August 25, 2008
A weekend that ends badly for Kevin Lacroix
Kevin Lacroix was taking the start of the Atlantic series at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières in ninth place and, as he had hoped, the pole sitter, Jonathan Bomarito, chose to take the start from the outside of the track to avoid being caught in a wreck at turn 1.
Kevin’s car was competitive enough for him to hope for a good result despite starting pretty far from the pole. From the first laps, the St-Eustache driver was able to take two positions and found himself seventh, behind James Hinchcliffe. Unfortunately, an impatient move on the Ontarian driver put a stop to their race.
“Hinchcliffe made a mistake at the exit of turn 1 on the previous lap, explains Kevin. I put the car’s nose in to show him that I could pass him there. And that’s what I did on the following lap. Hinchcliffe made another mistake on the next lap and it was an occasion I couldn’t miss. He went in wide at turn 2 and I just went in. However, he closed the door, pushing me against the wall. Doing so, the wall pushed my car against James’ and we slid across the track into the tire wall.” The young driver concludes.
The race was under caution over five laps, to allow the workers to clear the cars from the track. The restart was given on lap 11.
Interviewed after the race, James Hinchcliffe explained what happened from his standpoint: “We didn’t have a competitive car for the race; we had a lot of over steering. I was behind Markus Niemela and Carl Skerlong when they touched in the straight of Du Carmel Boulevard. Because of the over steering I had a moment at corner 10, which made me loose some time afterwards. I knew that Lacroix was behind me since I was seeing him getting closer lap after lap. I had a bigger moment at corner 10 on the following lap; I lost sight of Kevin coming into corner 2 and thought he was taking the outside. I took the turn and saw him on the inside. Over the few laps he was behind me, Kevin must have noticed that we didn’t have the car to stay in front of him until the end of the race. I think it was an impatient move to make so early in the race.” Hinchcliffe recalls. “When he got out of the car, Kevin slapped my helmet to make sure I was ok. I’m very happy to race with such a classy driver. Of course we are disappointed to not have finished the race and it’s a big hit in the points, but we are still in the race for the championship with three races to go in the season. If racing is like war, we will fight to the death!” He concludes.
This incident unfortunately destroyed all chances Kevin had for the Atlantic series’ championship title and with three races to go in the season; he will have to be very cautious. “I’m on probation since the Road America race, for pushing a driver in the grass. This forces me to be very cautious over the next races to avoid a fine. With the three races left, we can forget the championship. After today, we no longer are in the title race. Still, we will work even harder to get good results and get as much points as possible.” The St-Eustache driver concludes.
Jonathan Bomarito went unchallenged and won the race while Jonathan Summerton took second place ahead of Junior Strous. Kevin Lacroix’s teammates respectively took 9th and 13th place at the checkered flag. The next race will unfold on the new New Jersey Motorsports Park track this upcoming September 13th and 14th.
