Posted (08/05/2001) -
Practice and Qualifying
With just three drivers and three cars for the two practice sessions and qualifying, it was assured that the USFilter Planet Earth Motorsports drivers would get a sufficient amount of track time at the demanding Trois-Rivières street circuit.
Driving for the team this weekend were the Nonnamaker Brothers, Will and Wayne, as well as Bill Pate, who founded the team in 1983.
In qualifying, Pate put the #43 Comptech Sport Acura Integra GS-R into second place early in the qualifying session. Wayne Nonnamaker, who was qualifying the #41 Comptech Sport Acura Integra didn't get a clean lap until the last lap of qualifying, and on that lap Nonnamaker moved into second place on the grid. Nonnamaker was three tenths off the pole, and Pate was five tenths.
The Race
Coming into the race, the USFilter Planet Earth Motorsports was in a fierce points battle with the factory Honda Civic HART effort comprised of factory engineers. Planet Earth driver Will Nonnamaker sat seven points ahead of HART driver, sports car standout Pete Halsmer.
For the race, the team enlisted the services of Frank del Vecchio to start the #42 Orison Marketing LLC Acura Integra GS-R at the back of the pack. Frank's job was to drive conservatively, and if something were to happen to the #43 or #41 machines, the #42 Integra would be available for Will Nonnamaker to drive.
After about fifteen minutes into the race, the #41 Comptech Sport Integra GS-R was involved in an incident on the track that broke its right front control arm. Even though the crew did a expedient job of fixing the broken part, the car was laps down and out of contention. This left the battle to be fought by Bill Pate, who started the #43 Comptech Sport Acura Integra, and del Vecchio in the #42 Orison Integra.
A little over ninety minutes into the 2 1/2 hour race, Will Nonnamaker got in the #43 Comptech Integra and came out of the pits just twenty seconds behind the leader in class, a factory backed Hyundai effort. Just moments after Nonnamaker took over, the Hyundai lost brakes on their Tiburon, and Nonnamaker enjoyed a one lap lead over second.
Running in second was the #42 Orison Integra. Wayne Nonnamaker got in the car, relieving del Vecchio, and drove the car home to a second place finish.
For Pate, it marked his first win since Road Atlanta in 1998 when he dueled to a 0.014 second margin of victory. The win was his eighteenth win in professional street stock endurance racing, moving him up to sixteenth on the all time win list. For Will Nonnamaker, it was his seventh career victory, and fifth this season.
As for the factory Honda team, they had several difficulties on their cars, and they ended up with a best finish of seventh. This left the USFilter Planet Earth Motorsports team with a strong lead in the Team, Drivers, and Manufacturer's Championship with just one race remaining.
The next race for the USFilter Planet Earth Motorsports effort will be on September 15-17 at Daytona International Speedway as the season concludes with a six hour endurance sprint to the Championship.
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