The second round of the 2014 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Presented by Mobile 1 championship took the tour to the rugged .25 mile oval at Autodrome Chaudiere at Vallee Jonction Quebec, a short drive from Quebec City.
The inaugural Budweiser 300, originally scheduled for Saturday night June 14th, was pushed ahead to Sunday the 15th due to rain.
Canadian IndyCar/NASCAR and SportsCar racer, race winner and former Indianapolis 500 pole sitter Alex Tagliani of Montreal was initially very quick off the start in the # 18 Team EpiPen/Dicom Express/Tagliani Autosport Dodge Challenger. But just past the halfway mark of the race, he got caught in a wreck that damaged the cars’ rear end handling. Later contact with the wall deflated the right side tires requiring a pit stop that put him several laps down.
Tagliani was scored 14th.
“Overall I was very satisfied with the race. The team did a great job! We were fast in qualifying and I did not expect the car to be that quick,” Tagliani remarked.
“We were the fastest car on track in the first 150 laps of the race, but we got tangled up with somebody and the rear axle was pushed out. The car was never the same after that. While pushing hard for the finish, we brushed the wall and that flattened the outside tires and I had to pit. Though we lost a bunch of laps we still finished the race with a few good lessons learned,” Tagliani continued.
“Tag” has one win, four poles and six top 10 finishes in 17 career NCATS starts. The victory was earned at Edmonton City Centre Airport in 2008. His best finish in five career oval starts was seventh at Barrie Speedway, also in 2008.
Alex’s next start in the # 18 Team EpiPen/Dicom Express/Tagliani Autosport Dodge in The NCATS will be Sunday July 6th on the 2.1 mile road course at Circuit ICAR, Mirabel Quebec.
Partnering with Alex in the Tagliani Autosport venture is long time friend and business associate Colin Livingston, President of CanTorque Incorporated of Edmonton Alberta.
Tagliani’s NCATS entry is in partnership as brand ambassador with Pfizer Canada Inc., the Canadian distributor of The EpiPen® epinephrine auto-injector. Alex himself lives and races with a severe allergy to nuts, and carries the allergy awareness/Pfizer/EpiPen message across Canada through his NCATS racing program.
With the goal of getting school children actively involved with Team EpiPen, Tagliani’s “Summer of Tag” school visits coincided with the launch of his Race Car Design Contest and the second edition of the Helmet Design contest. The winning students in each contest receive tickets to a local race, while the helmet with the winning design will be auctioned off at the end of the season to raise funds for Anaphylaxis Canada.
Tagliani Autosport continues to invite fans to go to their www.summeroftag.com website to submit their
car and helmet designs.
To raise additional funds for Anaphylaxis Canada, The Tagliani Foundation is staging a Golf Classic and Gala at Celine’s Le Mirage in Montreal September 30th. For more information on the Foundation: TaglianiFoundation.org
Fans are invited to follow Alex and The Tagliani Autosport Team on Facebook and Twitter all season long: Summeroftag.com Tagliani.com TaglianiAutosport.com
The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series is the only national racing sanction/series in Canada with eleven events from Edmonton, AB to Antigonish, NS from May to September. They race on road courses, street circuits and oval tracks. For more information on the 2014 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, visit: NASCARHometracks.com
