Pierre Bourque Thursday report

CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR FOR PIERRE BOURQUE AT TALLADEGA

TALLADEGA, Ala (Friday October 6, 2006) -- Pierre Bourque's bid to make his ARCA RE/MAX Series restrictor plate debut came up short after the Ottawa, Ontario native was shoved out of the starting grid in one of the most competitive fields of the 2006 season.

Hopes were high for Bourque heading into the 2.666 newly repaved superspeedway. In the open test session last week, Bourque impressed many on the circuit with a 12th fastest effort. The plan was to back up his performance Thursday.

In the first and only practice of the day, bad luck struck the No. 1 Driving.Ca-Canada.com-Working.Com-Dose.Ca Ford. A rear tire on the machine blew sending Bourque for a 180 mph loop-de-loop between turns one and two. Bourque masterfully kept his machine off the wall, but the force of the blown tire caused damage to the quarter panel and wheel well.

Bourque ended up 38th on the sheets with a time of 52.144 seconds or 183.645 mph. The team had hoped to maneuver a fast lap in qualifying that would put them in the Food World 250. Unfortunately, Bourque could only post the 38th fastest time in time trials. With no provisionals to fall back on, Bourque had to put an early end to his week.

"It's a shame that we won't be in the Food World 250," said a dejected Bourque. "I'm not really sure what happened from the test to this week, but we just didn't have the speed. On a track like Talladega, it's all about speed. I thank my Fast Track Racing team for putting a car together; we'll just pick up the pieces and prepare for the next race."

-credit: br