Napieralski slowed by early exit at CTMP

May 26, 2014

Canadian Tire Motorsports Park was a big bump in the road for Todd Napieralski and his #39 Camaro team. They had won at Road Atlanta the weekend before and jumped to the top of championship points chart. A solid performance at CTMP would have really set Todd up for the next stretch of races that feature his regional race tracks at Road America and Mid Ohio.

Instead, he ended up with a mechanical failure and an early DNF that makes his season a lot more complicated.

"It definitely hurts losing the points, but it will make us work harder and be more prepared. Racing production vehicles demands preventative replacements on lots of things and we've got an amendment to make on our list. That's for sure.", Todd said after the race.

The culprit was a pulley tensioner. The serpentine belt came off the front of the engine early in the race and a replacement belt came off less than a lap after the 39 car left the pit lane. This sudden problem derailed what had started out as a fast event for Napieralski.

"We were much closer off the trailer. We had struggled a bit in the past getting up to speed at new tracks. We put more effort into our setup and qualified on the front row with a great race car.", Napieralski commented.

The race started off nicely also. "We had a great start, beating Ernie(Francis, JR.) to turn 1. The car held great on the outside.", Todd says. Napieralski held the lead til the belt came off and he had to come to pit lane. It could be that the bonus points earned in this race for qualifying and leading laps will be critical at the end of the season.

His points problem is complicated by the fact that he has a sponsor conflict to race in Detroit and will be forced to miss the New Jersey Motorsports Park event before returning to Trans Am at Road America. "We will be racing in our hometown of Detroit. Our primary sponsor, TREMEC, is celebrating it's 50th anniversary. We look forward to returning to TA at Road America.”