Chase Pinsonneault joined the list of winners in the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Saturday night, taking the $10,000 prize in the Big O Classic 100 at Owosso Speedway.
Pinsonneault traded the lead back and forth with Evan Shotko for the majority of the 100-lap event. With five laps to go, Pinsonneault took the lead from Shotko for the final time and pulled away for the milestone win.
We WON The @CRAracing Big O Classic at @OwossoSpeedway pic.twitter.com/FL3oatRzxa
— Chase Pinsonneault – CHR (@CHR14CP) May 26, 2024
“There’s no better feeling than this,” said Pinsonneault in victory lane. “This is amazing. I’m just so happy to be here. Impossible to describe. The only thing I can say is this group right here, I’m so thankful for these guys. This CHR team, Carson Hocevar Racing Development has been an awesome team and great people to work with.”
The win also serves as redemption for Pinsonneault, who has shown speed at times during his rookie JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour season. Despite that speed, Pinsonneault had a best finish of eighth at Berlin Raceway and two DNFs to start the year.
“The last couple of races haven’t gone our way,” admitted Pinsonneault. “I’ve made some stupid mistakes, but we’ve always been there. Finally, I’m able to capitalize and bring it home. They gave me an awesome piece. I’m just thrilled.
“I knew we had a good piece, Evan had a great piece, too. Awesome guy, awesome racer, I had a blast racing next to him. The team just gave me an amazing piece. It deserves to be here.”
Fellow Canadian Kyle Steckly finished second, also passing Shotko in the closing laps to move up one step on the podium.
“Chase was really fast,” said Steckly. “I’m happy for him. This place is a lot of fun. Thanks to all the fans for coming out. Happy to be here. I think we had a second-place car there. We just needed a bit more turn, but it was a lot of fun.”
Shotko settled for third place, but had plenty of reason to smile after a hard-fought battle in a home-built race car that the 2023 Kulwicki Driver Development Program finalist took “on the road” for the first time.
“Both those two guys in front of me raced me so clean,” said Shotko. “It was a lot of fun racing with them. The car was just a little snug. I used a little bit more brake than I wanted throughout the race. I just started to lose a little brake at the end, so I had to cool them off at the end.
“It’s the first car we ever built. We’ve won a couple of races with it. We weren’t sure what to expect. This was the first time we took it anywhere other than Berlin Raceway. I’m pretty happy with it. We’ve got a couple of bugs to work out but we’ve got a pretty solid piece.”
-Photo credit: Wayne Goodman, Owosso Speedway
BIG O CLASSIC 100 – UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
| FIN | NO | DRIVER | LAPS | DIFF |
| 1 | 14 | Chase Pinsonneault | 100 | — |
| 2 | 22K | Kyle Steckly | 100 | 1.373 |
| 3 | 22S | Evan Shotko | 100 | 1.631 |
| 4 | 5R | Brett Robinson | 100 | 2.417 |
| 5 | 23 | Billy VanMeter | 100 | 2.630 |
| 6 | 79 | Barrett Polhemus | 100 | 2.831 |
| 7 | 45 | Steven Ulman | 100 | 3.582 |
| 8 | 18 | Chase Burda | 100 | 4.527 |
| 9 | 7D | Steve Dorer | 100 | 5.701 |
| 10 | 131 | Blake Rowe | 100 | 6.189 |
| 11 | 12 | Dan Leeck | 100 | 6.995 |
| 12 | 16 | Evan Varney | 100 | 7.636 |
| 13 | 77 | Keegan Sobilo | 100 | 7.926 |
| 14 | 28 | Kevin Cremonesi | 100 | 8.515 |
| 15 | 9B | Tony Brutti | 100 | 10.206 |
| 16 | 20V | Jeff Vrsek | 100 | 10.440 |
| 17 | 5 | Will Sahutske | 100 | 14.640 |
| 18 | 15 | Brian Demland | 97 | 3 Laps |
| 19 | 55 | Charlie Keeven | 96 | 4 Laps |
| 20 | 24 | Dylan Stovall | 86 | 14 Laps |
| 21 | 46 | Cole Williams | 66 | 34 Laps |
| 22 | 7L | David Liaeff | 28 | 72 Laps |
| 23 | 61 | Brandon Varney | 27 | 73 Laps |
| 24 | 3 | Chris Munson | 26 | 74 Laps |
| 25 | 69 | Scott Melton | 26 | 74 Laps |
| 26 | 88 | Carson Lucas | 20 | 80 Laps |
| 27 | 9F | Guy Fire |
