By Dean Reynolds

Drummondville, PQ – Proving last year's win during his rookie campaign was no fluke, and shedding the sophomore jinx, Alexandria, ON Lee Ladouceur led wire-to-wire to claim career win #2 with the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints (ESS). The win came at Autodrome Drummond with the triumph for the Northwood 2 Construction/LaSalle Motorsports Canadian Sprint Car Series event, worth $2,100.

The nightly invert pill for theFondations 4 Saisons A-Mainwas key for Ladouceur’s quest; it put his WestFront Construction Maxim on the pole with teammate Brian McDonald right alongside. “The invert worked great for me -I’m on the pole and someone you know and trust is next to you,” noted Ladouceur with a little chuckle. “The only thing was, I had to make sure I beat him (McDonald) to turn one!” 

Indeed he did what he set out to do, with the #51 nosing ahead of the #151KB of McDonald. From there it was to be 25 tours with the right moves and no mistakes.

“After the heats, I knew I had a good car. The track was rough for the dash and I didn’t feel comfortable, but when I saw that they did work on the track after the dash, I just decided to stay where we were and hoped it worked.” said the driver, who builds his own motors.

While there was some of the best behind his mount, which included McDonald, Michael Parent and Alain Bergeron, Ladouceur was not going to make it easy for anyone to get into the winner’s circle.

Even though there were two early cautions, lapped traffic was part of the story, but the leader was ready. “I tried to attack the lap cars this time. I have held back before and it bit me” said Ladouceur of his strategy. “By running hard I really didn’t have a problem with any of them, and when you know you’re getting through well, the guy behind you has to do the same to keep up.”

The challengers never really had the run they needed, but on lap 17, the whole outlook of the race changed. Parent made a move inside of McDonald and they came together ,which also collected Bergeron. The damage was enough to knock McDonald and Bergeron from the A-Main.

While it was a misfortune for some, it was a blessing for Jeff Cook who shot from fifth past Parent into the runner-up slot, which is where he stayed when the checkered flag waved. Parent held on for third, and the winner the night before at Granby, Justin Barger, claimed fourth to build in his point lead. Mike Stelter had a fine run to take fifth.

Rounding out the top ten were Steve Poirier, who took over second in points and also leads the Canadian Series points, Lance Yonge, Doug Emery, Jim Porter, and Justin Harris 

ESS/Drummond Notes:

·         Just like the night before, 20 cars in the pits.

·         Chuck Hebing and Daniel Lampron did not return.

·         Donald Lemire and Dale Gosselin made their first ever ESS starts.

·         Anthony Cain had problems under the hood and missed his heats, but he came back to finish 12^th in the feature and claim the hard charger bonus.

·         Many of the Lucas Oil ESS stars will be back at Drummond for the first annual $30,000 Quebec Nationals on August 15^th, which pays $6,000 to win.

·         The final full-point event at Drummond will be on Sept. 5^th.