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By Jim Clarke, Clarke Motorsports Communications
Bryan Mercer is very intense. On the racetrack, he is cool and calculating, thinking about every move before he makes it. After the checkered flag falls, he runs the race over again in his mind replaying every lap and wondering what he could do differently and how he could be better the next time he races. While leaning on a picnic table after the Friday, June 20th show at Kawartha Speedway, Mercer watched a 100 lap post-race movie – 4 times longer than the regular show – while his car went through a detailed technical inspection.
Less than 10 minutes before that, he had taken the checkered flag in 5th place in a Late Model feature that kicked-off a 6 race summer shootout series between drivers from Kawartha and Capital City Speedways. At one point, Mercer had been as high as 3rd but needed to pit on a lap 43 caution-flag to have a right-front tire replaced. Quick work by the crew, led by Mercer’s Dad kept the #81 Sine’s Flooring/Durmach Tooling McColl Racecars ride on the lead lap, but the charge was on to get back among the contenders.
Mercer steadily worked his way through the pack, gaining positions but the tire the crew had put on the right-front corner of the car was becoming a factor in the handling. The team had missed an early practise session and couldn’t ‘scuff’ a fresh set of tires. That meant the first heat cycle the new Goodyear was going through was under race conditions. As the laps wore-on, the air pressure grew and the car developed a ‘push’, making it difficult to steer. Mercer, who earned Kawartha’s Most-improved Late Model driver award at the 2007 banquet, struggled to bring the car home in 5th place, behind Larry Jackson, Dan McHattie, Brandon Watson and Dave Morgan. A respectable run, but certainly not the finish the 34 year-old Port Hope, Ontario resident was expecting when the green flag flew.
Bryan Mercer will be back at it – Friday, June 27th – at Kawartha and then travel to Capital City Speedway Saturday, June 28th for the second leg in the 6 race tour. He’s already asked the crew to bring an extra bag of popcorn.