Bowmanville, Ontario - Marc-Antoine Camirand clinched a brilliant victory for the season opener of the NASCAR Canada series, as Paillé Course//Racing team was at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. His teammate Andrew Ranger also had a very good car all weekend, but hard luck during a pit stop prevented him from achieving a top-five finish.

 

Marc-Antoine Camirand claimed a first victory of the season on the fast-paced road course located near Bowmanville, ON. The driver scored the third time in practice and carried this speed to qualifying. 

 

Third on the grid, his GM Paillé/Chevrolet Canada n°96 Camaro was severely understeering at the beginning of the race and Camirand had to concede a position at the first restart. The Camirand Performance crew opted for a two-stop strategy, first for fuel and an adjustment to the suspension, and then to take left-side tires.

 

Camirand managed to make his way up through the field quickly to reach second position, making bold moves on his way through traffic. The leader of the race suffered a mechanical failure, giving the lead to Camirand. “I then knew that I had to continue to push. When the last yellow came out to take the race to overtime, I was a bit worried because I knew that the drivers behind me had taken four tires. Finally, I have been able to hold them off,” said Camirand, who set his sights to his second NASCAR Canada Series title in 2024.

 

His teammate at Paillé Course//Racing Andrew Ranger has also shown very good speed throughout the weekend and had a car to aim at a victory. Second in practice and fourth on the starting grid, he passed Camirand at the first restart on lap 5 and was running a good pace.

 

Unfortunately, when he first came to the pit for fuel, the crew experienced a problem and could not full the fuel cell completely. “I didn’t have enough fuel to go through the whole race, so we had to stop for fuel again. And since we are not allowed to take fuel and tires at the same time, I had to make three stops and only got to change two tires,” explained Ranger.

 

The driver of the GM Paillé/Chevrolet Canada n°27 Camaro, prepared by Innovation Auto Sport team, had to make his second stop for fuel under green flag position, and came back on track behind slower traffic.

 

“After I came back on track, there was a long sequence under green, so I couldn’t catch up. I made the best we could under the circumstances and climbed my way back to the top-10. It’s a shame because we had a fast car all weekend that could have had a shot for the win, but I am confident that we will come back strong,” concluded Ranger, who scores an 8th-place finish.

 

Paillé Course//Racing will be back on track on June 1st as the NASCAR Canada series will be at the short oval of Autodrome Chaudière, in Vallée-Jonction, Qc, where Ranger and Camirand claimed the victory respectively in 2022 and 2023.