Pierre Bourque Battles Up To Seventh at Mosport

After starting out the 2008 season by racing in a number of ARCA RE/MAX Series events in the United States, Pierre Bourque returned to his home country this past weekend to take part in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series event at the historic Mosport road course.

Bourque qualified his Whitlock Motorsports Dodge Avenger 20th in the 29 car field.  The race was run under tricky conditions, as it was sunny at the start, but then rain threatened the course for the rest of the afternoon.  Finally with 10 laps to go, the skies opened up and a downpour soaked the racing surface.  Bourque played it cool through it all and got all the way up the fifth position.  He then waited out the rain on his slick tires before finally having to pit for rain rubber during the final caution period of the event. 

After his pit stop, Bourque recovered to finish seventh, but that result didn't

come easy.  Bourque had restarted the race in the 13th position and passed

six cars on the final lap to earn his finish.

“That was exciting,” said Bourque.  “My Whitlock Motorsports Dodge Avenger

ran strong and steady and we quickly began to pick off cars before it rained.

The rain changed the game for us, but the car was still great and we did what

we could out there.  That last green-white-checkered finish was action-packed

and we ended up with a strong finish of seventh.

"I want to thank Dave Whitlock for giving me an excellent race car this

weekend. And I can't say enough about my crew chief Steve Mifsud, an

excellent pit stop tactician, for the brilliant contrarian strategy he used, which

made all the difference at the end of the race."

The starting grid of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race.   (Chris Coughlin/NASCAR Photo)