OKOTOKS, AB (August 2) – A familiar name returned to the Northern Provincial Pipelines Late Model Series for the first time since September 2006.  Leduc Alberta’s Trevor Emond was filling in for regular NPP Series competitor Kevin Clark at Rocky Mountain Raceway Park Saturday night.  It was almost a perfect night for the three-time NPP Series champion (2003, 04, 05).  Emond drove the Clark Construction #5 Dodge to a Qualifying Heat win, a second place in the ‘A’ Dash and a Feature event win.  “I had fun tonight,” says Emond, “it’s good to be back racing with these guys again.”  The last time Emond competed in an NPP Series race was September 9th 2006 in Edmonton (Heat win/Feature win).  Emond is currently the point leader in the ARCA West Pavement Late Model Series.  Along with Emond’s return to the Series, race fans at Rocky Mountain Raceway Park witnessed history Saturday night.  Local driver Brian McCaughan’s second place finish on his home track gave him the NPP Series point lead.  It’s the first time in the 8 year history of the NPP Series that a rookie driver has lead the points chase.  “Trevor ran a great race,” says the driver of the #42 avenuebuilt.com/Lucas Oil Chevrolet, “he got me on the outside.  I was hoping for some lapped traffic (to get spot back) but that didn’t happen.”  Kevin Wheeler started the Feature in the 13th position and moved through the field to finish third in his KW Mechanical sponsored #3 Dodge.  “We had to run the ‘B’ Dash again tonight,” sighs the Whitecourt, Alberta driver, “that’s three in a row for us now.  We have to get to the ‘A’.  Starting from near the back of the pack in the Feature is getting old.”  The podium finish moved Wheeler from 10th to 9th in NPP points chase.  Dwight Kennedy, who slipped from number one to third in NPP points had one of his most frustrating nights of the season.  “We had carburator problems all night,” says the driver of the Lucas Oil #81 Dodge, “no power on a track where we needed it.”  For the fifth consecutive race, the Edson, Alberta driver ran the ‘B’ Dash event.  “We managed to finish 8th.  The only way we could have finished higher is if there were mistakes made by the other drivers.”  That did not happen.  Just 4 caution flags flew in the 30 lap Feature.  Rounding out the top 5.  Coming off his third place finish in Rimbey last Saturday night (July 26th), Campbell River BC’s Chris Beaulieu finished fourth in the #46 All Weather Window’s Dodge.  Chris Beaulieu was once again filling in for his father, defending season champion Jason Beaulieu, who was racing his Dirt Modified in Elma, Washington.  Despite an ill handling race car, Stony Plain Alberta’s Mike Tom placed 5th in his Hinton Oilfield Service #55 Chevrolet.  Tom moved up one spot to 4th in the NPP Points chase.  Day two of the NPP Shootout weekend at Rocky Mountain Raceway Park just south of Okotoks goes Sunday afternoon.  Racing starts at 4PM.

NPP PIT BITS
– #42 Brian McCaughan had a bit of a scare Saturday night when he was preparing to head out onto the track for hot laps.  Zero oil pressure. Brand new oil filter installed turned out to be defective.
– # 8 Pat Fines lost a tire during hot laps.  Missed his Qualifying heat to repair damage.
-#78 Ken Clark has had his best finishes of the 2008 season at RMRP.  Clark finished 6th Saturday night.  He had a third and an eighth place finish in May.
-#88 Crystal Kennedy has run back to back ‘A’ Dash races after running 5 consecutive ‘B’ Dashes.
-several NPP regulars decided to take the long holiday weekend off.  5 NPP cars had ‘Fill in’ drivers behind the wheel:
#01 Sean Moskal (regular driver: Dan Stewart)
# 4 Rod Wilde (Corry MacDougall)
# 5 Trevor Emond (Kevin Clark)
#14 Brad Purdey (Darrell Midgley)