Subject: Re: 2018 AERS Race 12 - Alberta (Giant Tiger 225) Sun Jun 17, 2018 10:12 pm
Spoiler:
Latinger wins Giant Tiger 225; Carter transported to hospital; McGuire upset with Cortez
It was a rollercoaster of a day for Clyde Latinger. As a family man, having his family in for just about every race is something he pays for and supports. After a while early in his career, he stopped funding the trips because he felt he had nothing to make his family cheer him on.
This year, his family is back at the track each and every week, his father, mother, and aunt. Occasionally, his two older sisters will also be in attendance. This week at Alberta, all 5 of them were there to see him score his first career victory in thrilling fashion.
“I was grabbing Larry [Mr. Latinger] the entire final 10 laps. It was nervewracking!” said Ruby Latinger, Clyde’s mother, “I just am overwhelmed with joy, everyone is so happy for him and they’re blowing up all our phones. I just went down to victory lane and hugged him for about 30 seconds. I am just so proud.”
“Yeah it was a special moment for sure,” said Clyde Latinger, “As a racing family, the results weren’t there the past few years, but this year I knew I had to have them start coming to more races and I am relieved this win came when they were in attendance. It’s just so special and it means so much to me. All I have ever wanted to do was give back to what they gave me and I can’t thank Fred Ritcher, Roger Renesse, all my guys, my teammates, everyone at the AARO for making my dream come true, I am so overjoyed and tearing up and everything man, I can’t fathom that this is happening.”
Latinger moves up into 7th in the standings following his victory, and now has cemented himself as a title contender just past halfway through the season. With 8 races remaining, Latinger just needs to keep his current pace up and he will be there at the end.
“Right now, I’m not thinking about that,” he exclaimed, “We’re just going race by race. If we win a title here, it’s a cherry on top, but we’re just going out there with no pressure and doing our thing, it’s refreshing, and I’m sure we have what it takes to finish this season strong.”
Mikael Carter was alert and talkative in the local hospital following the Giant Tiger 225. After being up front for most of the early going, Carter found himself in unfamiliar territory, spinning his #39 AMP Energy Dodge into traffic and suffering several large blows before coming to a rest. Carter was immediately transported to a local hospital outside of Edmonton where it was found he had a partially torn rotator cuff. It is unknown if he will compete in next weeks Adidas Canada 250 at Victoria, but he sure sounded confident he would return.
“To won two titles in a row you’ve got to go through some adversity.” he said, “We’ve got some now, we knew it wasn’t gonna be a cakewalk, so here we are.”
Carter leads rookie Caine Dwyer by a mere 3 points in the title standings, and is now only 48 ahead of Nate Smith who finished 8th, in 3rd.
“We’ve got a title to win, and even if I cannot go which I seriously doubt, I think any replacement would do just fine.”
Seth McGuire post race audio transcript was released this morning after reporters couldn’t find him anywhere in the infield. McGuire was involved in a late race crash after being up front for most of the entirelty of the race.
“Well the only thing I can say is this: Steven Cortez better be ready, especially at this short track coming up, because Imma turn his ass around at some point. That was bull shit and doesn’t deserve to be in this sport, what a disgrace. We’re going 210 and you think it’s a good idea to rub fenders? Pal you’ve got another thing comin’.”