Bowmanville, Ontario - Marc-Antoine Camirand scored a second-place finish after an action-packed last lap, on Sunday, as the NASCAR Canada series was at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, near Bowmanville, ON. Andrew Ranger also scored a satisfying fourth-place finish for Paillé Course//Racing.

 

Winner in the spring at this fast-paced road course, Marc-Antoine Camirand was looking to repeat this victory for the second race at CTMP.  His GM Paillé/Chevrolet Canada n°96 Camaro was the fastest in practice on Saturday, and placed fourth later that day in qualifying.

 

During the 51-lap race, he quickly climbed the field, notably with a spectacular maneuver to pass between two competitors and a lapped down car, and then took the lead of the race.

 

With a long sequence under green, the Camirand Performance crew opted for an audacious strategy. “We took fuel, but then we stayed on track and didn’t take tires, which gave me a considerable lead. With such a gap, I ran very slowly and saved my tires. If the race had stayed green, we would have won with a considerable lead,” said Camirand.

 

But a yellow came and the race restarted with four laps to go. “I knew that some competitors took four tires but were a few positions behind at the restart. When the white flag came out, I had Kevin Lacroix, who had taken four tires, right behind me and I knew that he would make a move.”

 

Camirand was bumped in turn 5 and, with older tires, has not been able to chase back for the win. “It’s a shame that this late caution came out, because our strategy had been working well for us. Of course, I would have like to take the win here, but the most important thing for us was to secure good championships points, and this is what we did,” said Camirand.

 

Andrew Ranger also had a strong weekend at CTMP, where he had been unlucky in the past years. Third in practice and in qualifying, Ranger managed to keep a good pace at the beginning of the race.

 

Ranger’s team, Innovation Auto Sport, opted for a totally different strategy than Camirand’s. “We pitted for fuel at lap 24, then made two other stops for left and ride side tires, since we are not allowed to change more than two tires at the time,” told Ranger.

 

“We were hoping that a yellow flag would come out earlier in the race after our pit stops under green, but it didn’t. When the caution came out, I was in ninth place and there were four laps left in the race at the restart. I made the best of this situation.”

 

He drove his GM Paillé/Chevrolet Canada n°27 Camaro from ninth to fourth place in four laps, and battled hard for third place in the last lap.

“I’m very happy with this fourth place, since it’s my best result here since 2019. I had fast cars, but had all kinds of problems in the race, so I’m very happy to let this bad luck behind finally,” Ranger concluded.

Marc-Antoine Camirand leads the NASCAR Canada series’ drivers’ standings, with 27 points over Andrew Ranger in second place.

Paillé Course//Racing, Marc-Antoine Camirand and Andrew Ranger will be back in action next Sunday, at Delaware Speedway near London, ON, for the penultimate event of the season in the NASCAR Canada series.