dirty but clean car.

Congratulation to #88 of Bruce Grimes for a 3 checkered night. With next weekend off its time to re scale and set up for two weeks in a row at the fast ½ mile tracks of Mosport on the 20th of June and Kawartha Speedway on Friday, June 26th.

As always Thanks to our sponsors Martin-Coleman Sales, Doug Parmenter Auto Services and Vetteworks of Canada.