RICK @ the RACES (17/18/19 Sept)
17 Sept Mohawk International Raceway
18 Sept Mohawk International Raceway
19 Sept Robi Motor Speedway & BERT Transmission, St Contstant, Que
19 Sept RPM Speedway, St Marcel Sur Le Richelieu, Que
After last weeks long distance drive to the Bristol Speedway in Timmins, I was looking forward to taking it easy this past weekend with a two day event at my local Mohawk International Raceway. This was for Friday and Saturday so it left me Sunday as free day. After I’d checked various web sites my agenda increased as the weekend approached. While I was at Timmins, the RPM Speedway at St Marcel in Quebec had been forced to cancel their 100 lap Modified race because of rain and the make up date was set for this past Sunday.
I managed to get off work around 6-30 pm on Friday and made the quick dash across the International Bridge at Cornwall , Ont to the Mohawk International Raceway at Hogansburg NY . The bill of fare included SUPER DIRT Series races for both 358 Modifieds and Sportsman.
The Sportsman race had been postponed from an earlier rain out, so this was addition to their regular night of racing. Their Series race was the first event of the night and was won by Tim Sears. The track was in a really poor state after heavy rain storms hit the area the previous day. The rough conditions took its toll and quite a few race cars suffered damage.
It was much the same for the Modified race with a survival of the fittest being the order of the day.
Matt Shepherd overcame the odds to win with only Kayle Robidoux, Billy Decker and Danny Johnson offering a serious challenge.
The regular nights Sportsman feature provided Chris Raabe with yet another win. This was his thirtieth of the season, which puts him in the record books alongside such great names as Alan and Danny Johnson Will Cagle and Bob McCreadie. It was about mid night before I left the track and headed back home. Although this was a weekend event, there was no point in staying over night when I live so close. ‘As the crow flies’, my house is only about a couple of miles from the MIR, it’s just the St Lawrence River and all the unnecessary border delays that make the journey longer.
I spent Saturday catching up with stuff at home before heading back to the USA in the early afternoon. Supper was had at the Ponderosa in Massena before arriving at the track around 5-00 pm . Much work had been done to the track surface and it was definitely a lot better than the night before.
Saturday nights program consisted of a Mr Dirt Series race for Pro Stocks and a SUPER DIRT SERIES race for Big Block Modifieds.
Once again Matt Shepherd showed his liking for the MIR by dominating the racing once again.After he’d passed early leader Brett Hearn there was no stopping him. Hearn continued to take second while Danny Johnson took third .
Making his Modified debut in the event, was Chris Raabe driving the Perry Francis small block. Chris performed well and came in at a very respectable twentieth place ( I think he was third out of the small blocks competing).
I was expecting the Pro Stock event to be a ‘wreck fest’, but I’m happy to say that I was wrong.
Apart from the first lap where a couple of over enthusiastic tail enders piled into each other, the rest of the race went reasonably well.
Joey Ladouceur took the checkers with two more of my local drivers Ghislain Valade and Corey Wheeler taking second and third. The show was over nice and early and with no major delays at the border I was home before midnight.
While I was at the MIR on Friday night , I’d been chatting with Kayle Robidoux and had asked him if he’d be attending Sundays races at St Marcel. He told me he wouldn’t be there because he was having a racing party at his own private track that day. Kayle’s father Bert, is the name behind BERT Transmission, the company decal you see on so many race cars.
Beside the factory in Saint Constant, Quebec they’ve built a small dirt oval called Robi Motor Speedway and I was invited to drop by on my way to St Marcel.
Saint Constant is just over an hour away from Cornwall and I arrived around 1-00 pm.
I found Kayle busy putting up flood lighting for the evenings races. There were people preparing a corn roast and disco music was already playing. The small oval is for karts and his young son uses it for practice ( he started at the Cornwall Kids Kart club this year).
Kayle’s 358 Modified was in the garage stripped down and washed following Friday nights MIR races.
While I was there Bert kindly gave me a guided tour of the factory where so many race car parts are made. There was a line of lathes and milling machines, used for the production of various components. Bert showed me how they have expanded over the years and mentioned that they now have 25 people employed there.
I couldn’t help asking him about the Sprint Car ‘self starter’ saga’. I’m like many other race fans and get really annoyed at all the ‘messing around’ you get in Sprint Car racing. You know the deal ! one falls over, the race gets stopped, and then we wait around for the cars to be push started ( for those that don’t know, Sprint Cars don’t have self starters) , Well, BERT transmission built a self starter specially for Sprint Cars, which after testing proved to be very successful and just what was needed. He told me that it only added an extra 40 lb to the car so it would be no big deal ( especially if everyone had to use them) . For some reason the powers that be decided against self starters, so while old traditions continue, the race fans have to suffer.
After about an hour , I said goodbye to Bert and Kayle and set off for St Marcel Sur le Richelieu and the RPM Speedway. Although I’ve visited the place before ( last year when it got rained out) , I’d never seen racing at there, so this would be a new track for me.
It was still mid afternoon when I arrived and the sun was shining as I checked out the place.
There were 15 Modifieds in attendance, about 8 Sportsman, plus the mini divisions of Midgets and Mods. Two of my media friends were racing in the Mini Mods, 360 Nitro’s Rejean Ouelette and photographer Patrick Leclerc.
One of the first Modifieds to catch my eye was the former Jimmy Phelps 98H Troyer.
At first I thought it was Jimmy was racing, but after some investigation I found out who it was. Standing beside the car was Cornwall’s TOTAL RACE SUPPLY owner Luc Lalancette. He told me that, as the local Troyer dealer, the car was his, and his young son Justin would be driving it. Justin a former Cornwall Kids Kart Club driver had a couple of outings in the spare Shane Pecore Sportsman at the start of the year. Justin was the only Ontario driver amongst the 14 other Quebec Modifieds.
All the divisions present competed in heats except for the Sportsman who went straight into their feature race which was won by Jaques Pelletier . The 100 lapper for the 358 Modifieds went well, but had to be red flagged after Michel Dussault rolled over. Before the stoppage David Hebert had been dominating and continued to do so after the restart. Mario Clair had been an early challenger, but later faded as brother Gino and Claude Brouillard made the running.
Brouillard closed the gap on Hebert towards the end but not enough to prevent him getting the checkers.
The racing was over by 10-00 pm as I made my hasty exit. After dodging the night time construction in Montreal I was home by 12-30.
RPM Speedway at St Marcel, Quebec became track # 185 on my TRACKCHASING totals