2016 Sunset Speedway - NASCAR Pinty's Series

The big news for the 2016 Canadian NASCAR series was Pinty’s Delicious Foods replacing Canadian Tire as the title sponsor.

For the most part, the championship schedule mirrored that of 2015. For the fifth straight year, the series started on the Victoria Day Weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) – there would be a second event held in September with the NASCAR Trucks. The title chase would end in September at Kawartha Speedway. In all, the series would visit eleven tracks in five provinces. The major exception to the schedule was the return to the high-profile Toronto Indy event at Exhibition Place.

Autodrome Chaudiere was to be the second stop of the 2016 season but changes were made to the schedule and round two was held at Sunset Speedway. The series made its first visit to Sunset in 2015. The race, sponsored by Leland Industries, was three-hundred laps around the 0.333-mile semi-banked oval.

The start of round two of the 2016 NASCAR Pinty’s series and nineteen starters take the green flag. On the pole is Cayden Lapcevich in a Dodge Challenger and next to him is the Ford Fusion of Alex Labbe. Behind the front row is the local standout, Dwayne Baker driving a Dodge Challenger and 2014 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Champion, L.P. Dumoulin.

Alex Tagliani driving the No. 18 EpiPen Chevrolet Impala was the event favourite. Tagliani made series history at Sunset Speedway in 2015 when he lapped the field on the way to victory – to date, he is the only driver to accomplish this feat. He started from the tenth position and took the lead for the final time on lap-267 to score his third career series win.

Rookie driver, Cayden Lapcevich was the fastest qualifier and set a new lap record. Despite his limited participation in the series, he had a lot of experience at the Sunset track which included winning the Super Stock Championship. The driver of the family entered Dodge Challenger led a total of 128-laps on his way to a second-place finish. Lapcevich left Sunset second in the Driver Standings.

It was a difficult weekend for the 2007 and 2009 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Champion. Andrew Ranger qualified his Mopar sponsored Dodge Challenger fifteenth in the nineteen car field. He was about to be lapped when he spun in corner-four on lap-188. Ranger continued and was eighth at the checkered flag. After the Sunset event, he was tied for points with Lapcevich but his win at CTMP meant he was the series leader.

On lap-67, Jason Hathaway in the No. 3 Chevrolet Impala was involved in an incident in turn-four with Jason White and Trevor Seibert. Hathaway, who started twelfth, suffered severe damage to the left-front suspension. His team made repairs and he was able to return to the race completing a total of 174 laps to finish seventeenth.

Larry Jackson is often quick but plagued with reliability problems. At Sunset Speedway it seems that things went Jackson’s way when he earned his first Canadian NASCAR podium with a third place finish. It was the first time he drove the Ford Fusion prepared by Canada’s Best Race Team.

In 2015, Labbe driving the No. 32 Can Am/Kappa Ford Fusion finished second at Sunset. After qualifying was completed, Quebec competitor, Alex Labbe was second in the starting line-up. Labbe led the first lap but contact during the race dropped him down the running order. On lap-106 and Labbe was black-flagged for a loose front hood. The additional stop contributed to a fifteenth place finish.

Local racer, Dwayne Baker only competes in a few Canadian NASCAR oval events each year but is always competitive. Baker qualified third in the Baker Performance Dodge Challenger. He was in third place with thirty laps to go when he was spun by Josh Collins. Baker’s car stalled and would not re-fire as the result of a faulty starter. Baker dropped to a sixteenth place finish – thirty-one laps behind the race winner.

The incident with White and Hathaway on lap-67 appeared to create little more than cosmetic damage to Trevor Seibert’s Dodge Challenger. Unlike Hathaway and White, Seibert’s crew was able to make repairs quickly. He finished eleventh - four laps behind Alex Tagliani at the checkered flag.

The NASCAR Pinty’s podium at Sunset Speedway. On the left is pole-sitter and second place finisher Cayden Lapcevich and at the right, making his first series podium appearance is Larry Jackson. Between these two is Alex Tagliani, who scored his second consecutive victory at Sunset Speedway.

FINISH	START	DRIVER	SPONSOR / CAR	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	10	Alex Tagliani	Epipen/Riobel/Chevrolet Impala	300	-
2	1	Cayden Lapcevich	Fastline Mspts./Dodge Challenger	300	-
3	13	Larry Jackson	Canada's Best Racing Team/Ford Fusion	300	-
4	6	Adam Martin	Johnsonville/Ford Fusion	300	-
5	11	Kevin Lacroix	Bumper to Bumper/Dodge Challenger	300	-
6	8	D.J. Kennington	Castrol Edge/Dodge Challenger	300	-
7	18	Josh Collins	Eastbound Intl. Speedway/Ford Fusion	299	-
8	15	Andrew Ranger	Mopar/Pennzoil/Dodge Challenger	298	-
9	14	Matthew Scannell	B&B Decals/Dodge Challenger	297	-
10	16	Trevor Seibert	Lake Excavating/Dodge Challenger	296	-
11	17	Derek Lynch	Apsley Peterb. Trans./Dodge Challenger	296	-
12	4	L.P. Dumoulin	WeatherTech/Dodge Challenger	295	-
13	7	Gary Klutt	Pioneer Family Pools/Dodge Challenger	295	-
14	9	Mark Dilley	Leland/Ford Fusion	294	-
15	2	Alex Labbe	Can-Am/Kappa/Ford Fusion	293	-
16	3	Dwayne Baker	Baker Perf./Dodge Challenger	269	Starter
17	12	Jason Hathaway	Fast Eddie/Choko/Chevrolet Impala	174	-
18	19	Jason White	Pwr. Ventures Excav./Dodge Challenger	66	Accident
19	5	Anthony Simone	Innov. Plumbing & Mech./Dodge Challenger	45	Suspension

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