Autodrome Granby race resuts 2002-06-14

A first visit for young Kayle Robidoux in the winner's circle.

GRANBY, Que., June 16 - Always there and very motivated, young Kayle Robidoux closed up his learning days, last Friday night at Autodrome Granby, by making his first appearance in the winner's circle in the Modified division after four seasons. Robidoux who made his motorsports debut in karting, had the best on American driver Donald Scarborough and Gino Clair.

Unlucky very often, Robidoux was 11th on the starting grid, but on lap 9, he had made his way to the second spot just behind Steve Poirier who was leading since the green flag of this 30-lap feature. Then, on the fourth restart of this race on lap 13, Robidoux was able to challenge Poirier who after slowed his pace to finish sixth.

After that very nice move, Robidoux who had the fastest car on the track, started to close the gap between him and all his opponents. For the fourth time in four starts, Scarborough who his the Carquest Auto part championship point's leader, was on the podium again with his second place finish in front of Gino Clair, Réal Lafrance and Claude Brouillard. It was a good race for Lafrance and Brouillard because they had to make their way through traffic. Lafrance was 17th and Brouillard 13th on the grid. Alain Boisvert, one of the favorites, was forced to quit after only three laps due to a broken suspension.

Earlier in the evening, Steve Poirier, Richard Chauvin and Claude Brouillard were the winners in their respective heats.

In the Sportsman division, defending track champion Alain Mathieu took his second consecutive checkered flag in the 20-lap feature. Mathieu led all the 20 laps to have the best on Arnold Cross, Dany Bilodeau and rookies Jean Boissonneault and Benoit Courchesne who was a regular driver in the 4 cylinders class, last season.

Alain Brochu made his second visit of the season in the winner's circle by winning the 15-lap feature in the Late Model Division. He was followed by Normand Voghell, Frédéric Lussier and Stéphane Dubuc who were later disqualified at the inspection for illegal connecting rods. Steve Bernier won the feature race in the 4 cylinders class but was later disqualified due to weight problem.

Next Friday at Autodrome Granby, it will be the first visit of the season for the Empire Super Sprints while on Monday, June 24, Autodrome Granby will stage the second race of the season in the Turning Stone Casino DIRT Series.

RESULTS

MODIFIED (30 laps)

46, Kayle Robidoux; 2- 11vt, Donald Scarborough; 3- 22J, Gino Clair; 4- 11, Réal Lafrance; 5- 3, Claude Brouillard; 6- 61, Steve Poirier; 7- 11J, Jerry Pinnock; 8- 39, Clément Therrien; 9- 66, Martin Gagné; 10- 4, Leon Gonyo; 11- 78, Vince Quenneville Jr.; 12- 90, Martin Roy; 13- 24, Stéphane Michaud; 14- 44, Éric Boisvert; 15- 87, David Hébert; 16- 2, Luke Plante; 17- 66W, Wallace Stacey; 18-31, Richard Chauvin 19- 91, Michel Pelletier; 20- 5, Mario Moreau; 21- 73, Alain Boisvert.

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