Monday, September 14, 2009

VIDEO: Laperle's Impressive Foliage Drive

Fall Foliage 300 weekend coverage by Vermont Motorsports Magazine

Patrick Laperle won the ACT Late Model Tour Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Fall Foliage 300 at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y. on Sunday afternoon, using an exciting -- if somewhat unplanned -- pit strategy to take his third career Foliage victory. VMM will have full recaps of the Fall Foliage 300 on Monday. This series of videos highlights the St-Denis, Qué. driver's impressive outing.

The first clip shows Laperle (#91) battling for the lead with countryman Karl Allard (#48) just before the halfway point of the race, with Brent Dragon (#55) and Brian Hoar (#37) enjoying a tight battle for third place. And no, these aren't pace laps, the racing was side-by-side for much of the day.

The second clip shows Laperle's pit stop for fuel and right-side tires under caution on lap 248, dropping him from third place to seventh, the final car on the lead lap at the time. Laperle nearly fell victim to several long green-flag runs that emtpied his gas tank; as Laperle pulled alongside the pace car before entering the pits, the car began to sputter. As he arrived at his pit stall, Laperle's car was silent, out of fuel.

The final clip shows Laperle blasting by Hoar and Dragon to get back into the lead on lap 258, just ten laps after pitting, and only two laps after a restart that lined him up fourth behind Hoar, Dragon, and Scott Payea (#89). He went on to beat Hoar for the win. Dragon finished third, John Donahue fourth, and Payea fifth.

(Videos by Justin St. Louis/VMM)

No comments: