As family and friends cheered, World Speed drivers J.F. Veilleux and Marc-Antoine Camirand finished in the top ten in front of a hometown crowd on the streets of Trois-Rivieres for the Player’s Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres, round eight of the CART Toyota Atlantic Championship.
“This was a great finish for me here in my native province of Quebec. It would have been nice to start further up on the grid, but I was able to move up throughout the race,” said Veilleux, who was in the 14th position on the starting gird. “We had some problems yesterday during qualifying so we had to do an engine swap last night. I think that really helped us move up.”
When the green flag dropped this afternoon, Camirand and Veilleux were side by side on the starting grid in the 13th and 14th positions, but it didn’t take long for the teammates to move up to 10th and 11th where the World Speed duo stayed for the first fifteen laps until the first yellow flag. After four laps under caution the green flag re-appeared and Camirand began his battle with T.J. Bell (#55, Michael Shank Racing) for the 9th position. While Camirand was trying to gain a position on Bell, Veilleux was trying to gain a spot on Camirand. On lap 22, about halfway through the race Camirand starting having mechanical problems. “I had a problem with the car halfway through the race, when the car started to misfire and I lost horsepower. I was fine in the corners, but lost time on the straight-aways,” said Camirand, who was running as high as fourth in the warm-up session this morning with a time of 1:01.738, his quickest time of the day.
Camirand, a native of the Trois-Rivieres area, made his Atlantic debut with the World Speed team this weekend. Currently, Camirand is running a full season of U.S. F2000 with the Key Motorsports team wherein he captured the checkered flag in yesterday’s U.S. F2000 race dominating the F2000 race two consecutive years here in Trois-Rivieres. As Camirand was losing a couple of positions, Veilleux was moving up to stay in the hunt, “I just kept chasing and chasing trying to gain several spots
and finally, with only five laps remaining I passed T.J. for seventh. We had a couple of full course yellow flags which helped us out,” said Vellieux.
Veilleux, who raced in Trois-Rivieres last year finishing eighth while driving for the P-1 Atlantic team, was invited by Team Owner Chuck West to join the World Speed Motorsports team for two of the Atlantic series Canadian races. Just a few weeks ago Veilleux finished sixth at the Molson Indy in Toronto. “I jumped on board with the team for two races and without any testing, so I think we’ve done well together. We have had two top ten finishes. This is a wonderful opportunity for me and I’m very thankful to Chuck and to my sponsor Rick Waddell of Northwest SpeedWerx.” said Veilluex. “I also want to thank my local sponsors here in Quebec, Planters Corporation and Comptant. Without them this would not have been possible.”
Both Camirand and Veilleux are looking ahead to next year, both drivers are hoping to run a full season in the Atlantic series. “I want to thank Chuck for giving me this opportunity. The guys did a great job and I appreciate all of their hard work. I was aiming for top ten, and that is where we finished. I think I will be ready to run in the Atlantic series next year,” said Camirand. “Also, thank you to all of my family and friends for their support.”
Today’s race winner is Buddy Rice (DSTP Motorsports), followed by Dan Wheldon (PPI Motorsports) and Alex Gurney (All America Racers).The Player’s Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres will be televised on RDS, Sunday August 6 at 1:00 p.m. and on CTV Monday, August 7 at 7:00 p.m. (Ontario & Pacific regions), Tuesday, August 8 at 7:00 p.m. (Eastern and Western Canadian regions). ESPN2 and ESPN International will televise the race, Saturday, August 12 at 1:00 p.m. All times are Eastern.
Round nine of the 12-race CART Toyota Atlantic Championship season takes place at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 20 for the Motorola 220, part of the CART FedEx Championship weekend. Akihiro Asai will re-join the World Speed team as the driver OF the #15 World Speed Motorsports – ProStaff/Walker Racing Swift.