NA$CAR history was made Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Weather looked to be a factor from the beginning. Rain began to fall after only 7 green flag laps. NA$CAR officials displayed a caution to allow all the competitors to come to pit road to bolt on the Goodyear rain tires and install wipers. it took nearly an hour for the race to resume.
NA$CAR halted the race after 48 of the 74 scheduled laps because of poor visibility and water puddling in the corners that made car control too risky. As the caution was displayed, Canadian favorite, Jacques Villeneuve ran into the back of another car while running in the 5th position. Jacques is the son of the late Gilles Villeneuve for which the Montreal track is named. At nearly the same time, Joey Logano crashed into a fence as he approached pit road. The rain fall turned into a downpour that caused too much standing water to accumulate around the course. NA$CAR soon called the race official, giving the win to Canadian driver, Ron Fellows. Another Canadian favorite son, Patrick Carpentier finished second driving a Gillette-Evernham entry.
Ron Fellows was at the wheel of the #5 JR Motorsports entry with sponosrship by GoDaddy.com. The win is the 4th cup light victory for Fellows, all on road courses. Ron also has 2 wins in the NCTS at Watkins Glen. For JR Motorsports, it is the 3rd victory of the season. Mark Martin won at Las Vegas in the #5 and Brad Kesolowski got his first win in the #88 Navy entry.
The Cup and Cup Light series will both be at Watkins Glen this weekend. When asked by Dave Despain if he would be in the JR Motorsports entry, Fellows said that Dale Earnhardt jr was slated to drive the #5 but would be glad to take it if asked.
Ron Fellows will be at the wheel of the #01 DEI Chevy for the Cup series.
So what did we learn from the experience in Montreal? Grumpy thinks the race in the rain was a success. Issues like windows fogging up and poor wiper control could be improved. The rain tire seemed to work well until the water in the track was just too much for racing at speed. The rain tires that Goodyear provided were built in 2001 and have been hauled out just about every time NA$CAR stopped at Watkins Glen. This was the first time in modern history that NA$CAR has conducted racing in the rain. In order for this to be a good show for the fans, the teams would need to make improvements in the wipers and effective ways to defog the windows.
5 Comments
I found the fogging issue interesting.
The Aussie V8 Series runs in HOT humid rainy conditions a couple times a season with no problems of fogged windows. They have completely enclosed cockpits as opposed to the NNS cars that ran at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
One would think the fogging would be a non-issue with open cockpits just as it isn’t on your street car when you clear them by cracking or completely rolling down a window.
Puzzling….
As for the stoppage because of the rain. If this had been a proper road course as opposed to a street event it would have been no problem.
A purpose built track offers drainage areas where a street course for the most part offers solid walls with no drainage available.
As I understand it, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a purpose built road racing course. The corners are cambered and do not have any drains that I could see on the TV coverage. Water would collect at the inside of each turn, right where the driver wanted to put his tires.
I am not familiar with the Aussie V8 series. Are those cars pretty much stock as in the doors and windows are all factory stuff? That could be why they don’t suffer a fogging problem.
“As I understand it, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a purpose built road racing course.”
Only certain sections of it are, other parts are actual Montreal streets and it was those sections that flooded the most and allowed no run-off.
As for the V8’s, see for yourself.
And hey, they even have doors that open.
Is the Aussie V8s the series that Marcos Ambrose used to run before coming to America?
In short…. yes, a two-time champ and he fell just scant double digit amount of points from making it three in a row.
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