Steckly wins NASCAR Canadian Tire Series title

Scott Steckly of Milverton won the 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series title for the second time when he finished second to D.J. Kennington in the Kawartha 250 at Kawartha Speedway near Peterborough Saturday night.

Actually, Steckly won the title earlier in the race. The second that Quebec driver Derek White dropped out of the race as the result of a crash, Steckly became the 2011 NASCAR Canada national champion.

 

When the last race of the NCTS season got the green flag at Kawartha Speedway near Peterborough shortly after 5 p.m., all Steckly - who won the title in 2008 - had to do to win his second was to not finish last in the 26-car field. Even if he had, defending champion Kennington of St. Thomas would have had to win the race in order to deprive Steckly of the championship.

 

As it turned out, Kennington did win the race but Steckly finished second and that was all she wrote. They were followed across the line by J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge in third, Kerry Micks of Mt. Albert, Ont., fourth and Mark Dilley of Barrie.

 

Kennington, who last finished first at the .375-mile asphalt oval in 2009, held off Steckly in a green-white-checkered finish as the series capped off its fifth season.

 

Fitzpatrick charged back after losing a lap in the pits to battle Steckly in the closing laps and finish third. He complained afterward that he couldn't understand why he'd been penalized (which NASCAR said was because he entered the pits before they were officially open during a yellow flag caution period).

 

Sixth place went to Don Thomson Jr. of Hamilton, seventh to Steve Mathews of New Liskeard, who won his first career series pole in qualifying earlier in the day, eighth was Jason White of Sun Peaks, B.C., ninth place went to Jeff Lapcevich of Grimsby and last year's race winner, Pete Shepherd III, completed the top 10.

 

"This is wonderful," said Steckly, who won his championship by finishing first three times, second four times and third once in the 12-race season. "Congratulations to D.J. for a great race. Everybody raced me clean today and I want to thank the other drivers, my crew and my family for this championship."

 

White's crash, in which he escaped injury, brought out the third yellow of the record 14 that slowed the race.

 

The other big prize on the line Saturday was the series' rookie-of-the year title and that went to L.P. Dumoulin of Trois Rivieres, Que., who beat out Isabelle Tremblay of St. Hippolyte, Que., for the honours.

Dumoulin was 16th and Tremblay finished 20th but was 13 laps behind her rival.

 

The champion, who is not one to show much emotion, had a smile on his face after the awards presentation. "It's true, I'm jumping up and down happy," he said

 

Steckly said he didn't have any problems during the contest. "We just played it cool, stayed out of trouble and ran top five all day. We never raced as hard as we could; we raced hard till halfway but after that there were some cars parked (so he couldn't lose the championship by finishing last) and we led a lap (for a five-point bonus) so we knew we had it (the title) secure.

 

"I maybe could have won it if there'd been some more laps but we knew what we had to do to win the championship and we accomplished that, so I'm happy."

 

Kennington, who finished second in the championship, was delighted with his race win and suggested he knew on Saturday morning that the race was his to lose.

 

"I knew in practice today that I had the car to beat," he said. "I knew if something didn't break or went wrong that we had a good car. By lap 100, that car was phenomenal. New tires, old tires, the car was the same. That made my job real easy."

 

Kennington knew exactly when he lost this year's title.

 

"Montreal, at the road course this year. We got taken out there and I finished 18th. That put us about 70 points behind (Steckly) and we fought back but it's just very hard to come back from a deficit like that. It's really hard to play catch-up; it's a lot easier to maintain."

 

Told that he had much to be proud of for finishing second, Kennington scoffed and added " . . . for the 14th frickin' time. But we'll be back next year and try to win another one."

 

RESULTS:

 

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (10) D.J. Kennington, St. Thomas, Ont., Dodge, 253 laps, 42.984 mph.

2. (4) Scott Steckly, Milverton, Ont., Dodge, 253.

3. (2) J.R. Fitzpatrick, Cambridge, Ont., Chevrolet, 253.

4. (7) Kerry Micks, Mt. Albert, Ont., Ford, 253.

5. (8) Mark Dilley, Barrie, Ont., Dodge, 253.

6. (6) Don Thomson, Jr., Hamilton, Ont., Dodge, 253.

7. (1) Steve Mathews, New Liskeard, Ont., Ford, 253.

8. (16) Jason White, Sun Peaks, B.C., Dodge, 253.

9. (12) Jeff Lapcevich, Grimsby, Ont., Dodge, 253.

10. (3) Pete Shepherd, III, Brampton, Ont., Dodge, 253.

11. (14) Dexter Stacey, Kahnawake, Que., Dodge, 253.

12. (17) John Fletcher, Ancaster, Ont., Dodge, 253.

13. (21) Joey McColm, Ajax, Ont., Dodge, 253.

14. (26) Brandon White, Kahnawake, Que., Chevrolet, 251.

15. (25) Nick Jewell, The Pas, Man., Dodge, 251.

16. (20) L.P. Dumoulin, Trois-Rivieres, Que., Dodge, 251.

17. (11) Ron Beauchamp, Jr., Windsor, Ont., Dodge, 251.

18. (18) Trevor Monaghan, Hamilton, Ont., Chevrolet, 247.

19. (23) Hugo Vannini, Repentigny, Que., Ford, 246.

20. (22) Isabelle Tremblay, St. Hippolyte, Que., Ford, 238.

21. (9) Jason Hathaway, Appin, Ont., Dodge, 219.

22. (5) Donald Chisholm, Antigonish, N.S., Ford, 201, accident.

23. (15) Chris Raabe, Napanee, Ont., Dodge, 166, vibration.

24. (13) Brad Graham, Glencoe, Ont., Dodge, 153.

25. (24) Noel Dowler, Sherwood Park, Alta., Dodge, 145, accident.

26. (19) Derek White, Kahnawake, Que., Chevrolet, 36, accident.

Race Statistics

Time of Race: 2 hours 12 minutes 26 seconds

Margin of Victory: .358 seconds

Fastest Qualifier: S.Mathews * (76.112 mph, 17.737 seconds)

Caution Flags: 13 for 89 laps.

Lead Changes: 8 among 6 drivers.

Lap Leaders: J. Fitzpatrick 1-64; D. Thomson,Jr. 65; J. Fitzpatrick 66-69; D. Kennington 70-90; S. Steckly 91-110; S. Mathews 111-137; J. Fitzpatrick 138-139; P. Shepherd,III 140-166; D. Kennington 167-253.

Standings: 1. S. Steckly, 1960; 2. D. Kennington, 1881; 3. J. Fitzpatrick, 1774; 4. K. Micks, 1754; 5. D. Thomson,Jr., 1731; 6. M. Dilley, 1631; 7. R. Beauchamp,Jr., 1571; 8. J. White, 1499; 9. J. Hathaway, 1450; 10. D. Stacey, 1396.

Comments

[APP]

...no truth to the rumor that Lewis Hamilton is coming out with a greatest 'hits' collection.

[Clive Rayman]

I am not a big Hamilton fan...but he did not deserve a penalty for hitting Massa...it was a racing incident pure an simple! The FIA has gone mad! As Senna said when one fails to go for gap one is no longer a race driver. I tend to think Hamilton is a race driver!