Ron Beauchamp Jr. and the Mopar Parts team arrived for round number six of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal looking forward to the challenging course on Ile Notre Dame. The demanding track would not be their only challenge during the weekend.
Through the first practice sessions the team as always looked to make sure the set up of the car was correct for conditions and seek ways to improve. During the second round of practice Ron Beauchamp Jr. felt a problem with steering at the front end. “I was flying through the back part of the course an all of a sudden the car turned to the right” said the driver. Before qualifying the team worked to make repairs and would also discover another problem. “We decided to change gears for qualifying, and we found there was a problem with a seal at the back end, so we repaired that as well” he said.
With very little practice time and an abbreviated qualifying session Beauchamp would muscle the car to a thirteenth place starting spot on the grid.
Team Mopar worked long and hard to prepare the Mopar Parts Avenger for the 100km main event and according to Crew Chief Chris Couvillion they felt more confident heading into the race. “We made some changes that I think will make us better and give Jr. a good car for the race”.
When the green flag waved Beauchamp was able to gain several positions in the Mopar Parts Dodge. “The car felt better than it did all weekend; Chris and the rest of the guys did a great job working so hard all weekend”. Ron Jr. would maneuver his was into the top-ten of the field in short order. However the frustration theme of the weekend would soon return.
As Beauchamp looked to continue his progress toward the front he first heard and then felt problems under the hood and the Mopar Parts Dodge was soon stopped on course. After being pushed to pit lane the team discovered their problems in the motor were too serious to continue, their day finished on lap 4.
“This weekend was really frustrating for us” said Ron Beauchamp Jr. “The whole team works so hard to prepare these cars, we strip them right down before each event, use the best parts we can get and then to battle so many problems is disappointing. But now we’re taking the approach that the first half of the season is over, and we’re putting that behind us. We’re going to focus on the second half of the season, and we’re hungrier than ever for success”.
| 
|