Two-year-old Elliot Hansford of Kamloops has a balloon tying lesson from Uncle Chris the Clown at the Canada Day Celebrations held over the long weekend at Sun Peaks Resort.

White shifts down
for A&W 300

July 1, 2008 — Barrie, Ont.

The RZ Racing team continues to speed ahead, despite a brake in the track.

The RZ Racing team visited Barrie, Ont. on Sat., June 28 for the A&W 300, the third stop on the 2008 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series schedule.

The learning curve continued for driver Jason White and the A&W sponsored "Cruizin' the Dub" Monte Carlo. Barrie Speedway is a very tight 1/3 mile oval track known for tearing up equipment, taking numerous cars out of the 300 lap race.

The team struggled all day with an extreme under-steer [push] condition and qualified 21st.

"We really couldn't get a handle on the set-up all day, so I just drove the car as hard as I could without wrecking it," said White. "It's extremely tough to go to these tracks we've never been to before and be competitive. Most of these teams have thousands of laps here, so we just tried to keep the car on the track and get as much experience as possible."

When the green flag dropped it didn't take long for the carnage to start: cars were dropping out fast and White was avoiding the dust-ups going on all over the bullring shaped track.

"I've always heard the stories about Barrie being an aggressive place to race at, but I had no idea it was going to be like this," explained White. "I showed up to race but it felt like I was in a heavyweight boxing match."

As the race went on White was slowly picking up positions, making up some ground on the field and felt he was finally gaining confidence.

"My crew put a new set of tires on at about lap 200 and I started to feel comfortable with the set-up of the car," he says. "I started to push myself a little harder and the car was taking it, so I kept hitting my marks and tried to be as smooth as possible."

After charging all the way up to 11th position by lap 250, the A&W "Cruzin' the Dub" Monte Carlo started to smoke severely and the NASCAR officials brought it in for inspection, and eventually decided it had to be parked for the night. Not only was this the end of White's late race charge, it was also a huge disappointment for his hard working pit crew.

"It was heartbreaking to see the black flag, I smelled rear gear oil for quite a while so I knew something was wrong but it was a hard pill to swallow as I believe we were destined for another top 10 finish," said Brian Uptigrove, crew chief for RZ Racing. "I'm really proud of this entire team for a hard day's work and their determination to never quit."

In a sport where more sponsor dollars equals more speed the RZ Racing Team is thankful for all of their marketing partners leading into this years NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. Special thanks go out to: Zimmer Wheaton GMC, Powder Ventures Excavations, Douglas Lake Equipment, Twin Anchors Houseboats, A&W, Kal Tire, Praxair, RE/MAX (Paul Toporowski), Peaks Media Inc., RTR Performance, Diamond Lils Trucking, Zimmer Autosport, Sleemans Brewery, Mackdaddy's Nightclub, L'Cat Autographics and Thompson Valley Sand and Gravel.

Race dates and results are posted on www.jasonwhiteracing.com or www.nascar.ca

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