Camirand wins Evirum 125 with late race pass on Tagliani
Published
With five laps to go, Marc-Antoine Camirand had finally gotten back to the inside of Alex Tagliani.
Camirand in the No. 96 GM Paillé/Chevrolet Canada Chevrolet had qualified on the pole and led 18 of the first 19 laps.
But when Tagliani firmly took the lead on lap 20, it started to look like nobody could catch the No. 18 St-Hubert/NTN/QwickWick/Genatec Chevrolet.
All that changed with five laps to go when the No. 96 GM Paillé Chevrolet made contact with Tagliani going into turn one.
“It was a late move. I was a little bit quicker, he shut the door a little bit, my nose was there,” said Camirand. “That’s part of racing, but I talked with him for a long time. I apologized to him, but we’ll see what’s going to happen at Mosport [CTMP].”
The move spun the No. 18 Chevrolet around and while Tagliani was able to straighten out, Camirand already had a sizable lead over a second.
Tagliani however, wasn’t happy about the incident, and the two discussed the move at length while in victory lane.
“It's a shame, we had a good battle,” said Tagliani. “Most of the time he comes to me and appreciates my clean driving against him and the day he has a chance to show he is the same, he doesn’t.”
Alex Labbe, in the No. 36 Malois Transport/GBI/Planchés Béton Léger Chevrolet was then able to get past the No. 18 of Tagliani, relegating the Montreal, Quebec native to the bottom step of the podium.
The Evirum 125 featured a new track configuration, marking the fourth different layout that the NASCAR Pinty's Series has raced on at Circuit ICAR.
Current points leader Treyten Lapcevich brought his car home in fifth while L.P. Dumoulin rounded out the top-five.
Andrew Ranger, who has four previous wins at ICAR finished sixth, with Justin Arseneau, Daniel Bois, J.P. Bergeron, and D.J. Kennington closing out the top-ten.
Defending race winner Kevin Lacroix, who has also won four of the last five, recorded his first non-podium finish at ICAR after an overheating issue caused him to finish 22nd, 16 laps down.
The Evirum 125 will air tape-delayed on TSN on Saturday, September 2 at 2:00 p.m. ET, and on RDS in Quebec on Saturday, September 23 at 2:00 p.m. ET.