Andrew Ranger lost the championship point lead after a part failure took him out of race contention at Riverside Speedway in Nova Scotia, but Ranger told OnPitRoad.com that he is still fighting for the title.
Ranger claimed his worst finish of the season at Riverside after finishing 14th, while his championship rival Cayden Lapcevich took the win. The 16 year old’s visit to victory lane in the Maritimes allowed him to gain control of the championship lead by 12 points heading into Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
“At the end, a valve broke in the engine, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” Ranger said. “We’ve had this issue in the past. We are working on it to try to help it. There’s nothing we can do. It’s part of racing. We are coming back here, and we are 12 points behind Lapcevich, so our goal is to try and do well and win the championship.
“I have so much experience now in the series. To lead or to not, it’s not changing my mind. The only thing we want to do here is win, and do well. We’re actually second now, so we’re chasing him. The pressure’s on Lapcevich right now. Nothing is easy in this series.”
Despite now being behind in the championship, Ranger feels as if he’s still in the catbird speed. Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is a track that tends to favour the Quebec driver, and he last visited victory lane at the track in May.
“We wanted to try something different to go faster, but I think we are coming back here with the same setup we had here in May. The engine’s running really good, the car too, so I hope everything goes well,” Ranger said.
Ranger feels especially motivated to take home the title upon seeing the brand new championship trophy as unveiled by Pinty’s on Saturday at CTMP.
“I won the championship in ’07 and ’09,” said Ranger. “When you see a new trophy like that, you definitely want to win it, so I will try everything. The team – they are awesome, they work hard. We are trying really hard to win another one.”
