GUELPH, ON - Hotter than normal temperatures greeted the Shaw Motorsports team as they departed for Flamboro Speedway for round #1 of the three Grisdale Triple Crown events. The annual Triple Crown Series would run all three segments at Flamboro Speedway throughout the 2008 season. The Shaw Motorsports team claimed the victory in the first leg of 2007 with 29 cars in attendance and a repeat performance was the plan for the day.
After a delay waiting for a tow truck to arrive, the Late Models took to the track for their first practice. A new set of tires were installed on the #82 Gunk Ford to scuff for the feature and the car handled very well, however, despite the good lap times, Jason felt there was a very minor loose off condition in the car so the crew made a small anti-roll bar adjustment. Old tires were mounted for the second practice and the small adjustment proved to be a success as it brought the #82 up a level in speed and Jason was very happy with the car’s handling coming off the corners.
The new tires were reinstalled on the car and Jason lined up the Spira Fire Protection Fusion on the outside pole beside the #29 for the heat race. Despite getting slightly loose for the start all the way to the starters stand, Jason had no problem pulling ahead of the #29 followed closely by the #8. The two front cars quickly pulled away from the field to a 5 car length lead by the end of the 3rd lap. By the half way mark, Jason pulled ahead of the #8 car by 5 car lengths as the #8 pulled away from the rest of the field by a full straightaway. The positions would remain unchanged for the remainder of the race and Jason brought the #82 across the line to take the checkered flag.
With Jason scheduled to be on the pole for the feature race, he was summoned to the front stretch during the intermission to roll a pair or dice that would invert the front of the field. By rolling a 2 and 3, Jason was moved back to start 5th in the feature. The 24 car field lined up on the front stretch for driver introductions to a much larger than normal crowd. The starting grid would have the #41 on the pole followed by the #8, #37, #36 and then the #82. The first caution came out when the #27 and #10 got together in turn 4 just as the cars completed the first lap and the leader suffered some fender damage that required him to go to the pits for repairs, putting Jason into 4th and giving the lead to the #8.
On the restart, Jason ran two hard laps on the inside of the #52 and had just gotten ahead when the caution came out for the #85 and #41 getting together in turn one. Again the #82 started to the inside of the #52 but this time instead of running a hard side by side battle, the #52 came down and slammed hard into the #82 going through turns 1 and 2. Despite Jason getting hard on the brakes, the #52 hit on the right front wheel causing enough suspension damage to send the #82 up to the wall in turn two. Jason exited the car as it was too damaged to drive and after taking a walk to the window of the #52 to let him know how displeased he was about the actions that put the well running #82 out on just the second lap.
An obviously disappointed Jason Shaw and crew stood at the fence were they would watch the balance of the feature as the first car out, finishing 24th instead of the first place car as they did last year. The next caution was also caused by the #52 as he got into the #41 causing a big pileup that would bring out the red flag in order to clear the track. Despite numerous cautions, the top three consisting of the #8, #36, #37 continued to run contact free until the closing lap.
It appeared that son, David Elliot in the #37 wanted to get past father, Gary Elliot in the #36 instead of finishing 2nd and 3rd respectfully and after the eager sibling got into his dad going into turn three, they both went into the wall bringing out the caution that would end the race giving the #8 the win followed by the #95 and #52 to round out the top three.
In other racing news, Ken Spira piloted the #88 Spira Racing mini-stock close to a top 10 finish by finishing 11th in an thrilling race that had Ken fighting hard to stay in position despite much contact with the field.
Next up for the Shaw team could be an unscheduled visit to Delaware Speedway for a regular night of racing on Friday June 13th before returning to the regular series race at Flamboro Speedway on Saturday June 14th were the pit gates are to open at 4:00pm, the main gates at 5:00 and racing is scheduled to begin at 6:30. A schedule change will be sent and posted on the news section of our website as soon as possible if the Delaware date gets confirmed.
From Ken Spira / Shaw Motorsports
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