It came down to the final race of the Atlantic Regional Driving Championship at Red Shores Racetrack & Casino at Charlottetown Driving Park on Saturday afternoon to determine the winners. Ken Arsenault catapulted himself from fifth to first with a win in the final leg to punch his ticket to the 2011 National Driving Championship
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Arsenault, hailing from P.E.I., topped off a consistent afternoon with the wire-to-wire victory aboard Babes Gold in the final leg. He also recorded three seconds and one third-place finish during the nine-race competition.
“For the last three weeks I’ve been looking forward to this [the Atlantic Regionals],” said Arsenault after his victory. “You have great guys driving. They give their horses a shot to win and it’s good for the bettors.”
Advancing to the nationals, Arsenault indicated that it means the world to him to represent his home province.
“To represent P.E.I., that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
A pair of victories helped Barrieau, a former Canadian Driving Champion, earn enough points to advance as well. He won the second leg of the competition with Erwins Xample in wire-to-wire fashion and the sixth leg aboard a rallying Elm Grove Elvis. He and fellow New Brunswick representative Todd Trites were sitting one-two going into the final leg, and Barrieau managed to edge out Trites for fourth place to secure his spot in the NDC.
“It will be nice to be there again,” said Barrieau during the drivers presentation.
Arsenault and Barrieau will advance to the 2011 National Driving Championship, presented by RDMD Refrigeration, scheduled for Saturday, May 7 at Red Shores Racetrack & Casino at Charlottetown Driving Park. The winner of the NDC will represent Canada in the 2011 World Driving Championship hosted by the United States from July 31 to August 5.
The point total at the conclusion of the event is as follows.
Rank – Driver (Region) – Points
1. Ken Arsenault (P.E.I.) – 67
2. Gilles Barrieau (New Brunswick) – 65
3. Todd Trites (New Brunswick) – 63
4. Gary Chappell (P.E.I.) – 60
5. Marc Campbell (P.E.I.) – 59
6. Robert Laffin (Nova Scotia) – 49
7. Danny Romo (Nova Scotia) – 46
8. Ryan Campbell (Nova Scotia) – 44
9. Shane Forward (Newfoundland) – 40
To view Saturday’s results, click here.
Great job by all the drivers
Great job by all the drivers today and congrats to Kenny!
It sounds like it was a very
It sounds like it was a very exciting afternoon at the CDP. I was quite surprised that Greg Sparling wasn't a representative for Nova Scotia, I suspect he might have made it even more interesting. Nonetheless, Gilles Barrieau and Kenny Arsenault will represent Eastern Canada very well. Congratulations to both of you.
Congratulations to all of
Congratulations to all of the participants in Charlottetown. Kenny and Gilles will be excellent representatives for Atlantic Canada. It should be a very exciting championship to see who gets to head stateside. I thought in the early going that Robert Laffin had it in the bag, it just goes to show how deep the talent is in this region.
In reply to Congratulations to all of by Paul Keith
I was there and Kenny was my
I was there and Kenny was my selection love him. He was realy impressive on it's handsome hank longshot play on the card he was post 9 dash 8. they had a great ride and finished third. Congrats Kenny.