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Wednesday, July 21, 1999 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER D1 IS YOUR GARAGE PROTECTING YOUR CAR BETTER THAN YOUR BARGAIN-RATE CAR INSURANCE? Don't trust just anyone to insure your car, see me: W ayne M cG ill 2345 W jktoS Rd. *2 1, Oakville 847-5671 S n o r ts Art Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON 845-3824 (Extension 255) Fax:337-5567 Oakville drivers at the Indy" Photos by Barrie Erskine INSET PHOTO: Oakville's Robin Buck drives his Pontiac Grand Prix hard into corner 10 early in Saturday's Miller Lite 100 CASCAR race at Exhibition Place. RIGHT PHOTO: Buck celebrates his victory. The B u ck sto p s h ere This past weekend's Molson Indy featured an Oakville winner. There were no Oakville drivers in the featured Indy Race, of course, won by polesitter Dario Franchitti. But there were four support races in the weekend package and one of them -- the Miller Lite 100, which brought the CASCAR (the Canadian Association for Stock Car Racing) series to the fore -- was won by an Oakville driver, Robin Buck, who is sponsored by UAP/NAPA. Buck put the crowning touch on the entire affair with some circular burnouts in celebration of his win. Third place finisher Bill Rowse Jr. urged him to go for it. "I drove up to him after the check­ ered flag and said, 'Yeah, go for it, you gotta do it," said Rowse. Responded Buck: "I just had to do it. I was just hoping I wouldn't get dis­ qualified for it." Alex Zanardi, the former Target team driver who moved over to FI this season, thrilled Molson Indy crowds last year with his doughnuts. And Dale Earnhardt performed the same trick last year when he won his first Daytona 500 in 20 years of trying. Buck and CASCAR weren't pre­ tending to outshine their high powered big dollared racing cousins. They were, however, truly grateful for the chance to showcase their product and talent before over 70,000 people, by far their biggest crowd ever. "We were third or fourth in line here, but I'm so happy for our sponsors and our crews," said A1 Turner who fin­ ished second. "We were all treated like royalty and, for our sponsors and crews to come here, get a warm welcome, and get air conditioning ... it was something special for all of us. To be able to stand (See 'Buck' page D2) V TOWER BOSCHNewcourt M C f Photos by Barrie Erskine Wilden finishes 9th in Indy Lights debut Oakville's Kenny Wilden would like nothing better than to be back at next year's Molson Indy. His dream, of course, is to be a part of the feature Indy race. "I'm working very hard to get an Indy CART ride," he reiterated to the Oakville Beaver on Monday. But if that dream is not realized next season, he hopes to showcase his talents as part of the Kool Toyota Atlantic Championship (KTAC) series which he is now excelling in. He's in fourth place, over all, with second place in his sights and first place not completely out of the ques­ tion. 'T he first place guy is a fair ways ahead," he conceded. "But my main focus is to try and get some consistent podium placings." Wilden said he's heard that the KTAC series is likely to come back to the Molson Indy next year after missing this year, to his great disap­ pointment. It's his home turf (he's a Burlington native who has called Oakville home for the last half decade or so) and it's also a key market for his sponsors, Newcourt and TrizecHahn Corporation. Not to mention that he did earn a podium placing in last year's KTAC event at the Molson Indy, finishing third. In fact, Wilden felt it was so important to hit the Toronto market that he switched to another high profile series, the Indy Lights, securing a one-time ride with Toronto-based Brian Stewart Racing. It showcased Wilden's versatility. On last minute notice, he filled in at the American LeMans Series at Mosport last month and finished a respectable ninth in his Prototype Lola. He was actually further up the leaderboard, in fifth, when he ran into a bit of bad bad luck on a pitt stop. That marked his third different car in a matter of weeks (along with his regular KTAC ride and the Indy Lights race): "Driving a Prototype Lola in the American Le Mans Series at Mosport a few weeks ago, running an Atlantic Sw ift... at Road America (the previous weekend) and testing an Indy Lights Lola at Blackhawk Farms has been a great experience ... "People always say that the best drivers can go fast in just about any­ thing, anywhere. I hope I'm proving that." Ironically, as it turned out, Wilden said he didn't have the car to prove it this past weekend. It made the weekend "pretty frustrating", he conceded. 'The car was down on power quite a bit," he said. "We were consis­ tently down in top end speed in all three straight-a-ways (which are timed). Being a one-off race, he said no spare motor was available. "Qualifying 16th," he said, " is probably the worst I've ever quali­ fied." From that perspective he was happy to edge up to ninth place in what he termed "a race of survival." But the overall result, he conceded, is not something he likes to post for his sponsors and fans. Wilden is back in his regular series this weekend in Three Rivers, Quebec. Wilden split his high school years between Burlington's Nelson and Lord Elgin. His high school sporting highlight, he said, was reaching OFSAA with the Lord Elgin hockey team. Kenny Wilden goes down the front straight in his #4 Newcourt/TrizecHahn Lola T97/20 during the PPG- Dayton Indy Lights Championship series warm-up Sunday at Exhibition Place. _____ Newcourt