Vancouver: Race report

Jeff Lapcevich wins the Canadian Tire 100 CASCAR race at the Vancouver Indy.

VANCOUVER, BC - Until two weeks ago, prior to the Toronto Indy, Jeff Lapcevich had never won a CASCAR Super Series race. But following today's win in the Canadian Tire 100 at the Vancouver Molson Indy, the Caistor Centre, ON racer has a pair of CASCAR checkered flags to his credit.

The Tim Horton's Chevy driver started on the pole and led all 35 laps around the 12-turn temporary street course circuit at Vancouver's Concord Pacific Place circuit. In doing so, Lapcevich swept both Indy events on the 2003 CASCAR schedule.

By lap 18 of the 35-lap race, Lapcevich had stretched out a lead of 12.6 seconds over Kerry Micks, who was followed by Don Thomson Jr. But the race's only full-course caution bunched the field, thereby erasing Lapcevich's commanding lead.

Simultaneously, Lapcevich lost the power steering on his Tim Horton's car, which forced him to take it easier over the rumble strips. But even those setbacks weren't enough to keep him from quickly re-establishing a lead of three seconds, by lap 30.

Over the closing laps, Lapcevich maintained his composure and was never challenged on his way to the checkered flag. He came home 2.297 seconds ahead of Micks' UFCW Taurus.

"Losing the big lead to the caution wasn't that big a deal, but I was worried about losing my power steering," said Lapcevich, after the race. "I didn't know if I was going to be able to drive the car once it went back to green. For a while, I actually thought I had a right-front tire going down."

Don Thomson Jr. had been engaged in a close battle with Micks for much of the race, but the Home Hardware car got tighter as the race wore on, and Thomson gave up the chase and settled for third.

Micks and Thomson are the prime combatants for the CASCAR Super Series championship and based on their 'two-three' finish in the Canadian Tire 100, Micks has re-taken the lead by just two points over Thomson. The two have exchanged the top spot in the championship in each of the past three events.

Jeff Lapcevich's brother Jim finished fourth, ahead of the top finishing western Canadian racer in the field, Kevin Dowler of Edmonton, AB.

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