By: Ashley McCubbin

MARKHAM, Ontario — Despite being challenged throughout the event, Marc-Antoine Camirand was able to hold off all challengers en route to winning the inaugural Markham 125 as part of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham weekend.

“It was a good race,” Camirand told News From The Pits. “The car was very fast. I was able to pull away a little bit, and then at the end, he (L.P. Dumoulin) came back and then Andrew (Ranger) was there, too. The end of the race was pretty exciting, as well.”

The victory marks his seventh of the season as he looks to chase series history in scoring the most victories in a year, breaking the record set by Cayden Lapcevich and D.J. Kennington.

Andrew Ranger ran inside the top-five throughout the event after qualifying seventh, and was able to make the late-race pass to secure a runner-up finish.

“It was a lot of fun,” Ranger commented. “We didn’t have the position that we wanted, qualifying seventh. So to finish second like that with a green-white-checker. It’s so much fun for my team. They work so hard and it’s an amazing finish.”

L.P. Dumoulin completed the podium after finding bimself on Camirand’s bumper for most of the event.

“It was an amazing run for the No. 47 WeatherTech, Bellemare, Omnifab Dodge,” Dumoulin shared. “We gave the 96 a good run, as he was under pressure all race long. He was faster than me in a couple places, and I was faster than him in other places. So I really wanted to win that race for my sponsors, my fans, my partners, but you know what it is. At the end, we had a good fight there with Ranger and fortunately, with a really tight corner, we tucked it in there. I think I lost a couple of spots, but it is part of the game.”

Rookie Connor Bell continued his strong campaign with a fourth as Alex Guenette rounded out the podium.

The race went cleaner than expected, but featured some contact and a couple late-race cautions. Notably, Tyler Gonzalez, whom qualified on the front row in his series debut, fell out of the event on the opening lap as a result of contact with Camirand in turn two.

Despite the weekend starting off rocky for everyone with missing track time on Friday and having that pushed to Saturday morning, the drivers left the weekend satisfied with the layout.

“The track was very physical, technical; I really like it,” Ranger offered. “I think they need to improve a couple of things, but I think all around, it was a great step success for the NASCAR series.”