Montreal, QC: Kerry Micks and his #02 Leland Industries/Beyond Digital Imaging/PartSource Ford team had high hopes for Micks final race of the 2012 season but had to settle for a 10th place finish after contact on the final lap.
Micks headed out to practice on the 2.709-mile road course on Thursday afternoon but wasn’t happy with the performance of the #02 Ford so the team quickly went to work and changed the transmission.
On Friday afternoon the team again took to the track with a top 5 qualifying effort in mind. They fell slightly short of that goal with a time good enough for the 7th place start. “We were looking for a little better,” said Micks after qualifying. “But with 39 cars here this weekend, which must be close to a record, 7th isn’t so bad.”
Saturday morning was an early start for the teams as they gridded for the 100 km, 23 lap NAPA Autopro 100 set to start at 9:35 a.m. At the drop of the green the #02 driver was able to maintain 7th place as the top seven pulled away from the remainder of the field. By lap 7, Micks was firmly in the top 5 and he reported to his crew the power steering had failed. A restart had the #02 car shuffled back to 6th where he stayed waiting patiently for the laps to wind down so he could make a move.
With 4 laps to go the caution came out and due to a lengthy clean up of oil on the track and with time running out, NASCAR announced there would only be one attempt at a green, white, checkered finish. On the white flag lap contact from a car behind forced Micks out of the racing groove and 4 cars were able to pass him. The final result was a 10th place finish.
A not to happy Micks commented after the race, “Some of the guys on the track just don’t get it as some of us race for points competing in all 12 events, while they show up for one. Most people don’t know it but we lost the power steering on lap 3 and I can’t tell you how much of a handful that car was all day. We were lucky to come away with the 10th for more than one reason but I was looking for more on my last race of the 2012 season.”
The Autopro 100 aired live on RDS, Sat., Aug. 18 9:30 a.m. ET; TSN, Sat., Aug. 18, 12:30 p.m. ET; RDS2, Wed., Sept. 19, 9:30 p.m. ET
The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will return to the track for the first of 3 oval track races on Saturday Sept 8th at Barrie Speedway. For more information please visit www.nascarlocalracing.com.
The #02 Micks Motorsports team is supported by the following sponsors: Leland Industries, Beyond Digital Imaging, PartSource, Armor All, Johnsonville, STP, Cathcart Trucking, Seguin Marina, Thor Motors, Prostate Cancer Canada, Triad Racing Technologies, Gaunt Collision Centres, Samester and Castrol.
For more information please contact:
Linda Jones
Wide Open Motorsport Solutions
(705) 730-4044
Email: ljones@wideopensolutions.ca
