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| photo/the garageblog. |
July 11, 2011. Sherwood Park, Alberta’s Noel Dowler returned to action in round number five of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series this past weekend on the streets of Toronto. As part of the Toronto Indy weekend Dowler looked to continue his growth and gain more experience at the wheel of the #5 EMCO Dodge on the temporary street course.
Dowler is still getting used to the handling characteristics of these nearly 3,000 pound stock cars and learned the hard way that it’s extremely difficult to slow and stop the cars from about 150 mph on the long lakeshore road straightaway during the only practice session. “I was going too quickly into corner number three and the car went through the corner and into the run off area” said Dowler.
Sadly there was extensive damage to the #5 EMCO Dodge and the team would be forced to spend the rest of the afternoon making repairs and miss the qualifying session. “It’s not so much that we didn’t get to qualify” explained Dowler, “but I really wanted to get as much time on the track as possible” he stated.
Dowler would start the #5 EMCO Dodge at the tail end of the field for the 100km with the mission of finishing the race and absorbing as much information as he could. “I just wanted to watch the experienced drivers and learn from them and improve with each lap” said Dowler.
As the race progressed Dowler did exactly that. He showed racing smarts to never put the #5 EMCO Dodge into an uncomfortable position and continued the learning process. Noel Dowler also had the opportunity to learn from a familiar coach. His father Kevin Dowler was asked to relive another injured driver during the race and Noel was able to watch the savvy veteran. “It was really great” said the younger Dowler. “I got to follow him for quite a few laps and really learned a lot about how to handle the car” he stated.
The next event of the 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series schedule for Noel Dowler takes place Saturday July 23rd at Motoplex Speedway near Vernon, BC. Dowler will participate in a total of five road and street course events, along with the two oval track races at Motoplex Speedway in Vernon, BC and Auto Clearing Speedway in Saskatoon for a total of seven races. All of the 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series races will be broadcast on TSN. Check local listings for times in your area. For more information about Noel Dowler Jr. log onto www.apollomotorsports.ca