At the beginning of the season, L.P. Dumoulin announced that he would no longer partnered with 22 Racing, but moving forward to a new partnership with Martin Roy. There were a lot of people who questioned the decision and whether Dumoulin would be able to replicate last year’s success this season, and how else it would effect the series moving forward.
Four months later, those thoughts are the last thing on the minds of fans as the focus has since shifted to the incredible season that Dumoulin has turned up. With Mario Gosselin calling the shots, Dumoulin currently leads the standings by 26 points over J.R. Fitzpatrick with three races to go in the season. His season is one of the pure consistency, with his worst finish on the season being sixth place at Riverside International Speedway.
Heading into Canadian Tire Motorsports Park this weekend, there are full intentions of Dumoulin extending that lead further before the final two ovals of the season. He knows how to win at CTMP, putting the pieces together last year’s event, playing the perfect strategy and running a solid race en route to claiming the victory. The victory was no fluke either, as he has two wins and four top-fives in five starts on the 11-turn fast road course. With a win earlier this month at Trois-Rivieres, Dumoulin hasn’t slowed down when making left and right turns at all this year.
The only thing that could perhaps slow his possible championship run this weekend at CTMP is a mechanical issue, or a problem with another competitor. There are 33 drivers entered into this weekend’s Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200, meaning that there will be lots of traffic and fellow competitors to ruin a day. It has been seen throughout this year as both Jason Hathaway and Alex Tagliani have been taken out at separate points this season while running strong due to an incident with lap traffic. A key part to Dumoulin’s weekend will be avoiding that en route to the checkered flag. He can certainly make it easier on himself by qualifying well, something that he has done all year with an average starting spot of 6.6 thus far this year.
Beyond CTMP, there lies two more races that will give Dumoulin a challenge – Barrie Speedway and Kawartha Speedway. In six starts – three starts a piece – Dumoulin has only scored one top-10 between those two tracks over the years. It hasn’t been due to lack of effort, either, as Dumoulin has ran well at both tracks before finding his day go south due to either bad luck or mechanical issues. Though perhaps that is a story of the past as this year on ovals, Dumoulin has been solid, including a win at Saskatoon.
So, could this be the year that Dumoulin scores his first career NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Championship? It looks to be, and he could put his stamp on it this weekend with a victory.
