FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2011

Jamie Cox Qualifies #1 for Great Canadian 200 – Brings Home Top-Five

(Dorchester, ON) – Saturday May 21st, Delaware Speedway ran their 31st annual ‘Great Canadian 200’, and Jamie Cox and his RCR Racing Team were on hand for the competition in their Stubbs Communications / London City Chrysler / CANUSA / Total Lubricants / Stubbs Communications Dodge Charger NASCAR Late Model.

The day started with practice, and Cox was able to run competitive laps, before stepping it up for his time trail run.  Jamie laid down a time of 19.260 seconds on his first lap to put a competitive number on the board before scorching the half-mile on his second lap with a time of 19.068 seconds.  A tense Cox watched the scoreboard while the last few qualifiers tried to topple his pole winning run, but all coming up short.  “That was a little tense, because there were still some good cars to go,” explained Jamie.  He was able to earn a $500 bonus for turning the fastest time of the session.  “I tried to be smooth, and knew that I had a decent first lap, so on the second lap I just tried to drive it a little harder.  I knew it the second lap was fast, but we didn’t hook the radios up for qualifying, so I didn’t know how good it was until I pulled in the infield and saw the guys jumping up and down.”

The field would be inverted for the start of the event, and Cox rolled ‘six’ on the dice, relegating him to a sixth-place starting position for the Great Canadian 200.  The team had a game plan for the 200 gruelling laps around the trick ½-mile.  “I wanted to stay out of trouble and have something left for the end.  Our car went away from us early, and we started falling back.  There were a few times that I just gave up positions to guys that were faster than us.”
By the time the yellow flag flew for the halftime break, Cox was in 11th and in danger of going down a lap to the leaders.  He brought the #22 to pit road for the five-minute halftime break, but the crew elected to save the fresh tires for later in the event, while a lot of other teams were strapping on fresh right side rubber.  “That was a strategy that we spoke about earlier in the day, and we thought we would be in better shape by having tires that were fresher then everyone else at the end of the race.”
Jamie climbed as high as eighth when the racing action resumed before the yellow flag presented the opportunity the team had hoped for.  Cox came to the attention of the RCR Racing Team, who changed right side tires on the Dodge and returned him to action.  After restarted at the back of the lead lap cars, Jamie picked his way through the field, and by a lap 150 yellow flag was back inside the top-five, and trailing just Andrew Gresel, John Urlin, Mark Watson, and Matt Pritiko, with Shawn Thompson on his tail.
Contact between Pritiko and Watson ended Mark’s afternoon on lap 193 and pushed Cox up one position on the leader board, but a furious scramble during the last few circuits saw Urlin get a flat tire, and Thomson find his way around Cox, but the net results was a solid fourth-place finish for the #22 machine.  Cox spoke about the teams’ strategy, and how it played out, “I think that call for us to take the tires later than everyone else helped us a bit, but not enough.  I just wish our car was working a little better, but we were still able to get a solid finish out of today.  This was the first big race for our team, and we’re pleased with winning the pole and finishing fourth.”

Gresel and Urlin fought for the win late, but Urlin cut a tire down in the closing laps, elimination him from a chance at winning.  Pritiko and Thompson got past, and finished second and third to Gresel.

1. Gresel, 2. Pritiko, 3. Thompson, 4. Jamie Cox, 5. Jesse Kennedy.

The next event for the RCR Team will be this Saturday, May 28th for the first of three ‘Triple Crown’ events at Flamboro Speedway.

For more information on CANUSA, APC, Total Lubricants, Stubbs Communications, London City Chrysler, Delaware Speedway, or Flamboro Speedway, please visit www.canusa.on.ca, www.total-us.com, www.stubbsco.com, www.londoncitychrysler.com www.delwarespeedway.com, www.flamborospeedway.ca, or contact Luke Ramsay at (519) 268-7070.
Release and photos by www.maudsleymotorsports.com.