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Peterborough II: Round 10 preview

Thomson heads to Peterborough with Super Series points lead and a more aggressive attitude following Mosport win LONDON, ON - "I'm going on the offence again this weekend." Those were the words of new CASCAR Super Series points leader Don Thomson ...

Published: Aug 26, 2004, 11:34 PM

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Thomson heads to Peterborough with Super Series points lead and a more aggressive attitude following Mosport win

LONDON, ON - "I'm going on the offence again this weekend." Those were the words of new CASCAR Super Series points leader Don Thomson Jr. as he prepares for Saturday night's 200-lap race at Peterborough Speedway. The Home Hardware Chevy driver is coming off his first race win in two years, last Saturday at Mosport, and he's planning to take the same aggressive approach to the Peterborough event that paid off with a dominant win at Mosport.

"When it came down to our gear selection at Mosport, we made the decision to beat the heck out of the motor rather than go conservative, and it paid off. I'm taking the same approach this weekend at Peterborough. We're not going to just ride around; we're going for it."

To those who watched Don Thomson win his third consecutive CASCAR National title last season, you could tell there was something missing from the equation. The fact that he hadn't won a feature race during his championship run gnawed at the Hamilton, ON racer. If Thomson is able to maintain his narrow points lead over the final three events of the 2004 season, he'll be proud that a victory was part of the successful campaign.

"Obviously it's good to get the monkey off our backs," continued Thomson. "We start the season with the goal of winning championships, but winning the one we did last year without a race victory isn't the way we want to do it. I do like winning races, that's for sure. We've been so close so many times, but it would be scary to figure out how many times we've been second in the past few years."

The Mosport win was special for Thomson for two reasons. First, it came at a track where he came out on the losing end of a memorable race in 2003, during which he and rival Kerry Micks passed the lead back-and-forth 11 times. Second, Thomson took the lead in this year's championship chase at Mosport, from Peter Gibbons, who has led the chase since the season opener at Delaware.

"I was surprised to find out we had the points lead because I wasn't tracking where Peter [Gibbons] or [Dave] Whitlock were," said Thomson. "Our Home Hardware car was pretty good that night and I was able to check out and didn't really have to think about what was going on behind me. It wasn't until after we squirted the champagne that I knew we had the points lead, too. And that's great; that's what we're racing for."

Looking ahead to Saturday night's race at Peterborough Speedway and the championship chase that has been reduced to a three-race battle between himself, Gibbons and Whitlock, Thomson knew it would come down to 'the usual suspects'.

"About four or five races back, I pretty well thought that it would come down to four of us; Kerry [Micks] included for the title. It's a tough battle between guys who have 'been there, done that' and they run up front every week."

NTN Dodge driver Mark Dilley won Dodge Dealers of Ontario 200 at Peterborough Speedway, back in June. Qualifying for this Saturday's Peterborough Speedway 200 starts at 5:30 p.m., with the green flag is scheduled to fly over the feature race at 8:30 p.m.

<pre> PETERBOROUGH SPEEDWAY 200 SCHEDULE: Saturday, August 28, 2004 1:00 p.m. CASCAR Practice 5:30 p.m. CASCAR Super Series Time Trials 7:00 p.m. Driver Autograph Session 8:10 p.m. Driver Introductions 8:25 p.m. Anthems 8:30 p.m. START: PETERBOROUGH SPEEDWAY 200

-cascar-

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