Grimsby teen shows poise in NASCAR event

Grimsby, Ontario – Cayden Lapcevich entered the Ecko Unlimited 100 at Circuit ICAR in Mirabel, Quebec, as the youngest championship leader in NASCAR Pinty’s Series history. The 16-year-old Grimsby racer had never turned a lap on the unique 3.4 kilometre road course.

The young phenom earned an impressive eighth place finish after qualifying deep in the field of talented drivers.

“We have to be happy with our result,” said Lapcevich. “We got a little faster every time on the track, and this competition is stiff. We’ll move on to Toronto in two weeks and hope for more improvement.”

Lapcevich watched video of previous ICAR events to help learn the tricky 16-turn circuit carved out of the former Mirabel Airport. When the green flag flew Sunday afternoon he still hadn’t turned more than 10 laps on the race track.

The excitement came quickly for Lapcevich. An incident in turn one forced him to come to a complete stop on the race track. By the time he was able to continue he was all the way back to 22nd position forced to battle back.

“It was a quick learning curve,” said Lapcevich. “I battled hard to overcome the problem at the start. I got near the top 10, and the late-race caution flag helped me a lot. I was able to pick up a couple more spots and stay clean to finish eighth. We’ll take it.”

In the closing stages his lap times equalled those of the race leaders, and the team is satisfied with the performance.

Lapcevich led multi-time series champion Andrew Ranger by six points going into Sunday’s event. Ranger won and led the most laps, so after four races of the 12-race schedule Lapcevich now trails Ranger by six points.

The next race on the schedule is the Pinty’s Grand Prix of Toronto as part of Toronto’s Honda Indy event on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds near Lake Ontario. It’s another race track where Lapcevich has no prior experience.

“I have to focus on doing my best and improving every time on the track,” said Lapcevich. “The points will work themselves out. I am hoping with our early season success we will find some marketing help to run the entire schedule.”