May
20, 2012. Sherwood Park, Alberta’s Noel Dowler opened the 2012 NASCAR
Canadian Tire Series season this past weekend in the #5 EMCO Dodge at
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Sporting a new look paint scheme the
teenage driver showed continuous improvement all weekend at the
challenging 2.5 mile road circuit. What looked to be a strong outing
however ended abruptly.
Throughout
the Saturday practice session Dowler showed marked improvement as he
piloted the #5 EMCO Dodge around the course. His lap times improved
seemingly with each turn around the circuit. That progress continued
through qualifying as Dowler was second quickest in his qualifying
group. “The car felt better and better all day, we got hung up a bit
with traffic or I’m sure we could have gone even quicker” said Dowler.
“I just kept getting more comfortable with each lap and we kept
improving” he added.
For
the race on Sunday Dowler would start mid field and take a cautious
approach in the beginning. “This is a very long race and you really
have to pace yourself or it’s easy to get into trouble” said Dowler. I
just wanted to allow the field to spread out and settle in and be
consistent” he added.
Dowler
was barely able to do that with the #5 EMCO Dodge. Still in the early
stages Dowler showed his continued improvement before the race had even
reached the quarter mark. Dowler was posting some of the best lap times
of the weekend. “He was doing really well” said Crew Chief Chris
Wright. “He was running lap times that were better than he did during
qualifying”.
Sadly
the team’s day would come to a premature end when a part failure in the
motor of the #5 EMCO Dodge would send up a plume of smoke as the engine
halted. “It’s really too bad” said Dowler. “The car was handling
great and I was just running nice and easy to put us in good position
for later, but it wasn’t meant to be. “I’ve got to thank all the guys
for working so hard to give me such a good race car and I’m very
confident we’ll be strong at the next race” he added.
The 2012 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series resumes June 3rd
at Circuit ICAR in Mirabel, QC and features 12 events from coast to
coast including races during the Edmonton Indy weekend and the NASCAR
Nationwide event in Montreal. For more information about Noel Dowler
Jr. log onto www.apollomotorsports.ca and follow him on twitter, @noeldowlerjr.
Noel Dowler in the #5 EMCO Dodge ready for qualifying at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
Photo Credit: Todd Lewis
This release prepared by, TL Sports & Entertainment, todd@tlsportsent.com (239) 961-2618