Race No. 11: Wilson Equipment Limited 300 at Riverside International Speedway

With only this weekend’s Wilson Equipment Limited 300 at Riverside International Speedway and next weekend’s finale at Kawartha Speedway, everybody’s focus is on the championship and who will come out on top.

For the majority of the season, it looked as if D.J. Kennington would have the championship in the bag early after winning five consecutive races in the middle of the season. However, last weekend at Barrie Speedway, Kennington finished 21st following fuel pump issues. As a result, he sits only 14 points ahead of Andrew Ranger and 16 points ahead of J.R. Fitzpatrick. As a result, there is no way for Kennington to clinch early. He could gain a maximum of 28 points on Ranger with the 24-car field and put himself in a position to clinch early.

“I’ve been around this sport for a long time and things happen,” Kennington says. “Nothing is guaranteed. You just go out and do the best you can and control the things you can control. We’re not going to hang our heads. We go into every race with our sights set on winning and that’s how we’ll approach the next two races.”

Kennington has had success at Riverside International Speedway before, finishing fourth last year to go with his victory in 2010. The victory in 2010 was one that led him to the series championship that year. Steckly won the race in 2011 and Ranger won the race in 2009, both also going on to win the championship. The possibility of Kennington winning goes well with his three top five finishes in five trips to Nova Scotia, along with 255 laps led. It wouldn’t surprised anybody either as Kennington has won four of the five oval races this year to go with 11 top five finishes in his last 12 series starts.

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”266″][/media-credit]When it comes to Ranger, the 2009 victory was his last race in Antoginish, Nova Soctia, before moving on to other racing divisions before making his NASCAR Canadian Tire Series return. Before the win in 2009, he had a sixth place finish in 2008. He will be looking for a second win on the 0.333 high-banked paved oval after leading a total of 115 laps in previous starts. Though the two-time champion is also known for his consistantcy,  finishing inside the top 10 in 31 of his last 33 series starts dating back to the 2008 season.

While Steckly won the championship last year, he comes in as the man on the outside looking in, sitting 29 points behind Kennington, mathematically still able to win it. Though if the top three drivers have trouble, Steckly could capitalize after winning the 2011 running and finishing second in 2010. He has also led the most laps of any driver at Riverside with a total of 376 laps.

Fitzpatrick is the only driver of the top four that has yet to win in Antigonish, though has gun shot in his back pocket in the form of crew chief Don Thomson Jr., who won the race in 2008 as a driver. Though Fitzpatrick has come close, finishing second twice while leading 160 laps.

The other driver in the field that has won at Riverside International Speedway before is Mark Dilley, who won the inaugural race at the track in

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”266″][/media-credit]2007. He is the only driver to finish in the top 10 in each of the series’ five visits to the track that built to model Bristol.

Local Donald Chisholm. is looking to make his second series start. Running at Riverside each weekend, Chisholm knows the track better than anyone and used that knowledge to finish third last year.

Coming off of a career best third place finish, Noel Dowler Jr. hopes to continue the momentum he has after scoring three straight top 10 finishes. Last year wasn’t the best finish for the Alberta native finished 11th.

Beyond those who are having momentum and the battle for the championship, there is also a battle thickening up for the fifth spot in the points. Currently, Ron Beauchamp Jr. sits fifth in points, 20 points ahead of both Jason Hathaway and L.P. Dumoulin.

Last year, Beauchamp Jr. finished in the eighth position for his fourth straight top 10 finish in Nova Scotia. Beauchamp Jr. is known for being consistant, having scored top 10 finishes in seven of his last nine overall series starts.

Hathaway, meanwhile, finished seventh last year and scored a fifth in 2010 for his best finish on the 0.333 mile oval. He is also another driver with four top 10 finishes in five starts at Riverside.

Dumoulin did not have much success last year at Riverside, finishing 17th, though it was only the second start on an oval for the 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Seires Rookie of the Year. He is also known more of a road course racer, having earned his first pole on August 4th at Trois-Rivieres, while opening the season with back-to-back road top fives on road courses.

Whether we’ll see a shift in the championship picture or a new face in victory lane, Riverside is always an exciting race to watch and certainly a race not to miss as a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series fan.