SES: CJF Racing post Mobile race report

March 23 and 24, Chris Fontaine and the CJF Racing team participated in their first NASCAR All Pro event of the 2001 season, the Alltell 200 at Mobile Speedway. The weekend started with the NASCAR officials teching the car Saturday morning. All of the NASCAR All Pro officials were very helpful in helping the rookie teams and drivers get off on the right foot.

After pointing out several modifications that had to be made to the Discount Auto Parts/Suntrust #46, the officials assisted in ensuring that the car met the stringent race requirements. Once modifications were made to the car, and it was reinspected, the team was ready to qualify.

Since a practice session in Florida had been rained out, Chris had only been behind the wheel of the NASCAR All Pro #46 2000 Monte Carlo for several practice laps before making his qualifying run. Despite a miss in the engine that has been plaguing the #46 since Derrick Kelly had the car at Nashville last year, Chris qualified the car with a time of 18.756 on the ½ mile track. The time was good enough to make 35th in the 39 car lineup.

He missed making the starting grid for Sunday's race by two positions. All of the cars in the lineup were within one second of each other. Chris missed qualifying by .2 seconds. It was later determined that a bad MSD ignition box was the cause of the engine miss.

Chris was awarded with 35th position and 58 points in the post race results for his first NASCAR All Pro outing. After packing the car up for the return trip, the CJF Racing team was invited to join car builder/owner Frankie Grill, driver Wayne Anderson and the JaniKing race team for Sunday's race to learn from former All Pro champions. The whole weekend was a real learning experience for every member of the CJF Racing team.

Every member of the team would like to thank the NASCAR All Pro officials, the Mobile Speedway personnel, Frankie Grill, Wayne Anderson and team for their hospitality, experience and patience during the weekend. A big thank you also to Glenda Fontaine,Discount Auto Parts, SunTrust Banks,ProBlend and all our sponsors for making the 2001 NASCAR All Pro season possible. The next NASCAR All Pro race will be in Nasville,TN on April 14.

-CJF Racing