M.I.R. St Valere, Drummond & C.M.S World of Outlaws plus the C.C.S (27 Jul to 1 Aug 2012)

08032012qRICK @ the RACES   (27 Jul to 1 Aug 2012)

27 July                                      Mohawk Raceway, Hogansburg NY

28 July                                    Autodrome St Valere

28 July                                    Autodrome Drummond

29 July                                    Cornwall Motor Speedway

1 August                                  Capital City Speedway

This weeks report starts on Friday 27 July, with an early morning trip to the Canadian passport office in St Laurent ( Montreal) . With the expiry date looming, I’d dropped my application off the previous week, and paid the extra cost to have it processed quicker. It would be ready for me to pick up, at 10-00 am on Friday. Everything went as planned, and I’d finished there just before the appointment time.

Even though there was a big World of Outlaw Sprint Car show taking place at Autodrome Granby that night, I decided not to stay in Quebec, but instead , head back home to Cornwall , Ontario, where I’d got lots of stuff to attend to.

The World of Outlaws had a three day stint in my area, but my plans only included two of those shows . My Friday night racing fix was scheduled for the Mohawk International Raceway, closer to home, which even though it’s in another country, happens to be my nearest track ( “as the crow flies” it’s slightly nearer than the Cornwall Motor Speedway ) .

08032012a It was another warm night in Hogansburg NY as I watched Billy Dunn and Dylan Evoy dominate their respective divisions of Modifieds and Sportsman.08032012b

I was up early again on Saturday , with two events on my agenda, and the prospect of adding new tracks to my TRACKCHASING totals. The first venue was the Autodrome Valere , located just outside Victoriaville, Quebec.

08032012cIt’s a track I hadn’t been to before and only got to hear about last year. They run ‘Dirt’ Sportsman type cars as well as various other divisions on a sandy based ‘D’ shaped configuration of about a quarter mile in length .

08032012d 08032012f 08032012gRacing got under way soon after the 10-00am warms ups , in front of a large enthusiastic crowd. With it being a newish track, three other of my TRACKCHASING friends were in attendance. Guy and Pam Smith, as well as Mike Knappenberger had travelled up from Pennsylvania for this event. It was good to see them again.

I must admit I really enjoyed my afternoon at St Valere, which was made even better, by the nice friendly lady I met sitting next to me in the grandstand.

fav384I sat and chatted with her and her young son until the Sportsman Feature was decided, before I set off to my next track.08032012h

Autodrome St Valere became track # 202 on my TRACKCHASING totals

The World Of Outlaw Sprints were at the nearby Autodrome Drummond and as an added attraction, Slingshots and Karts were supposed to be racing on the inner oval.

08032012mI’ve been to Drummond plenty of times in the past , but have never seen the small track in use. According to TRACKCHASER rules, this would have counted as another track. Unfortunately, on the night, for some reason, these were missing from the program.

Sammy Swindell at the WoO driver intros
Sammy Swindell at the WoO driver intros

Thankfully the Outlaw show turned out to be excellent with plenty of drama to keep the fans interested.

08032012i 08032012jBoth Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser had bad wrecks, while Joey Saldana went on to take the win.

08032012lI missed Yan Bussierre winning the Modified Feature, as I needed an early get away for the long journey home, and some ‘shut eye’ before another busy day ahead on Sunday .

The next stop on the World of Outlaw tour was my local Cornwall Motor Speedway and with out a doubt it was to be the biggest event in the tracks history. I arrived at about 1-00pm and already the main parking lot was full of RV’s and campers. Over flow parking spots were available in adjacent farm land and to accommodate the large crowd , a roped off section in the center of the track had been made.

08032012o As the crowds arrived it was obvious we were in for a great show.

After the previous nights Drummond wrecks Kinser and Schatz were out in new cars and both looked well suited to the Cornwall track.

08032012nIn the big race of the night Schatz was the dominant factor as he was chased to the checkers by Kinser . Current World of Outlaws points leader Craig Dollansky was third.

08032012p 08032012rJoining the Sprints on the night were the regular weekly Modifieds as well as the visiting ‘scaled down’ Lightening Sprints .

The Modified feature was a good one too, with a three way battle between Gage Morin, Shane Pecore and Laurent Ladouceur. The early battle was between Morin and Pecore but as Ladouceur moved up, he became the next contender.

08032012sMorin kept his cool and went on for the win.

The tracks biggest show in it’s history lived up to all the expectations, was a great night , and I look forward to it happening again.

I was back at work on Monday morning for my regular four day shift, and was pleasantly surprised on Wednesday, when I got an unexpected early finish . ( A typical day for me is 7-30 am until 8-30 pm) .

I always have my camera stuff ready in the car, and when a nice 6-00pm finish came my way, I dashed off towards Ottawa. I don’t get to the Capital City Speedway as often as I like these days,  and it was good to see my ‘Wednesday night friends again’.

08032012tAmongst the winners, was Todd Musker who celebrated his birthday with a trip to Victory Lane in his Thunder Car. The racing was good and well worth the effort to get there.

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