“Hanging on”
Ray Parent headed into the 6th Annual BOND Auto ACT Invitational looking for repeat success of his 2012 victory on American Canadian Tour’s biggest stage. Unfortunately Parent was left to literally hang on to an 18th place finish.
Random draw started the Amtrol Ford Fusion from the 24th position; in the races early stages Parent had made his way inside the top-15 before trouble started. Heading into turn-3 around lap-12 Parent shot up the track and fell outside of the top-30. A battle with the transmission inside the car ensued as it had come out of gear and would not stay in.
“You use the gearing to slow you down so much in the corner, when it came out [of gear] I way over shot the turn and thought the engine blew up,” stated Parent. “It took me a bit to realize what happened… There was no warning or any type of problem beforehand.”
Parent, who is right handed typical races with that hand on top of the steering wheel, had to hold the car in gear with his right and steer with just his left hand. A situation that can be problematic when you are travel 140mph into a corner.
“It was a distraction for sure,” stated Parent. “It came out a few more times before I just had to hold it all the way around, not the best of situations. We talked about coming in but we were running out laps and just tried to hang on.”
The 17RI started the march back through the field, battling inside the top-20 again, a restart with 6-laps to go saw Tyler Cahoon break loose off turn-2 causing a 13 car pile-up on the backstretch. Getting hit from behind as drivers tried to avoid spinning cars, Parent was left to finish 18th when the race was called due to darkness on lap-44 out of its scheduled 50.
“That’s not what we wanted for sure,” stated Parent. “We were coming to the front before the shifter issue. Then to get caught up in someone else’s mess is disappointing. I’m proud of how hard the Team worked and the car they gave me. It will be a busy week for sure. There’s a lot of damage from the wreck.”
The Amtrol Team will need to get ready for the final points race of the ACT schedule when they head to Airborne International Speedway this coming Saturday. The 200-lap Fall Foliage race will mark the return to the site of Parents first series victory back in May.
It will also conclude an epic point’s battle for runner-up in the series championship. Parent who holds onto that second position by just one point over defending series champion Wayne Helliwell Jr. and two points over Williamstown, VT competitor Jimmy Hebert.
“It will definitely be a battle, stated Parent. “Both of those guys are really good there. I know we’ll fight hard and give it everything we can.”
Next Event
What: The Fall Foliage 200
Where: Airborne International Speedway – Plattsburgh, NY
When: Saturday September 29, 2014 – 2:00pm
Ray and the Amtrol Racing Team would like to thank their proud partners in 2014: Amtrol • Carlin Combustion Technology • HydroLevel • Distinctive Auto Body • Phoenix Builders • Bayside Auto Center • Bobs Sea and Ski • Dan Davies Sales • Dominator Diesel • Five Star Bodies • Longacre Racing Products • Hedman Hedders • Ford Racing • Welded Media
Sources: Jason Lubin/Welded Media