Christian Russel picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Tim Hortons Candian Series career in Thursday's Wilson Equipment 300 at the Riverside International Speedway when his #50 Espar Dodge fell out with engine problems after completing 1 of the 30 laps.
The finish came in his 9th career series start. In the SCRL Tim Hortons Candian Series, it's the 1st for car #50 and the 2nd for engine issues. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 10th for the #50 and the 61st for engine issues.
Russel made an instant slash when he made his first appearance in the SCRL by debuting in the then highest SCRL series, the NASCAR Legends Series, and wouldn't disappoint, picking up three career wins(at Atlanta, Darlington and Michigan), and would go on to score the upset and win the Season 4 Championship. Since that time, Russel has been looking to find that magic touch again, but has come up empty, only scoring four more victories since his championship win in 2019.
Russel, who finished 4th in points in IROC VIII the last series the SCRL held, was looking to make his debut in the Canadian Series, as he would drive a full time ride for team owner John Atto. Russel made his at CTMP, a place he would struggle at and finished a disappointing 27th, a 6th place in the next round at Delaware and a 8th at CTMP Oval kept the team's momentum up as they would struggle on the season's second road course of the season, Circuit ICAR, where Russel finished 22nd. Russel would not give up as he would finish runner up to Noelle Holiday at Motoplex, 12th at Auto Clearing, finishing runner up again this time to Brandon Mayhew at St. Eustache before finally having a good run on the road course at Trois-Rivieres, finishing 4th.
The entry list for the sixth time this season would be 20 as only the full time drivers would be competing with the part-time drivers not scheduled to return for one final time at CTMP in the next event.
In qualifying, Russel would impressive, scoring his first career series pole, posting a time of 15.266 seconds. Starting last in the race was the #14 Steel-Craft Door Products Chevrolet of Brian Fox, who posted the slowest time of 15.560, 0.294 seconds behind Russel's pole winning time.
When Thursday's race started, the #47 WeatherTech Canada / Bellemare of Cameron Hathaway, who was going to start 14th, forfeited his original starting spot and pulled to the rear of the field on the pace lap due to unapproved adjustments.
When the green flag waved, Hathaway would trail for two turns and a backstretch, when leader Russel suddenly pulled to the inside of the track and onto pit road, reporting of no fuel pressure as he pulled into his pit stall. The crew would look under the hood and over the car, finding out that there was in fact a fuel leak, as the team worked all race long to try and get their driver back out on track, but they never made it, with Russel's car sitting in the stall for the entire race, having scored completing one lap, but the officials bizarrely reporting that Russel in fact trailed due to a blown engine, as was shown in the results, despite the team and information on screen saying other wise.
The remaining Bottom Five would finish on the same lap as the race leaders: 19th was the #09 Lake Excavating / Marshall's Dodge of Omar Gutierrez, 18th was the aforementioned #47 of Cameron Hathaway, 17th was the #8 Canada's Best Store Fixtures Dodge of Boston Jones and 16th was CTMP Oval last-place finisher the #52 Best Buy Pieces d'Auto Dodge of Noelle Holiday.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #50 has finished last in the SCRL Tim Hortons Candian Series as well at Riverside.
*This is only other time a driver has trailed due to "engine" issues was in the Season 2 Wahta Springs 300 at the Barrie Speedway when Sylas Nixey's #23 Tim Hortons Dodge fell out with engine problems after completing 3 of the 30 laps; 11 races ago.
*This was the first time the #50 has finished last in the SCRL Tim Hortons Candian Series as well at Riverside.
*This is only other time a driver has trailed due to "engine" issues was in the Season 2 Wahta Springs 300 at the Barrie Speedway when Sylas Nixey's #23 Tim Hortons Dodge fell out with engine problems after completing 3 of the 30 laps; 11 races ago.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
20) #50-Christian Russel / 1 lap / engine
19) #09-Omar Gutierrez / 30 laps / running
18) #47-Cameron Hathaway / 30 laps / running
17) #8-Boston Jones / 30 laps / running
16) #52-Noelle Holiday / 30 laps / running
20) #50-Christian Russel / 1 lap / engine
19) #09-Omar Gutierrez / 30 laps / running
18) #47-Cameron Hathaway / 30 laps / running
17) #8-Boston Jones / 30 laps / running
16) #52-Noelle Holiday / 30 laps / running
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