Top 4 at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, Louis-Philippe Dumoulin wants to stay at the Forefront This Saturday at Delaware Speedway - Speedway Digest

The pace of the NASCAR Canada series is picking up again this August with three events in three weekends: the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, the Delaware oval race and the Complexe ICAR in Mirabel. For three-time series champion Louis-Philippe Dumoulin, the GP3R was marked by ups and downs. Driving the #47 WeatherTech Canada | Groupe Bellemare | Omnifab | Somavrac car, Dumoulin saved the essentials: a top-four finish, a lap led in the race and valuable championship points that allowed him to stay fourth, now very close to second place.

“The Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières is always special, with this incredible atmosphere in the grandstands and all these fans who appreciate and know motorsports well. On the track, the event started well for us, with the third fastest time in free practice and then sixth place in the qualifying session. We weren’t able to set up the perfect setup in qualifying, which cost us a few tenths of a second, but that was not a big problem because I knew the #47 WeatherTech Canada | Groupe Bellemare | Omnifab | Somavrac car was really good on long runs, just like we were going to experience in the race,” said Louis-Philippe Dumoulin.

Starting from the third row, Dumoulin was in the lead on lap nine. But shortly after, he was the victim of contact with the #27 car (Andrew Ranger) and had to return to the pits due to a flat tire. “We changed a few settings between qualifying and the race and it turned out to be a good decision because right from the start, I felt that the car was very good and I quickly moved up into the Top 3 and even first,” explained Louis-Philippe, who added: “When I got hit by Ranger’s car, the lineup was messed up.” Usually, we talk about millimeters as adjustments, here I found myself with nearly two inches toe-out. It’s huge but I obviously continued the race while still aiming for the podium.”

Louis-Philippe Dumoulin continued among the leaders before another incident on the penultimate lap of the scheduled distance before overtime. “Alex Guénette had just had a collision and I moved to the outside of turn 2 to avoid him but unfortunately he hit my car. Subsequently, during the next restart, I took third place but I had to give this position back to the #7 car (Raphaël Lessard) because another full course period occurred.” It was finally in green-white-checkered mode, with two laps of racing before the end that the drivers completed the event, Dumoulin this time being blocked by Lessard for the gain of third place. “His car was really slow and he blocked me beyond the limits of sportiness, including on the last straight. My car is very damaged following his maneuvers,” explained Dumoulin, who completed the race in fourth place.

The work awaiting the Dumoulin Compétition team to restore the road circuit car is important but motivation remains high as the #47 WeatherTech Canada | Groupe Bellemare | Omnifab | Somavrac car has shown since the beginning of the season that it is able of competing for the podium in every race, on both oval and road racing tracks. It is on an oval that the next event will take place, this Saturday, at the Delaware Speedway, near London, Ontario. A track opened in 1952 on which Louis-Philippe Dumoulin has already collected three Top 6 finishes since 2017. It was also at Delaware Speedway that he was crowned NASCAR Canada champion for the third time, in 2021. “It’s a very special half-mile track, pleasant to drive. Since the start of the season, we have been performing well on ovals so I am confident of a good result on this track,” he concludes.

LP Dumoulin PR