CANAAN ASPHALT - MAY 27TH - 14TH
The Canaan PASS 150 looked like it
was going to be the story of Johnny Clark starting from the pole, leading just about every
lap, holding off strong challenges from Ricky Martin, Patrick Laperle, and Cassius Clark
and taking the win. A solid performance for Johnny and the #54.
Except....that on lap 139 Johnny's left rear brake disc shattered and the chances
for a win disappeared - and a fine finish for Laperle also. Post race forensics point to a
disc mounting bolt backing out of its hole in the hub, catching on the brake pad, and
leading to the destruction of the caliper, brake disk, and the hub. And as the disc
disintergrated, the debris bounced underneath the #91 of Laperle, cut the brake line off
the front brake master cylinder, and ended his fine race too. A couple of laps before the lap 139 mark, Johnny felt something
wrong in the back and the car started smoking as the rear wheel was wobbling and the axle
seal was damaged. On the final restart Johnny felt the problem getting worse and pulled
out of the way to avoid any further damage to the #54 and others.
Post race Johnny was confident that with only 11
laps remaining he would have been able to retain the lead and collect the win. Hard racing
first with Rick Martin and then with Patrick Laperle had not used up the tires or hurt the
handling. It would have been quite a battle with Cassius Clark, but the #54 would have
come out ahead. |
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6-1-06 by Justin St. Louis
STRANGE SITUATION KNOCKS
JOHNNY CLARK
AND PATRICK LAPERLE OUT OF LEAD
So far, Farmingdale, ME’s Johnny Clark has had a season sub par to his own personal
standards. After all, Clark is the only man other than Ben Rowe to win the PASS North
championship since Rowe’s first title in 2002, and Clark has turned enough heads to
make it into Jack Roush’s “Driver X” Gong Show. On Saturday night at Canaan
Fair Speedway, Clark looked like a sure thing to make it to the winner’s circle for
the first time this year. Other than a four-lap period when Rick Martin poked his nose in
front, Clark had led every step of the way.
That is, until lap 136.
A rather uncommon problem struck just Clark then, as the right-rear brake rotor on his TDS
Telecom/Clark’s Cars & Parts Monte Carlo shattered into pieces, throwing shrapnel
into his power steering lines, and ejecting pieces out the back of the car. With
Quebec’s Patrick Laperle glued to Clark’s rear bumper all night long, pieces of
brake rotor headed straight into the path of Laperle’s Precision JLM/Demers
Ambulances Monte Carlo.
“I heard some wicked rattling,” Clark said matter-of-factly. “I was still
leading for five or six laps and then I lost my brakes, and I said ‘Well,
there’s not many laps left, I can hold on,’ but then it got really bad and the
rotor came apart and took out the 91 car (Laperle).”
“I saw the rotor come out of Johnny’s car, and I was like, ‘Man, I’m
gonna get it right in the face,’” said Laperle. “I closed my eyes, and
BANG! it hit the master cylinder by my foot. ”
As all that happened, Cassius Clark drove under Laperle for second place, and around the
outside of Johnny Clark for the lead on lap 137. With fluid leaking from both injured
cars, PASS officials threw the yellow flag on lap 139 to clean up the track. Johnny
Clark’s car was looked at closely under caution, and he was allowed to continue in
the race. He was even given his spot back in second place for the restart.
“When the yellow came out, I knew we were done,” he said. “I didn’t
even really want to restart on the outside up front, and I’m just glad we didn’t
mess anyone up when we went back to green. It’s kinda awkward for a rear rotor to
come apart, so we’ll look at it and see if we can find out what happened. Man,
it’s disappointing. We haven’t had a real good start to the season, and we sure
had ‘em covered today.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen anything like that,” said Laperle.
“My car was awesome; it was just a bit tight right in the middle and coming out of
the corner. But that’s racing.”JOHNNY CREDITS CANAAN SUCCESS TO VETERAN ROBIE
Before Johnny Clark’s problems late in the going, it looked like he would take his
first PASS North win of the 2006 season at Canaan. Clark and Laperle raced nose-to-tail
for the majority of the race, and on almost every lap it looked like maybe – just
maybe – Laperle could have snuck under Clark for the lead, but it never happened.
Clark owes the deceptive line he used to veteran New Hampshire racer Carlton Robie.
“I know this place pretty well,” Clark said. “Carlton Robie is a good buddy
of mine, and he told me how to get around here. He told me how to get through three and
four, and how to get people to overdrive when they’re following you.”
Clark’s line made his car look tight in the middle of the corner, drifting up the
track about a half a lane, only to
come off the corner with lots of momentum. Laperle looked low on Clark a hundred times if
he looked once, with Grand Puppeteer Johnny Clark tugging on the strings every lap.
“You show ‘em a little daylight and make them think that they can get in
there,” he explained, “but they just dive in and burn up their stuff all day
long, and they can’t (make the pass). I owe that to Carlton. I got a pole out that
here, and we should have won this race tonight.”
DRIVERS READY FOR “GROVETONA”
The next stop on the PASS North schedule is Sunday, June 4 at Riverside Speedway. The
tight, high-banked ¼-mile track is located in rural Groveton, NH, and is known for having
eccentric personalities and wacky enduro races. Locals have affectionately dubbed the
track “Grovetona.”
No matter what division is racing at the speedway, the action is intense. Cars bounce off
walls, flip off the Turn one dirt bank, toss body panels like children’s toys, and
usually give the fans their money’s worth.
Johnny Clark is a past winner at Riverside, and leads to contingent of PASS racers looking
forward to the race.
“I can’t wait to go to Grovetona next weekend, that’s one of my favorite
places,” he said. “It wasn’t my favorite the first time I went there, but
we’ve got two wins and a second there, so hopefully we can redeem ourselves from
tonight.”
FULL SPEED51 COLUMN HERE |
