Fellows takes pole in preparation for 100th Trans Am start
May 16, 2014
Ron Fellows will start on pole tomorrow, as he takes to his home track at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park for his 100th Trans Am start. Fellows, in the #6 Derhaag Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette, led all cars on course with a 1:16.725, edging out teammate Simon Gregg, in the #59 Derhaag Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette, who completed the one-two sweep for Derhaag Motorsports with a 1:17.442.
“It was pretty slick out there, and I think a lot of it was the cold,” said Fellows. “It was still fun to get out there and go fast, but it was a bit of a handful, as I’m sure it was for everybody.”
“I decided to run in Trans Am this weekend to have some fun; I didn’t know that this was going to be my 100th start. I raced Trans Am during the Chevrolet factory era, then went off and did a little NASCAR. I never thought we’d end up doing any more Trans Am, but since then we’ve done three. It turns out number 99 was ten years ago, and it was with Derhaag Motorsports as well. It was fun to get back out there. I love this track, obviously. You can really get after it here, and it is still nice to put together a really good lap. Trans Am always meant a lot to me; this is where I really got established in sportscar racing—so being able to come back here and do another race has been a fun experience so far.”
Fellows, now a co-owner at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is making his first appearance in Trans Am since 2004 when he raced with Derhaag Motorsports, finishing third.
Following Fellows and Gregg will be Amy Ruman, in the #23 Ruman Racing Chevrolet Corvette, whose time of 1:17.521 was just shy of Gregg’s 1:17.442, but still strong enough for third position in tomorrow’s race.
Defending TA Champion Doug Peterson, in the #87 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet Corvette, will start fourth; while Toronto’s own Andrew Romocki, in the #29 Rocanda Ford Mustang, will round out the top five for the TA class.
In TA2, Adam Andretti, driving the #44 Engineered Components Chevrolet Camaro, took pole for the second race in a row with a 1:23.038, repeating his qualifying performance at Road Atlanta with his second career Trans Am pole.
“I think we’re really getting the formula down,” said Andretti. “We keep getting faster every week, and our communication is blending so well, you can’t tell where it stops—and I hope it never stops. I’m so proud of the effort here at ECC Motorsports. We didn’t have any track time before qualifying, other than the only test session that was dry in the other car.”
“It’s been 12 years since I’ve been on this track, I almost have to wonder if I’ve really been here before. It’s not one of those tracks that I know like the back of my hand, but I dipped into some good advice from my dad (Aldo Andretti), who ran the last race of his career here, and my uncle Mario, who had a lot of success here; and they both just built my confidence, telling me I’d really sink my teeth into this place and have a great time, and so far so good.”
Andretti was followed closely by Kevin Poitras, a Toronto native and driver of the #73 Mike Cope Racing Chevrolet Camaro, with a time of 1:23.829—landing him in second position in the TA2 class.
Defending TA2 Champion Cameron Lawrence will start third during tomorrow’s race, his time of 1:23.935 just shy of Poitras. Lawrence, who finished second in last year’s race here at CTMP, still holds the TA2 points lead and will be eager to defend it come tomorrow.
Bob Stretch, in the #98 FixRim Mobile Wheel Repair Chevrolet Camaro, was fourth with a time of 1:24.358; while Mike McGahern of Ottawa, Ontario, driving the #48 Ottawa Solar Power/ BC Race Cars Chevrolet Camaro, will start fifth with a 1:24.449.
In TA3, it was Ernie Francis, Jr., in the #9 Breathless Performance Chevrolet Camaro, who led the way with a 1:28.558—obliterating the previous track record for the American Muscle group by nearly eight seconds. He was followed by current TA3 American Muscle points leader Todd Napieralski, in the #39 Tremec/SKF/Backstreet Performance/ Chevrolet Performance Chevrolet Camaro, with a 1:29.984, while Joe Chan, making his first Trans Am appearance, in the #08 Paragon Competition Chevrolet Camaro, filled out the top three.
Norman Betts, the sole competitor in the International Group of TA3, continued his rookie campaign with a 1:44.026, in this, his second Trans Am appearance.
Fellows, Andretti, Francis and the rest of the Trans Am field will take to the track, here at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, tomorrow at 1:40 p.m. EDT for Round 4 of the 2014 Trans Am Championship.
Fans in attendance are encouraged to visit the Trans Am autograph session at 11:30 a.m. and meet all the Trans Am drivers face-to-face and in person; the session is open to all event attendees.
Keep up with all the Trans Am action this, and every weekend, at www.gotransam.com, on Twitter at @gotransam and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gotransam.
