2007-12-12

Mes pilotes favoris de 2007 / Top ten favorite drivers of 2007



J'ai récemment été solicité, par Justin St-Louis de l'organisation ACT, à participer à un exercise annuel qui vise à identifier les pilotes ayant le plus marqué la saison qui vient de se terminer. Depuis, quelques années Justin compile cette liste à l'aide de différents journalistes et officiels de la scène locale, régionale et maintenant,avec ma contribution, internationale.

Justin, publira la liste des top 25 pilotes (selon la quantité de votes reçus) sur le site de l'ACT.

Pour être éligible, les pilotes doivent avoir compétitionné sur la scène ACT américaine, Série ACT CASTROL, ou à la piste de Thunder road.

Voici mes choix...
Justin St-Louis of ACT recently invited me to participate in his annual exercise to identify the best drivers of the last season. Over the last couple of years, he has compiled this list using input from members of the media, officials at the local, regional and, with my contribution this year, on the international level.

Justin will publish, on the ACT website, his compilation of the top 25 drivers (as per the votes received).

To be eligible, a driver must have competed on the ACT Tour, ACT Castrol Series or Thunder Road weekly racing cards.
Here are my picks...




RankDriver
10

Joey Polewarczyk

A sentimental favorite since he set the fastest time at the 2006 Milk Bowl, Pole a very young driver showed more than once he has the talent and the patience to make this year’s top ten drivers list.

9

John Donahue

This driver showed impressive performed in the second half of the year. Who can forget his impressive Labor Day Classic win? One can only imagine if he would have been as competitive all year long.

8

Scott Payea

Two wins, three top five and eight top ten finishes he finished second in the standings. This no-fluff racer is my 2007 revelation driver.

7

Randy Potter

The NH driver posted one win, 6 top five and 9 top ten very impressive statistics on the ACT Tour. But he makes this year’s list for being a very competitive and clean racer all year that showed he can run and wants to run up-front. He showed many during the Labor Day Classic that he can drive the wheels off the car.

6

Karl Allard

Voted sportsmanship award winner, he drove his hart out in each one of the ACT Castrol Series schedule event, but ran out of luck more times than he deserved. The veteran snowmobile driver showed the full house during the Oxford 250 that he can drive hard and clean, much like he did for the rest of the 2007 year.

5

Alexandre Gingras

Who can come back from a roll-over and win the very next race? A championship contender can. With 3 wins, 8 top five and 9 top ten finishes Gingras’ third place championship ranking was impressive. In the end he was either on the podium or involved in a wreck.

4

Jean-Paul Cyr

9 top five and 11 top ten finishes out of 13 events is very impressive. But to this multi time champion not scoring a win was a great disappointment. Look for him to comeback with more passion and with his sights on the checkers in 2008. Could he claim an 8th championship?

3

Jean-François Déry

With 1596 laps completed, Déry was atop the list of drivers with the most laps completed on the schedule. Finished 7 times in the top 5 and 10 times in the top ten. If Championships were awarded on total distance this racer would have won.

2

Sylvain Lacombe

Like the eventual championship winner Laperle, Sylvain Lacombe completed all laps in every one of the races but one, where he realized it wasn’t his day and pulled off the track to leave all the room to the actors still in position to get a good finish. Three wins, nine top five and eleven top ten finishes, Lacombe, the 2006 Champion was no surprise contender for the ACT CASTROL Series championship.

1

Patrick Laperle

On and off the track Laperle is a fierce competitor. He battled a life threatening bacteria in the spring, climbed in a racecar when most would fear sitting in a rocking chair. He finished first or second in the last four races and managed to finish in the top 10 in eleven of the 12 races on the ACT Castrol Series schedule completing all laps in all the races but the first one, where he was still sidelined with his health issues. Laperle added two other wins on the ACTion Super Series special events calendar, one of which his second Milk Bowl win over 63 other competitors.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ton analyse est assez juste et réflète le comportement des coureurs durant la saison. Difficile de changer quoique ce soit. J'endosse ton évaluation. Guy Corriveau