SCC: Fontana: Powell Motorsports race notes

ANOTHER HARD RACE FOR THE POWELL TEAM AT FONTANA

Both the #07 AND #11 Cadillac's knocked out of the leading group with 12 laps to go in a caution filled race at the California Speedway. The restricted CTS V fails to match the speed of Mustang and BMW in grand Am Cup competition.

Port Perry On.(April 12 2005) -- Race three of the 2005 Grand American Cup championship, and Normand Guindon's #07 Chemcraft CTS-V traveled from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic all the way to Fontana California. A long trip, and a lot of work for the Powell team, as there was considerable damage to the Chemcraft Cadillac from the Santo Domingo race.

Fans of the Cadillac team will recall that at Santo Domingo Normand and Marc Antoine had a fine race, running up to the top ten from a 12th row starting position, spoiled when Normand was unceremoniously punted from behind as he entered the pits for the driver change.

The damage during the Santo Domingo race put the #07 car three laps down, but co-driver Marc Antoine Camirand just would not quit, and in his brilliant drive, passed both Cadillac team mate and third place finisher Devon Powell and the second place finishing Mustang of Jeannette was an inspiration to the 20,000 spectators.

Things looked better at Fontana, where the Cadillac's qualified in the top half of the field. The drivers reported that both the Mustangs and the BMW's were considerably faster on the high banks at Fontana, so the general feeling has been that the Grand American rules makers have not yet got the equalizing formula right.

"Just to make me really upset" said Norm Guindon "Autoweek magazine have reported the Mustang crew Chief Sean Mason as saying their Mustangs have 418 h.p. The 400 h.p. Cadillac has been restricted to 380 h.p. I hope things will change for the next race in Laguna Seca." Whatever the feelings of the drivers, it was down to business at the start, and the #07 Chemcraft Cadillac made steady progress through the field.

Radio communication proved a problem, unfortunately and a miscued pit stop at a caution caused the late arrival for #07 for a fuel, tire and driver change; Marc Antoine Camirand replaced Normand Guindon, re-joining the field a lap down.

Just twelve laps to go, an a late race caution found the two Cadillac's lined up on the track, the #11 Corsa Cadillac of Devon Powell in second, and #07 third on the track but 17th overall.

"I was set to protect Devon's back at the restart" said Marc Antoine, " my Chemcraft Cadillac was strong, but a Mustang drafted by at the end of the start/finish straight, hit me, then cut down across the track and T boned Devon. That was it for us. Next time. "

The damaged #11 finished 12th and the #07 finished 23rd. The Powell Motorsport team is hungry for better results at Laguna Seca at the end of April.

The Fontana California 200 will be televised on SPEED Channel at 12:00 Noon ET on Saturday, April 16.

Fourth race in the 2005 Grand-Am Cup Series, will be held May 1, 2005. The U.S. Sports Car Invitational 200 mile Grand Am Cup race at Laguna Seca, located near Monterrey California is the first Grand Am Cup race at the famous and picturesque track by the Pacific ocean.

The Powell Motorsport team races with sponsorship from Chemcraft International Inc. Chemcraft is a North American leader in the supply of unique, high performance and environmental friendly industrial coatings for the wood finishing industry. The Chemcraft Wood Coatings Group are headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Port Hope, Ontario with active plants and warehouses across USA and Canada.

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