With a schedule spread over the course of three long days, on Saturday morning – prior to the start of New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s New England 100 – the WMT teams readied for the race by running a 40 minute practice session. Following practice, the line-up of WMT drivers participated in an autograph session for the thousands of fans in attendance.

When the cars rolled off of pit road at 1 PM, the No. 90 team staged from the inside of the 6^th row – in the 11th position. Renee had a good start. As planned, she found an opening and moved up into the outside line going down the front stretch. Meanwhile at the front of the pack, a loose oil line caused the No. 36 car to leak oil and puff smoke. When the pack checked-up coming off of turn four, Renee and several other cars got turned around.

As the WMT cars roll off for the start, the crews on pit road ready for action in front of a large crowd.

“Initially, I thought we maybe just got turned around in Teddy’s oil. But, later, we discovered the bottom of my left rear quarter panel had been folded under – so obviously there was some contact there.”

Regardless, Renee rejoined the race toward the rear of the field – riding for a few laps then passing several cars. However, all the effort was for naught, when on just lap 19 Renee suddenly experienced a loss in power under the hood.

“It’s been a devastating year and this just adds to the pain,” Renee lamented. “To come here with such a fast car and to leave with nothing to show for it is just so disappointing for everyone involved. It’s not just this race – it’s the last three. If we were unprepared, it would be easier to deal with. But we come to each race with all of our ducks in a row and inane things have happened: we clearly get wrecked at the Sizzler; the battery shorts out coming to the green for the 100-lapper; now we lose an engine. This is just heartbreaking.”

Because of the string of poor finishes, the team is undecided about the next two races on the WMT schedule. Likely, the team will return to action at Stafford (CT) on Friday, August 7^th.

The UIG contingent shows off the team's snazzy new shirts while watching practice from pit road.

On Wednesday evening the No. 90 team headed to Loudon, New Hampshire’s 1.056-mile superspeedway to prepare for qualifying for the New England 100.

After an early afternoon practice session on Thursday, 39 cars attempted to qualify for the 38-car field.

“We were pretty fast right off the trailer,” recalls Renee. “We were happy with the car – making just a few minor changes during practice. In fact, at one point, we ran down a fast, three car draft from about 12 car lengths – as a single car. That was a pretty good indicator of how fast the car was,” she continued.

Still, the practice transponder times only listed the car respectably mid-pack. So, the team was quite surprised when Dupuis’ first lap posted to the fourth position on the large infield scoring tower. With about a dozen cars remaining during the early evening time trial run, Renee was eventually credited with the 11^th fastest time of the session – earning a starting position just outside of the top-ten.

“We’re all really happy with how the day went today,” reflected Renee. “It’s pretty obvious that this Billy the Kid engine is a strong piece – you just don’t go fast here without some serious horsepower under the hood. Plus, Ed (Bennett) clearly has stepped up our chassis program. With the combination we’ve been fortunate enough to bring here, I’m excited for the race on Saturday.”

The New England 100 is scheduled to go green on Saturday at 1PM. For event and ticket information, please visit NHMS’s official Web site.