FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 4, 2006

Alguire Wins First Career CASCAR Sportsman Feature at Barrie

(Barrie, Ontario) - Mike Alguire and his Cimeron Farms / A-Dor Construction / Huntington Motorsports Pontiac Grand Prix were back in action on Canada Day weekend for round two of the CASCAR Sportsman Series championship, the MOPAR 100 at Barrie Speedway. Alguire was coming off a second-place finish in the opening round and looking to keep himself in the championship hunt on the tight 3/10th-mile layout.

The Sportsman event was a one-day show on Sunday and the teams started with a practice session, followed by qualifying. When time trials had wrapped up, Alguire was fourth on the speed chart, and would roll off from the outside of row two for the 100-lap main event. "We've been struggling all day to get the car to turn in the middle of the corners, so we threw a bunch of stuff at the car for the feature. After qualifying, we took some sway bar out, made a stagger change, and a panhard bar adjustment. Hopefully we went the right way and we're set for the feature."

When the green came out in the feature, Alguire fell into line in fourth, trailing pole-sitter Ron Lethbridge, 2005 series champion Dion Verhoeven, and Shawn McGlynn. Early in the race Verhoeven was able to challenge McGlynn for second, and with the bottom lane open, Mike dove his Pontiac down low as well and moved by McGlynn as well. It was a wild pass as Alguire was tapped by Steve Munro from behind while making a move on Verhoeven. All three drivers kept control, and Mike was able to gain third position.

Alguire continued on his hunt, pressuring Verhoeven. The history of the pair is long, dating back to when they both competed for Street Stock glory at Delaware Speedway, and they put on a show. Mike continued to pop his nose to the bottom, and Verhoeven continued without making a mistake until the # 32 machine got a run out of two and swept by Dion heading into turn three on lap 19.

Lethbridge had built up a one second lead, but as the pair worked lapped traffic, Mike closed in on him, catching up about 20 laps after taking second, but on lap 39 the race changed again. Lethbridge's car slowed out of turn four, as he dove to the bottom, and Mike's black Pontiac streaked by on the high side to take the lead.

Alguire showed just how well the changes to his mount worked during a later restart as he walked away from the rest of the field, lapping cars and leaving less cars on the lead circuit. But he could only watch as a late yellow flag put Verhoeven on his bumper for the final run to the finish.

When the green was unfurled again, Alguire's car wasn't as good as it was before the yellow, and he had his hands full with Verhoeven. A couple of times Dion would challenge off turn two, but Mike was able to hold him off down the backstretch and had a tremendous car getting through turns three and four, as he raced to the checkered flag, and his first career victory in CASCAR competition. "It's been a long time," said a relieved Mike after the win. "We won a final qualifier at Delaware with the Super Series a few years ago, but our last feature win was in Street Stock in 1998."

"Our car changed a bit during the race, and I sure didn't want to see that last yellow. I think we proved how good we were when I was able to catch up to Ron in lapped traffic, but near the end the car would push a bit through one and two and then get loose coming off. We were better in the middle of the race, but still good enough at the end."

Alguire was also quick to share the credit for the victory with a number of others, "My guys have stuck with me through everything, and I can't thank them enough, my Dad, John, my entire family and all my sponsors. I also have to give Brad Graham and his guys some thanks for helping us out with the car before the feature. They helped us with the setup after qualifying and the car cut so well through the corners in the feature. I guess it helps to have good friends. I also have to congratulate Dion. We had some contact, but he raced me clean and I think we put on a pretty good show at the end of the race - I know it was real exciting from where I was sitting."

1. Mike Alguire, 2. Verhoeven, 3. McGlynn, 4. Munro, 5. Cole Weber.

Points Standings (after two of five events) - 1. Verhoeven (165 points), 2. Mike Alguire (164), 3. Munro (154).

The next event for Mike and the Huntington Motorsports Team will be round three of the championship, Saturday, August 19th at Barrie Speedway. "Of course, we'll be looking forward to Barrie for the next race, especially after we won this weekend. I don't think we'll have to change too much. Barrie is a fun place to race for me, and while Delaware is my home track, I went to school up here at Georgian, so we have a lot of fans in the area. They've done a good job repaving the track, and hopefully in a few more weeks we can make it two in a row at Barrie."

For more information on Mike Alguire and his Huntington Motorsports team, CASCAR, or Barrie Speedway, please visit www.mikealguire.com, www.cascar.ca, or www.barriespeedway.com or e-mail maudsleymotorsports@sympatico.ca

For more information about A-Dor Construction, please e-mail a-dor@sympatico.ca.