May
21, 2012. Calgary, Alberta’s Jarrad Whissell and the #44 SMS
Equipment/Komatsu Ford team began their racing season in the opening
round of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series this past weekend at Canadian
Tire Motorsports Park near Bowmanville, ON. The team gave a solid
effort and looked to be headed for a strong finish until getting
collected in an incident with other drivers.
The
weekend began with practice on Saturday and the #44 SMS
Equipment/Komatsu Ford was very consistent throughout both on track
sessions. “I was really happy with how the car felt, but initially I
felt a little rusty” said Whissell. “I knew we still had more left in
the car for qualifying” he added.
Whissell
would post the quickest qualifying lap in his group of cars and begin
the feature event Sunday afternoon from the outside of row seven. “It
was a very good day and had the whole team optimistic about the race on
Sunday” said the driver.
When
the race began Sunday under perfect conditions Whissell immediately set
about improving his position in the field. “I didn’t get too
aggressive too early but I knew the #44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu Ford was
running well enough that I’d be able to fight for positions as the race
went on” said Whissell.
When
the #44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu Ford team called Whissell to pit road for
scheduled service they suffered a setback. “We had some trouble with
our four tire pit stop” explained Whissell. “We lost some track
position and it put us back in the field where we found some trouble”.
The
result was Whissell tagged the #56 car after he was spun out and that
damaged the right front suspension and flattened the tire. After making
a stop to address the problem the #44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu Ford
suffered another flat a short while later and also began overheating.
From
that point it was a matter of nursing the #44 SMS Equipment/Komatsu
Ford to the finish. A frustrated Jarrad Whissell said afterwards “I
don’t think the racing gods were with us today. Getting caught up as
collateral damage and then struggling with the handling took away our
hopes of racing up to the top ten” he stated.
This
season Jarrad Whissell will participate in the five NASCAR Canadian
Tire Series road course events plus the two western Canada stops at
Motoplex Speedway near Vernon, BC & Auto Clearing Speedway in
Saskatoon, SK. Follow the progress of the team and help support the
Children’s Miracle Network through the team website www.jarradwhissell.com
You can also follow Jarrad on twitter, @JarradWhissell and also check
out the team fan page on Facebook. Fans can watch all of the NASCAR
Canadian Tire Series races again this year on TSN.
Photo Credit: Todd Lewis