Granby Results 98-09-20

VETERAN ALAN JOHNSON WINS THE CARQUEST 200 AT GRANBY AUTODROME GRANBY, Quebec. September 21, 1998 --Record-detainer for the greatest number of career wins in the DIRT circuit, veteran Alan Johnson only needed 19 laps to win first place, yesterday afternoon, at Autodrome Granby. For Johnson, it was his second victory during this annual event prsented in the Eastern Townships. By outdoing Dave Camara, Granby Autodrome's champion, Billy Decker, Brett Hearn and Bob McCreadie, Johnson is $10,000 U.S. richer. This race was dominated by two former champions of Autodrome Granby and Camara, the current title-holder. Mike Romano, Steve Paine and Dave Camara were the leader for 172 of the 200 laps. This performance indicates the high caliber of the competitors during the regular season at Autodrome Granby. At the Quebec level in this Carquest 200, Dominic Dufault, of Ste-Victoire at the wheel of the Troyer/Portes of Garages Ste-Victoire, obtained the best performance with a seventh position. During this Carquest 200, 11 yellow flags came up and four different drivers lead on six different occasions. Nineteenth at the start, Dufault managed his race quite well to take seventh place behind Jack Johnson and ahead of Mike Romano. This result isn't surprising. It reflects Dufault's season who, despite no victories, managed to finish fourth overall in the Molson standings. During this Carquest 200, fans witnessed exceptional duels for first place and every time, much work was required to make it. Third at the starting line, Mike Romano took over when at the 47th lap, Steve Paine managed to pass him and lead for only 10 laps before Romano took back his place. Then, four laps later, it was Bob McCreadie's turn to pass a strong Romano who came back for the third time in the first place at the 66th lap. During 12 laps, Camara who was 14th at the green flag, battled it out with Romano to finally come out on top on lap 88 and win the $1000 bonus offered by Molson at the 100th passage. Camara seemed to be heading for a victory but at the 181th lap, his tires were worn and he was unable to resist Johnson's repeated charges who took over 40 laps to reach his goal. As for Steve Poirier, vice-champion of Granby, he was going among the leaders but after a pit stop, he only managed to climb to 10th position. Shortage of gas Among those who have a reason to be disappointed after this Carquest 200, there are the members of Luke Plante Budweiser team. Plante had an excellent race, speeding ahead among the top five drivers for most of the competition but on lap 194, he was forced to make a pit stop because of gas shortage. Claude Brouillard, Robert Ranger and Pierre Hebert also had mechanical problems. During the preliminaries, Pierre Hebert, Pat Ward, Mike Romano, Frank Cozze, Claude Brouillard and A.J. Romano paraded in the winners' circle. Other classes Three others categories were scheduled at the Carquest 200 at Autodrome Granby. It is during that day that the race for many titles officially ended. In the sportsman class, Louis Bouthillier had the best time ahead of Alain Mathieu and Robin David, This changed nothing in the mOlson cumulative since Mathieu was assured of the title ahead of Gerry Patenaude and Bouthillier. Then, in the late models class, Daniel Belanger won the BF Goodrich title with a perfect day. In the final, Belanger passed Jocelyn Roy and Roland Hebert. Wiuth a 13th place finish, Stephane Michaud lost his title of vice-champion to Roy. Finally, in the tourism class, the victory went to David Royea ahead of Archambault and Ernie Bray. With this performance, Archambault managed to beat Benoit Berube for second position in the BF Goodrich championship cumulative standings. The 1998 season is now over at Autodrome Granby. All the champions will be honored during the annual banquet held at the H™tel des Gouverneurs in St-Hyacinthe, Saturday November 28th. CARQUEST 200 RESULTS 1- 24, Alan Johnson 2- 26, Dave Camara 3- 91, Billy Decker 4- 3H, Brett Hearn 5- 9, Bob McCreadie 6- 12B, Jack Johnson 7- 63, Dominic Dufault 8- 97, Mike Romano 9- 19, Tim Fuller 10- 28, Steve Poirier 11- 115, Kenny Tremont (199) 12- 32, Vic Coffey (199) 13- 96, Todd Milton (199) 14- M1, Jimmy Horton (199), 15- L50, Luke Plante (199) 16- 56, Pat Ward (196) 17- 6, Danny Johnson (188) 18- LP2, Marco Potvin (171) 19- 18, Bobby Varin (139) 20- 12T, Steve Paine (128) 21- 27, Robert Ranger (104) 22- 39, Christian Salvas (94) 23- 88, Frank Cozze (65) 24- 33, Jeff Heotzler (53), 25- 3, Claude Brouillard (40) 26- 94, Tim McCreadie (35) 27- 76, Richard Salvas (35) 28- 71, Pierre Hebert (34) 29- 72, Mario Lajoie (19) 30- 1H, Doug Hoffman (1) 31- 16, A.J. Romano (1)

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