Fraserville, Ontario – The last event of this season of the NASCAR Canadian Tire series took place Saturday night on the oval track of Kawartha near Fraserville, Ontario. Behind the wheel of the #04 Dodge Bernier Crépeau / Bellemare/ MIA, Jean-François Dumoulin started the race in seventeeth place. Far behind on the starting grid but more determined than ever, he was able to make a comeback and cross the finish line in ninth place. For his first full season in this series, Jean-François Dumoulin ends the year in eighth place in the championship, and proves once again that he is able to adapt to any type of circuit.

The challenge was great for Jean-François Dumoulin, who had never raced on the Kawartha circuit. On top of working on adjustments for his car with crew chief Éric Laperle, the Trois-Rivières native driver had to familiarize himself with this third of a mile oval track with a moderately steep incline. “We’ve had problems during the practices, our car was not as efficient as we would have hoped.” The driver of the #04 Bernier Crépeau/ Bellemare/ MIA has scored the eighteenth best time during the practices. “For the qualifying, we were confident that we could improve, we installed brand new tires, but the car was hard to steer and I managed to get the seventeeth best time. For me, this type of qualifying session over two laps is a new experience, and we had no time to adjust. Furthermore, I hadn’t raced with new tires, so I didn’t know how the car would react.”

Jean-François started the race with full confidence.

In less than 55 laps, he had already made his way to the top 10. However, his car was understeering and the front right tire was showing signs of weakness. “We took advantage of a yellow flag to change the defective tire and tweak our settings.” After the tire change, the team noticed that the diameter of the front right tire was not of the exact dimensions. Despite this, modifications had been made to change the behavior of the car. “After the pit stop, I expected to have a more neutral car. The opposite happened, and the car started oversteering, which is not ideal on oval track.” Behind the wheel of the #04 Dodge Bernier Crépeau / Bellemare/ MIA, Jean-François Dumoulin managed to come back and get close to the top 5, despite the oversteering issue with his car. On the final restart, Jean-François started on the outside, and lost two places to end up in ninth place.

In light of the circumstances, the driver of the #04 Dodge Bernier Crépeau / Bellemare/ MIA is satisfied with his performance. “I’m happy, it’s a new track that we discovered and it was a nice experience, I continue to improve my driving on oval circuit. I fought for places, I’m having fun racing on oval tracks and I’m becoming more at ease with it. The important thing is that I’m bringing the car back in one piece,” concludes Jean-François Dumoulin. The Trois-Rivières driver managed to finish the 250-lap event on the same lap as the leaders.

Let’s remember that for a first full season in the NASCAR Canadian Tire series, Jean-François Dumoulin was able to shine with one podium and four top 5’s behind him. With his status of road circuit specialist, Jean-François was able to adapt very quickly to oval tracks, twice finishing among the first five racers.

His excellent performances during the season have allowed him to rank in eighth place in the championship, only two points behind sixth place.

The end of the season concludes on a positive note for Dumoulin Competition.

Allow us to express our gratitude toward our partners, families, friends, all supporters, the crew members and their family, and media that continue to support and believe in us. We can say with conviction that we will come back even stronger in 2016, with new projects as, much like all of you, “Passion – Performance – Partnerships” motivate us each and every day. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and our website to remain informed on the latest news.

*The race will be broadcasted on TSN on October 3 at 1 p.m. and on RDS2 on October 22 at 7 p.m

FEATS AND HIGHLIGHTS JEAN-FRANÇOIS DUMOULIN

>First podium in the NASCAR Canadian Tire series on May 17, 2015 (3rd place – Canadian Tire Motorsport Park)
>The first Quebec-born driver to win twice the Rolex 24 in Daytona; 2004 (SGS and 2007 (GT).
>The youngest racer to have been part of the Player's Development Team.
>Champion of the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge GS, USA in 2003 (9 podiums).
>Champion of the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sport Car Challenge ST, USA in 2002 (5 podiums).
>In Montreal's 2009 edition of Nascar Nationwide, he finished his first race in the 7th position aboard a badly damaged car and wins the heart of numerous fans and reporters.
>In 2000, earns a 2nd place championship win in the Motorola Cup Series in which he racked a 1st podium after having begun the race 52nd at the Molson Indy event in Ontario, Canada.

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