Ashley Finds Touring Car Competition Busy And Interesting

June 8 2007: Ashley returned to competitive racing last weekend, driving the Barbie at Wal*Mart Super Touring Car in the Canadian Touring Car Championship at Shannonville Motorsports Park. Ashley qualified the car and ran the first race before handing the to team mate Jordan Marrison who ran the final. Here are Ashley's recollections from the weekend.

Friday (Test Day)
The Shannonville track can be configured several ways and the set up last weekend was new to me. The crew had a good setup on the Barbie at Wal*Mart car and after just a handful of laps, I was comfortable and running the same lap times as Jordan.

After a productive morning, the car refused to start in the afternoon and our practice came to a halt. The problem was traced to the fuel pump regulator, but we didn't have a replacement in our parts supply and had to start phoning around. Until we had a new part, our car would stay parked.

Saturday (Qualifying and Race One)
A replacement fuel pump regulator was found and, thanks to the hard-working Vertex Fabworx crew, we were ready to go in the morning. When I went out for practice i had a big surprise on the first lap. As I sped toward a corner, three cars spun right in front of me and as I started braking, I felt the back of the car break loose. I tried to save it, but realized I was going for a spin. It turned out there was oil on the track, but there was no warning flag so it took us all by surprise. Fortunately, none of the cars touched, but back up the track there were more cars coming fast: seven of them, in fact, and I just hoped they didn't hit me. They all missed. Back in the pits, the crew wondered where I had disappeared to as that corner isn't visible from the pits and I had a laugh telling them what had just happened.

Qualifying was uneventful and I was eleventh - not bad.

The race was very busy and interesting. There were 55 cars in the race, 20 of them in my class (Super Touring), and the start of the race was nothing like I'd experienced before. Going into the second corner everyone was bunched together and running two or three wide. I had someone pass me by driving across the grass inside the corner - I was going to have to make some adjustments to race with these boys! After making a couple of passes, I found myself following a car that I could catch in the corners, only to fall back on the straights as my car sometimes stumbled under acceleration.

There was lots of action, passing back and forth. It was pretty exciting. On four occasions a car ahead of me went off the track, only to come back full throttle, in a cloud of dust, dragging dirt onto the track and not entirely in control. I managed to avoid each of them, though sometimes it wasn't easy.

The race ended one lap early because a car caught fire and the red flags came out, but I was happy. I drove very well, finishing fourteenth in class, and pushed all the way to the end, setting up for another pass even as the race ended.

Racing toouring cars wasn't like I expected. There's lot's going on and it's really competitive - a little on the carzy side and a lot of fun. I learned you have to be very aggressive if you want to make a pass stick.

Sunday (Race Two)
On Sunday, I dashed back to Toronto for a Wal*Mart appearance with the Barbie Stock Car. Jordan ran the final, starting fourteenth (where I finished) and climbing up to take tenth in class. Nice work, Jordan!

Vertex Fabworx did a great job preparing the car and worked hard to fix it quickly. Despite some interesting moments, Open Road BMW in Newmarket won't have any bodywork or touch-ups to do.

Thanks to all my fans and sponsors for all the support you've given me. You'll be happy to hear I've been invited to race at Calabogie, July 28-29 (three weeks after the Grand Prix of Toronto). I hear it's a great track with 26 corners, elevation changes and some off-camber turns. Sounds like fun! I'm sure there'll be lots of excitement there. In the meantime, I have to get ready for my first stock car race on June 16 at Mosport.