For Immediate Release
NASCAR Canadian Tire Series News & Notes: Trois-Rivieres
· Prestigious JuliaWine.com Le 50 Tours Up Next
· Dumoulin Brothers Return Home Riding High
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 28, 2015) – A lot has changed for racing brothers Louis-Philippe and Jean-Francois Dumoulin since they last competed on their hometown circuit, and all for the better.
The Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres has long been a major event for the Dumoulin family. Father, Richard, competed in the event before passing the torch on to his sons. None of the three had won the premiere feature race of the event prior to last year though, when L.P. Dumoulin took the checkered flag in the JuliaWine.com Le 50 Tours NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 race.
L.P. Dumoulin returns home this week for the 2015 edition, not only as the event's defending winner, but as the series' reigning champion.
It's also been a big year for older sibling J.F. Dumoulin, as the former part-time competitor takes on Circuit de Trois-Rivieres in the midst of his first full-time Canadian Tire Series campaign.
Strictly a road racer prior to the season, J.F. Dumoulin is now taking on the ovals featured on the series schedule. In five such events to-date, he's posted a top-10 average finish. Through seven overall races, he ranks eighth in the championship standings.
"I still have a good chance to get up to fifth if I get on a good streak and keeping being competitive," J.F. Dumoulin said. "At ovals I'm getting more and more comfortable, and more competitive.
"I think in general it has gone pretty well. No big damage, I've finished all of the races, so that's a big point for me."
L.P. Dumoulin was complementary of how his brother and teammate has accommodated to the full schedule.
"He's a longtime racer and I think he's adapted himself very well to ovals," L.P. Dumoulin said. "This is his first season doing ovals, and I think he's done very well so far."
Meanwhile, the title defense for L.P. Dumoulin hasn't gone exactly as planned. Although his six top-10 finishes are tied for the series lead, he returns home to Trois-Rivieres ranked fourth in the season standings, 22 points behind leader Scott Steckly.
"I'm not going to wait for people to have bad luck to bring me back up in the standings, I need to make the good luck for myself and our team has to do it to make it happen," L.P. Dumoulin said. "The whole team works really hard every week to give me the best car they can and they've been reliable. We've been fighting up front all year long but had bad luck here and there."
The Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres – or GP3R for short – provides a great opportunity for L.P. Dumoulin to attain his first victory of the season and jump back into the championship chase.
"I would for sure like to do two-in-a-row, but as you can see, the series is very competitive again this year," L.P. Dumoulin said. "If you want do well, everything has to fall into place. It's been a little rough for us this season, but I'm very much looking forward to it."
A multi-time victor at Trois-Rivieres, including the Grand-AM SR II race in 2001, J.F. Dumoulin would love to join his brother on the premiere event winners list, while keeping in mind that he'll be going up against a very competitive field on Sunday. He finished a career-best fourth in this event last year.
"Obviously L.P. is competition, but there are a lot of other very competitive guys out there," J.F. Dumoulin said. "I want a podium. That's where I want to be, that's what I'm aiming for. I think I have better equipment this year than I've had in past years."
The GP3R is an annual festival in the city of Trois-Rivieres, nestled along the Saint-Laurent River in Quebec. The uniqueness of the temporary street course circuit, combined with tremendous fan support, creates a high level of interest from Canadian racers and teams, making it a premiere event to win. The Canadian Tire Series loads in on Friday for inspection day and on-track activities will begin for the series with practice and qualifying on Saturday.
RACE: JuliaWine.com Le 50 Tours
PLACE: Circuit de Trois-Rivieres (Que.)
DATE: Sunday, Aug. 2
TIME: 2:10 p.m. ET
BROADCAST: RDS2 – Live; TSN – Sat., Aug. 15, 1:30 p.m.
TRACK LAYOUT: 1.53-mile, 11-turn temporary street course
2014 POLESITTER: Marc-Antoine Camirand
2014 WINNER: L.P. Dumoulin
EVENT SCHEDULE: Saturday – Practice 10:35-11:15 a.m., Final Practice 1:15-1:55 p.m., Qualifying 5 p.m.; Sunday – Driver Autograph Session 12:20 p.m.
Fast Facts:
The Race: The JuliaWine.com Le 50 Tours will be the eighth of 11 events on the 2015 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 schedule, and the final of four dates in the province of Quebec.
The Procedure: The maximum starting field is 34 cars, including provisionals. The first 29 cars will have secured starting positions through NASCAR Road Race style group qualifying and the remaining five spots will be awarded through the provisional process. The race is scheduled for 50 laps (76.5 miles/123 kilometers).
The Track: The temporary street course of Circuit de Trois-Rivieres is an 11-turn, 1.53-mile circuit. In Trois-Rivieres – differing from many road course tracks – the cars race in a counter-clockwise motion as on oval tracks. The track's trademark is the Porte Duplessis, a narrow concrete gateway the cars pass through in Turn 3.
The History: The Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres (GP3R) began in 1967 when racing-passionate members of the Club Autosport Mauricien decided to organize a race in the streets of the city. Inspired by the Monaco race, Mr. Jean E. Ryan, Leon Dufour and Yves Girard, plus a committee of about thirty people, organized the event that has now become a unique event in North America. It is the oldest street course in North America and this year is the 46th edition of the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres.
Pole Winners: The first eight Trois-Rivieres races have produced four different pole winners. Alex Tagliani set the series' circuit qualifying record in 2013 at 67.080 seconds (82.111 mph).
Race Winners: Andrew Ranger has won four of the eight all-time GP3R Canadian Tire Series events, including three in a row from 2008-10. Trois-Rivieres native L.P. Dumoulin is the defending race winner.
JuliaWine.com Le 50 Tours Notes:
Ranger's Remarkable GP3R Record: Quebec native Andrew Ranger has a podium spot locked down at Circuit de Trois-Rivieres. The road course ace has won four of the eight all-time NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1 races on the 1.53-mile street circuit, and finished second in the other four races. Ranger also enters Trois-Rivieres as the series' most-recent winner as he reached Victory Lane last week on the oval at Quebec's Autodrome St-Eustache.
Steckly Streaking: Scott Steckly has won the pole three races in a row, and will look to make history this week at Trois-Rivieres as the first driver in series history to record four-consecutive poles. J.R. Fitzpatrick, with the last two events in 2012 and the 2013 opener, was the last driver to capture three-consecutive poles. Fitzpatrick also did it in 2007 and Don Thomson Jr. accomplished the feat in 2008.
Camirand Coming On: In his first full season on the Canadian Tire Series, Quebec racing veteran Marc-Antoine Camirand is hitting his stride. Camirand enters Trois-Rivieres – where he earned his first Canadian Tire Series start in 2013 as the winner of that year's sportsman division race – on the heels of three-consecutive top-five finishes on ovals. Last week at St-Eustache Camirand crossed the line third to match his overall career-best, and set a new personal oval mark. He was last year's JuliaWine.com Le 50 Tours polesitter.
Debuts for Harvey, de Quesada: Charles Harvey of nearby Terrebonne, Quebec, will attempt to make his Canadian Tire Series debut at Trois-Rivieres. Carlos de Quesada of Gainesville, Florida, will also look to become the second American to race in the series this year, following Kevin O'Connell of Houston, Texas, who competed in the season-opener.
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