Richard Petty Driving Experience - Canadian Tour

Richard Petty Driving Experience - Canadian Tour

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Richard Petty Driving Experience (RPDE), the North-Carolina-based worldwide leader in NASCAR stock car ride and drive entertainment, recently announced that it is coming north with a series of dates in July, marking the first-time motorsports enthusiasts will have the opportunity to drive one of “The King’s” cars on a Canadian racetrack.

Richard Petty Driving Experience - named for the 7-Time NASCAR Cup Champion and 2010 Hall of Fame Inductee – will visit three tracks in Ontario and one in Nova Scotia during its inaugural “Canadian Summer Tour”; Kawartha Downs & Speedway (Fraserville, ON), Delaware Speedway (Delaware, ON), Sunset International Speedway (Innisfil, ON) and Riverside International Speedway (Antigonish, NS).

“We’re real excited to bring the Driving Experience to Canada this summer” said Petty, who was on hand for the announcement in Toronto. “I know, first-hand, that some of the greatest fans in the world are right here. I loved coming here to race back in the day and I know they’re going to love getting in our race cars.”

It was a fitting setting for the announcement, as Petty’s first-ever NASCAR-race took place at Toronto’s CNE stadium in 1958.

“We’ve had thousands of Canadians travel to Las Vegas, Orlando and many other tracks at which we run for the opportunity to drive a Petty race car”, said Mike Bartelli, Chief Marketing Officer of Petty Holdings, LLC and Richard Petty Driving Experience. “We look forward to seeing some of them again, on their home tracks, as well as introducing many more to our unique brand of motorsports entertainment.”

The “Richard Petty Driving Experience Canadian Summer Tour” will kick off on July 9th at Kawartha and includes eleven days on the aforementioned tracks over a nearly three week period, wrapping up at Riverside on July 24th. RPDE will offer the “Rookie Experience,” its signature driving program, and a “High-Speed Ride-Along”, which simulates a NASCAR qualifying run, in scheduled sessions during the tour.

“Having Richard and his guys come here is a big deal,” said Mark Dilley, NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Driver and Sunset International Speedway General Manager. “I’m thrilled as a racer, for Canadian race fans, for Sunset Speedway and for my fellow track promoters. This is going to be special”

Reservations for both driving experiences and Ride-Along’s are required and can be made by calling 1-800-237-3889. For complete details, visit www.drivepetty.com/CAN-tour.

NCATS: Great start, but a tough finish for Shepherd at Delaware

LONDON, ON - Pete Shepherd and the #7 National Exhaust/Hy-Tech Drilling Challenger, had a great start at Delaware Speedway, but mechanical issues caused him to retire from the Keystone Light 200 early.

Shepherd struggled early in practice finding a balance in the race car. Initially the team was facing a lose race car, but they made several changes towards the end of practice that helped the team, and gave Pete Shepherd a sense of comfort going into qualifying.

Before qualifying, Shepherd pulled the #1 position, which usually is the most feared position to pull, as no one wants to qualify on a dirty race track. “Before qualify, I talked to the team and Mike McColl, and they assured me that the division before us would not leave any rubber on the track, and the surface would be relatively clean for my qualifying run. I didn’t worry about it, and I put down a smooth lap, and was surprised to see the time hold up,” Shepherd explained.

After two laps of qualify Shepherd’s time of 19.482 seconds, held up for the entire session, giving Pete Shepherd his first NASCAR Canadian Tire Series pole. “It felt good to get the pole, because we really struggled in practice, and we didn’t think we had the speed it would take to start near the front for the Keystone Light 200. The team worked really hard, and hard work pulled off as we had a fast car going into the race,” Shepherd replied.

After the green flag dropped, the top three cars pulled away from the field; #7, #17 and #22. Shepherd led the first 17 laps, but was overtaken by the #17 and the #22. “I settled in third as I recognized the #17 and #22 had really good cars. It’s a long race, and I knew towards the end I would have a fast car, as my car was not fading away on old tires.” Shepherd described. After the first caution of the race, before the half way point, Shepherd followed the #17 into the pits. The crew filled up his car with fuel, and as he drove away the crew noticed the car was leaking gear oil.

“When we went back to green, my tires were covered in oil, and I had a hard time even hanging onto the car. I knew the situation was getting worse when I could smell burnt gear oil, and I lost a lot of top end speed. At that point our day was pretty much done.” Shepherd stated. After 200 laps, Shepherd wound up with a DNF in 17th position. Pete Shepherd Motorsports looks forward to taking their efforts to the Toronto Indy, where Shepherd will make his first road course appearance since 2004.

To keep up to speed with Pete Shepherd Motorsports race season in 2011, please follow him on Twitter @Petey_3 and his website www.peteshepherd.ca where fans can find a link to join Pete Shepherd’s Facebook Fan Page.

Pete Shepherd Motorsports would like to thank all of their sponsors: National Exhaust Systems Inc, Hy-Tech Drilling INC, Diamond Material Handling and Insulation, BioX Nutrition and TapouT Energy.

Contact Information: // Pete Shepherd // www.peteshepherd.ca // peteshepherd@hotmail.com
or dRIVEN4 Communications // driven4communications@gmail.com

Inside Track TV... post-Victoria Day weekend (2011) edition

This is the post-Victoria Day (2011) weekend edition of Inside Track TV, featuring Spencer Lewis. In this show, Spencer highlights some of the action at Sunset, Delaware and many other shorts tracks around Ontario and North America.
Tune in Thursday for a preview of the upcoming weekend's short track activity.
Visit www.InsideTrackNews.com for more info.

Inside Track TV (May 21-23, 2011)

Inside Track Motorsport News contributor Spencer Lewis offers a preview of some of the major short track events taking place on the 2011 Victoria Day long weekend. Visit www.InsideTrackNews.com for more information about Inside Track; the official publication of Canadian Motorsports. Thanks to Spencer Lewis!

PHOTO GALLERY: Delaware Speedway May 13th (Late Models, Super Stocks & Trucks)

PHOTO GALLERY: Delaware Speedway Opening Night 2011

PHOTO GALLERY: Delaware Speedway Summer Showdown

PHOTOS: Delaware Summer Showdown featuring winner Kyle Busch

This is a photo gallery from Delaware Speedway on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 featuring the Delaware Summer Showdown and NASCAR stars Kyle Busch, David Reutimann and Jason Leffler. The event, which was won by Busch, drew a huge crowd to the London, ON-area half-mile oval. Congratulations to all involved and thanks to Dave Franks for sharing his work. You can see Dave's website here.

PHOTO GALLERY: NASCAR Canadian Tire Series - Delaware Speedway - June 5, 2010

DJ Kennington won the season-opening NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Delaware Speedway on June 5, 2010. JR Fitzpatrick and Jeff Lapcevich were second and third, respectively. For more exclusive NCATS coverage, subscribe to Inside Track Motorsport News.

PHOTO GALLERY Delaware Speedway - May 28th (Late Model Triple Crown, Super Stocks, Trucks)