---

Podium Finish #8

Wayne Helliwell Jr. and the Bruce Bernhardt owned Ekeys-4-Cars, Unique Ford Fusion Team headed north of the border for the first time in 2013; as round #10 of the American Canadian Tour hit the 7/8 mile triangle shaped Sanair Super Speedway in St.-Pie Quebec.

Helliwell fresh off a victory one week earlier, looked to repeat his maiden trip to the big track one year ago and take home another win. That bid for a repeat took a turn in the wrong direction after an issue in his qualifying race.

Passing cars in the heat race was not the problem as he earned a +5 in passing points. A result that should have put the 27NH in the 3rd starting position for the 150-lap event; but a post-race issue on the scales negated his efforts towards the second row starting spot. “It was extremely frustrating,” Helliwell stated. “We changed nothing on the car from pre-race tech to after the heat… All we did was race the car. The guy behind me was disqualified for the same thing, so I’m not sure what was going with the scales… We've never been off before since we started racing in this series.”

Helliwell took his frustration through consolation race to gain the 24th started position for the main event.
Wasting no time at the drop of the green flag Helliwell rocketed from deep in field to 15th in the first 20-laps. When the first caution waved on lap 25, he was just outside the top-10. By lap 40 he was battling for a top-5 position.

At the halfway break Helliwell would line back up for the final 75-laps from the 5th position. Immediately grabbing the 4th spot on the restart and moving into 3rd just a few laps later. A caution on lap 110 would allow him to briefly take the the second spot. Unable to complete the pass on Alex Labbe he would fall back into the 3rd position. A spot he would stay in for the remainder of the event.

The 3rd place finish was his 8th straight podium in American Canadian Tour points paying competition this year. Helliwell was happy with rebound from earlier in the day pleased with the overall outcome. “It was good day… We recovered from the scale problem and were able to take a top-3 today. The car was really good; I just used up too much of my stuff getting to the front. If we were able to start up front and ride I think we had something for them… But overall it was a strong day for us,” Helliwell finished.

With a week before the next scheduled ACT points race the Pelham, NH based Team will not sit back and rest, as they plan to head to both Thompson Speedway and Canaan Fair Speedway for special events at both tracks this coming week.

Thursday night Thompson Speedway will attempt to get in a 40-lap late model special that has been rained out three times this year. Sunday it’s on to Canaan Fair Speedway for the $5,000 to win SUBWAY Fresh Fit 150. An event Helliwell has previously won. “We have a lot of stuff going on.” Helliwell stated. “But this is when we perform our best…”

Next Events
What: Late Model 40
Where: Thompson Speedway – Thompson, CT
When: Thursday August 8, 2013 – 7:00pm

What: $5,000 SUBWAY Fresh Fit 150
Where: Canaan Fair Speedway – Canaan, NH
When: Sunday 11, 2013 – 1:30pm

Bernhardt Motorsport's thanks their proud partners: EKeys-4-Cars • Unique Ford • Bernhardt Automotive • Pro-Turf Landscaping • DTB Tax • C&M Distributing • Butler MacMaster Performance Racing • Carbonneau Insulation Co • IICCEEE • Ford Racing • Schoenfeld Headers • Sunoco Race Fuels • Bassett Wheels • Joes Racing Products • Quarter Master • ARP Bodies • Welded Media • Mangus Transmissions

Follow Wayne:
https://www.waynehelliwelljr.com

https://www.facebook.com/WayneHelliwellJr

https://twitter.com/#!/WayneHelliwell

Follow Welded Media:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Welded-Media/436955476374206

https://twitter.com/WeldedMedia

Eric LaFleche / VLF Photos

---

Article Media

Back to News