July 10, 2011. Calgary, Alberta’s Jarrad Whissell and the #44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu Ford had a tough start to the weekend during round number five of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series this past weekend in Toronto. On the city streets during the Toronto Indy weekend Whissell would give all he could following a number of setbacks and be rewarded for his hard charge during the race.
During the practice session Friday afternoon Whissell had his hands full with the #44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu Ford. “It was very strange” he explained. “First the car was loose, then it was tight and it was very difficult to get a handle on things” he stated.
With the qualifying session only a couple of hours after qualifying the #44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu Ford team could only make limited changes. “Unfortunately the car still wasn’t right during qualifying we paid the price for it” said Whissell.
Following qualifying the #44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu Ford team went to work determined to correct the problems and give Whissell a better handling car for the 100km race. They were not completely successful
Whissell battled some brake issues early in the race and ran into difficulty. “I was racing with the #50 car and approaching a part of the track that gets a little wider” explained Whissell. Unfortunately I pushed him a little bit wide before the track widened out and he hit the wall. I’m sorry about that it was totally unintentional” he added.
Still with a loose race car Whissell did begin to make progress in the #44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu Ford. “I had to just do the best I could with what I had” said Whissell. And with a determined effort he managed to begin moving forward in the field.
In the closing laps Whissells effort had him within sight of a top ten finish. Still with a loose handling race car he would spin late in the race and it would cost him several positions. Still with an ill handling car he gained ten positions during the race and finished fourteenth. “With the kind of car we had today I guess it’s not bad to go from twenty fourth to fourteenth” he said. “We’ll be digging a little deeper into the car to determine the cause of those brake issues, nothing was immediately visible after the race” he added.
This season Jarrad Whissell will participate in four NASCAR Canadian Tire Series road course events at Mosport Raceway, the Toronto Indy, Grand Prix of Trois Rivieres and the Montreal Nationwide weekend. In addition he will also take part in the two western Canada stops at Motoplex Speedway near Vernon, BC & Auto Clearing Speedway in Saskatoon, SK. Follow the progress of the team and help support the Children’s Miracle Network through the team website www.jarradwhissell.com and race fans are invited to follow him on twitter, @jarradwhissell You can watch all of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series races again this year on TSN.
