Peterborough Speedway Aug 23

After a good run in Kawartha last night the team has travel a few km up the road to Peterborough Speedway. After the first practice we changed the gear in the car and lined up for our first heat. Paul drew pole position for the first heat and managed to stay ahead of the pack for his first Ontario Legends Series heat win. The second heat was a reverse of the 1st and Paul started last and was able to make his way up to 7th place. At intermission the speedway held a Fan Appreciation night and allowed all the fans on the track to get autographs and see all the cars close up. Paul started 6th in the feature race. 10 laps into the race the red flag came out and all cars were stopped on the track while the ambulance tended to someone in the pits. Once the ambulance was back in position the race resumed. 8 laps later a serious accident occurred and the red flag came out again. The #33 car of Paul Peirek spun between corners 3 and 4 , Paul Dejong just missed him as he was directly behind Peirek as he started to spin. Peirek touched the infield and caused a huge cloud of dust and the number #15 car of Rick Cook slammed into the drivers side door of Paul Peirek. The race was red flagged at at that point as they tended to both drivers. It took so long to separate the 2 cars that the tracks 11pm curfew had been exceeded and the race was called at lap 19. Paul finished 6th. Both drivers appeared to escaped any serious injury but Paul Peirek has a hopefully minor leg injury as you see the bars of the drivers door completely collapsed and contacted the seat and pushed it in on him.

Kawartha Speedway Aug 22nd

The Giant Tiger race team was in the Peterborough area for a weekend double header at Kawartha and Peterborough speedways. Friday night we were at the fastest track the Legends run on , Kawartha speedway. Paul drew a 7th starting spot in his 1 and only heat and made his way through the field to finish 2nd. That earned him a 6th place start for the 25 lap feature in which he made his way to 4th place at the end. I good result considering the quality of the field tonight. Tomorrow we will be a Peterborough speedway.

August 9th Capital City Speedway

The Giant Tiger team was back in Ottawa this weekend racing as part of the ACT tour weekend race. As usual, Mother Nature appears to dislike auto racing. Practice and heats were to start at 2pm but a steady rain kept all cars of the track until just after 6pm. That forced the organizers to cancel all heat races and we drew for a starting spot. Paul started 17th of 19 cars. Paul quickly started to move through the field but with a shortened race of only 20 laps there wasn't much time. Paul was running 4th and was right on the bumper of #20 Frank Johnston for 4 or 5 laps. Paul made his move on the white flag lap entering corner 3 and got by Frank , but a couple of lapped cars (deja vu from Barrie)were at the wrong place and the wrong time and caused Frank to have to move high just as Paul was passing him. They touched wheels and Paul spun. Paul was able to get going and finished 12th. A great race to watch but with a disappointing result. Our next race is another double header weekend Aug 22 at Kawartha Speedway and August 23 at Peterborough Speedway.

August 2 Barrie Speedway

The Giant Tiger race team was in Barrie to race with the Ontario Legends Series. Practice was delayed an hour due to ...what else..rain. The team fought a loose race car during practice and made many changes to get the car right. Paul started 7th in the 1st heat and made his way through the field to finish 2nd. Paul started 3rd for the 2nd heat and made his way to second just behind the #88 car for the second time tonight. Paul qualified 3rd for the feature race but they inverted the top 4 meaning Paul started outside pole. Paul took the lead with a good start and lead for 4 laps. The #88 car slid by on the bottom, and the #24 was right there. Two laps later we were in third and now had to fend off a very aggressive Tim Fernandes in #77. Paul was still in third after getting the two laps to go flag. On lap 23, when a lapped car let the first two cars through, and then slid high at the last moment and blocked us. We tried to cut to the bottom, but Tim and Adam Cuthbertson shot by on the bottom to push us back to fifth place on the last lap. It was a disappointment to have a lapped car cost us two positions, but the Giant Tiger team had a great race anyway. The next race is this Sat. Aug. 9th in Ottawa at 2:00 pm.