Lapcevich earns season-best 4th place finish in Mosport NASCAR event Sunday; Late cautions hinder Grimsby racer’s podium run

In photo above by Sue Chisholm - RaceTimeRadio.com - Jeff Lapcevich executes turn 8 at Mosport International Raceway en route to his fourth place finish.

In photo above by Sue Chisholm - RaceTimeRadio.com - Jeff Lapcevich poses for a photo during the autograph session while youngest son Ryden entertains a new fan.
June 27, 2011, GRIMSBY, ON – Jeff Lapcevich drove the Tim Hortons Dodge to a fourth place finish in the Vortex Brake Pads 200 at Mosport International Raceway on Sunday. The result was a season best for the Grimsby NASCAR Canadian Tire Series racer, but he feels a podium finish was in the works without late-race cautions slowing the race.
“We didn’t need those cautions at the end,” said Lapcevich. “I had to give back at least five spots during the race because of yellow flags. I’m happy with the finish, but I think we could have done even better.”
The reason Lapcevich had to relinquish spots is that NASCAR touring series revert to the last completed lap when lining up the field for a restart. Lapcevich made numerous passes, but the laps weren’t officially scored because of caution periods.
Lapcevich was part of a torrid battle among the top 10 drivers where fans were treated to plenty of passing, rubbing, bumping, and action. The Tim Hortons Dodge finished the race with no signs of contact.
“It was pretty physical out there,” said Lapcevich. “I felt like my car was so good that I really didn’t want to get involved in any of the rough stuff.
“Tim Ellas (crew chief) and the crew did an amazing job getting this car ready. It was fairly busted up after the Grand Prix ICAR, but it felt like a brand new car this week.”
Lapcevich was fast from the start this weekend. He held the top speed during practice until Scott Steckly turned a lap even quicker. Second fastest in practice was rewarding for the crew after basically rebuilding the car since the last road course event.
Although there’s no NASCAR series race this weekend Jeff will still go racing. Lapcevich trades his driving uniform for a crew chief hat on off-weekends to go racing with his boys in quarter midgets. The brothers will compete at Oaklane’s quarter midget racing facility in Pennsylvania.
Sons Cayden and Treyten are accomplished racers in their respective divisions, and later this summer the third Lapcevich boy Ryden will get behind the wheel for his racing debut at four years old.
For more information on the Lapcevich racing family visit www.LapcevichRacing.com .

Audi UK Celebrates 24h of Le Mans Win with R8 V8 Limited Edition

Earlier this month, Audi snagged its tenth victory at the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans marathon race with the R18 TDI and to mark the event, the firm’s UK division has churned out a special edition version of the R8 V8 sports car with a unique paint and enhanced standard equipment.

The R8 V8 Limited Edition is reserved exclusively for UK customers, with only 100 examples currently scheduled for production. It is available to order from July in coupe form only and with either manual or R tronic automated manual transmission priced from £93,935 OTR.

Read more »

Opel Increases Market Share in Europe, GM Still not Happy

Opel has increased its share in Europe this year, with sales rising 6% up to May, giving the brand a market share of 7.4%, compared to 7% in 2010. So mother company GM must be satisfied, right?

Well, not entirely, according to Automotive News. And that’s because Opel’s cars are technologically advanced and due to high German working rates, are quite expensive to manufacture. However, they cannot be sold in prices similar to direct competitors such as Volkswagen because they lack their rivals’ image.

Read more »

Double Podiums for Amico Racing at Mosport (press release)

Dean Fantin and the Labourers Union BMW 330i stood on the podium twice this past weekend during the Vortex Brakes 200 at Mosport International Raceway northeast of Toronto. Having qualified 2nd for Saturday’s race Dean took the lead before the second corner and hung on to it for the first 20 min of racing. The Subaru of Richard Boake was never far behind and made a late race pass for the lead, both drivers swapped the lead between them a few more times before the checker flag dropped with Dean on the rear bumper of the Subaru. For Sunday’s race the starting positions were decided from Saturday’s finishing order, the Labourers Union BMW 330i took the green flag alongside Boake’s Subaru but on the outside of the first corner. Dean slid back behind the Subaru and started a hot pursuit that would last for the next 30 minutes of intense green flag racing. At the end of it all Dean Fantin and the Amico team had posted the fastest laps of the race but it hadn’t been enough to get by the well driven Subaru of Richard Boake.  

The Amico Racing team heads into the Toronto Indy second place in the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship with a 10 point deficit. Success or failure on the rough streets of Toronto will be dependent on the preparation and hard work that’s put in by the teams over the next week.

Amico Racing is supported by the Labourers Union, Empire Roofing Corporation, Riverview Drywall, Hot Bits Sport Suspensions, Gunk, 8MM Design, Permatex, Anglestar Graphics and many more. For Info go to www.amicoracing.com

PHOTO GALLERY: Kawartha Speedway June 17th & 24th

A Mazda MX-5 On Steroids: Australia’s V8 Engined Bullet Roadster

In the late ‘90s, Australian John Bettini unleashed onto the word the Bullet Roadster. What begin life as a heavily modified Mazda MX-5 with an RX-7 13B powerplant gradually evolved into a V8-engined monster like the one you see here that we found for sale in Queensland, Australia.

According to the seller, this was the fifth Bullet Roadster built and the first V8-engined one to roll out of the company’s then new Chinderah, NSW factory. It’s all hearsay, of course, but I’m willing to believe the words of a 62yo motoring enthusiast with arthritic knees. So here goes...

Bullet No. 5 was a special order from a man named George Covacic who supplied a 4.6-liter all-alloy, fuel injected V8 crate motor along with a Tremac 5-speed manual transmission and the differential from a Holden Commodore SS. Like all Bullet supercars, the brakes and suspension came from the Mazda RX-7.

Read more »

DARPA Selects XC2V to Replace HUMVEEs [with Video)

The trusted HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle), or as the troops (and everyone else) understandably calls it, Humvee, is getting a little long in the tooth, having entered service for the first time in 1984.

So it’s reasonable that DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) started looking for a suitable, and more up-to-date replacement with the Experimental Crowd-derived Combat Support Vehicle project –or, in civilian-speak, “the first crowd-sourced, military relevant vehicle design”.

Read more »