RON VAN ES BATTLES TO AN 11TH-PLACE LEAD LAP FINISH AT BARRIE SPEEDWAY
STONEY CREEK, ON – Barrie Speedway is widely considered to be one of the toughest short tracks on the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series schedule. Following Sunday night’s MOPAR 300 at the high-banked Central Ontario track, Ron Van Es can confirm the track’s reputation.
The driver of the #11 Van Es Racing Chevy qualified eighth-fastest in the field of 20 for the 300-lap race around the challenging 1/3-mile tri-oval, but was involved in an incident prior to lap 100 which adversely affected the handling of his car for the rest of the event.
Determined to soldier on, Van Es battled the rest of the way to finish on the lead lap, in 11th-place. “It was a really, really tough night,” said Van Es, following the race. “But through adversity, we turned ‘nothing’ into something. My team never gave up. I never gave up. And I drove my backside off for them.”
In a predictably physical race at the Barrie ‘bullring’, Van Es – like most others – was involved in his fair share of contact. Unfortunately for the Stoney Creek, Ont. racer, the lap 89 incident he was caught up in rendered his car virtually undriveable.
“We got mixed up in an accident early and that messed up the handling of the car. After that, it drove like a dump truck. The ‘toe’ was knocked out and I couldn’t even turn the wheel to the right, which you need to do to warm up the tires and clean them off before restarts.
“We stuck it out and came home 11th. That’s mostly thanks to a lot of attrition, but we never got lapped on the racetrack and never needed to use the ‘lucky dog’ rule to get back on the lead lap. There were a lot of slower cars who got their laps back thanks to all the cautions, so by the end of the race, almost everyone was back on the lead lap which meant you really had to race hard to pick up some spots.”
Sunday provided a mix of highs and lows for the #11 team as they overcame mechanical issues with their car in the lead-up to a solid qualifying performance. “We missed the first hour of practice to an issue with the car,” continued Van Es. “We got it fixed for the second practice and improved our times, but it really hurt to miss the whole first hour. Alex Nagy [the team’s crew chief] made some great adjustments to the car for qualifying and it made a huge difference. I think there was actually more speed there, but I didn’t know what I had. It was nice to start eighth and that definitely helped our night.”
After participating in the first three NASCAR Canadian Tire Series races, the #11 Van Es Racing team is going to skip the next two events. “Unfortunately, we’re going to have to miss the two races out west (Vernon, BC and Edmonton, AB),” said Van Es. “They’re two great events, but unfortunately, we have budget considerations that won’t allow us to make it to those races. We’re going to focus on getting ready for the second half of the schedule, which is pretty intense, starting with the NASCAR Busch Series weekend in Montreal in early August.”
BARRIE RACE SUMMARY: DJ Kennington won Sunday’s MOPAR 300 at Barrie Speedway. At the end of 300 laps, he came home just over a second in front of Barrie, ON racer Mark Dilley. Five-time CASCAR National champion Don Thomson Jr. rounded out the podium finishers. The race was slowed by 16 cautions for a total of 101 laps and featured 13 lead changes among six different drivers. Series points leader Andrew Ranger continued to impress in his first season of stock car racing with a fifth-place finish. Twenty drivers took the initial green flag for the third of 12 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series races on the 2007 schedule.
Photo by Inside Track Communications
Prepared by Inside Track Communications. For more information about Van Es Racing, contact Jolene Convery at Van Es Racing at (800) 263-4884
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