Zachary Fitzwater picked up the 2nd last place finish of his SCRL Tim Hortons Candian Series career in the Season 3 Pinty's Presents the Vortex 200 at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park when his #4 unsponsored Fitzpatrick Motorsports Chevrolet completed all 10 laps under power.
The finish, which came in his 13th career series start, was his first on the circuit since the Season 1 Grand Prix ICAR at Circuit ICAR when his #84 Schick Hydro Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car crash after 4 of the 6 laps, 23 races ago. In the SCRL Tim Hortons Candian Series, it's the 1st for car #4 and the 9th for running at the finish. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 15th for the #4 and the 322nd for running at the finish.
Fitzwater is a first ballot Hall of Famer when it comes time when he hangs up his goggles and helmet, 14 career wins and four career championships, second only to Chakat Whitelion. But the Candian Series hasn't exactly been a overly successful series for Fitzwater, while he was the first driver to win at CTMP when the series was rebranded, Fitzwater has only 2 Top 5's, 4 Top 10's and 22 laps led in the twelve previous races he competed in Season 1, a year in which he finished 18th in points. After choosing to not compete in the second season, Fitzwater has decided to come back and drive for the same team, but changing the number to fit his amount of titles he now has, with hopes of a possible fifth championship.
The field for the third ever season would be the biggest yet at thirty three drivers signed up to compete in a twelve race schedule, the first in over nine hundred days in which the SCRL last competed in Canada. Of the 33 drivers, 24 would be rookies in the Canadian Series, with half of those making their entire league debut.
In qualifying, Weller Hills would make a huge impact, scoring his first career pole, posting a time of 82.545 seconds. Fitzwater would struggle around the 2.459 mile road course, posting a time of 82.972, while 0.427 seconds off Hills's time, it would place Fitzwater 24th on the grid. Starting last in the race was the #47 WeatherTech Canada / Bellemare of Cameron Hathaway, who posted a time of 83.526, 0.981 seconds behind Hills's pole winning time.
When the race started, Hathaway would struggle for the first few laps around the track as it was his first time he'd ever raced at it in the SCRL, but after trailing for three laps he knocked the #02 Leland / BDI / Dickies Ford of Morton Gray into the final spot on Lap 4. Gray, who was making his first ever SCRL start, was also struggling to find any grip around the ten turn road course, as he would remain in the final position for four laps before he would pass Fitzwater, who was also finding it hard to pass any cars. With Fitzwater back to last, he would struggle over the remaining laps to gain any momentum, and would finish almost a full twenty seconds behind the race leaders when the checkered flag waved.
The remaining Bottom Five were: 32nd was the #67 LubeSource / Thorsons EVT Chevrolet of Samet Ozkan, 31st was the aforementioned #02 of Morton Gray, 30th was the #29 La Cite De Mirabel Inc. Dodge of Roger James and 29th was the #47 of Cameron Hathaway.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #4 has finished last in the SCRL Tim Hortons Candian Series as well at CTMP.
*This was the first time the #4 has finished last in the SCRL Tim Hortons Candian Series as well at CTMP.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
33) #4-Zachary Fitzwater / 10 laps / running
32) #67-Samet Ozkan / 10 laps / running
31) #02-Morton Gray / 10 laps / running
30) #29-Roger James / 10 laps / running
29) #47-Cameron Hathaway / 10 laps / running
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