Brighton Speedway, Ontario September 20 2014

Victory Lane at Brighton's 358 SDS Race
Victory Lane at Brighton’s 358 SDS Race

Brighton Speedway, Ontario
September 20th 2014

Well, my original plans for the past week were to head over to England, visit family and friends, as well as taking in the BriSCA F1 World Final. This year it was being held at the Coventry Stadium, and I’d booked a few days off work to fly over there. My vacation plans have to be made early in the year, in order to get my work leave requests submitted before the start of March. A lot of my planning is wishful thinking and as the months go by, changing circumstances often require some amendments.

This year has been an expensive one, with my daughter Carla’s wedding in Austin, Texas, in March, my trip to England and Scotland in May, some car and computer repairs, plus an unexpected need for a new roof on my house.

It was the roof repairs that, did it!

So my second England trip of the year had to be cancelled. I was able to reschedule my work leave until November, just in case I can afford a cheap flight then, or if not, I could make a less expensive trip to Charlotte for the Dirt Track World Finals. We will have to wait and see.

Back to the present, and my revised plans involved a trip to one of my favourite annual events, the APPLEFEST weekend at the Brighton Speedway in Ontario. Friday night was a Dirtcar Series race for Sportsman and on Saturday it was the turn of the 358 Super Dirt Series.

I had everything packed into the car on Thursday night, in readiness for quick getaway from work on Friday.

Well, things don’t always go to plan, and I never got finished at work until 6:15 pm, which was too late for the 3+ hours needed to get to Brighton. I regretfully had to abandon my Friday night plans and spend the evening at home. I watched on my lap top as the results came in, and Gary Lindberg won the big Sportsman race.

Missing out on Fridays show, meant I had a relaxing drive down Hwy 401 on Saturday. I left home in Cornwall at mid-day and was at the track by 3-30 pm. I chatted to a few friends in the parking lot, and then decided to head into town for a bite to eat and a wi-fi connection.

Brighton’s not a big city but certainly not a tiny hamlet, so was really surprised to find there was no McDonalds or Tim Horton’s in town. I asked a passerby if there were any locations, and was told that those kind of fast food places weren’t welcome in town due to the littering problem caused by some of the customers. I don’t know if what he said was true, but he also mentioned there was a SUBWAY in town. Maybe they have different type of clientele LOL. There was no wi-fi at the SUBWAY, so I ordered a meatball Sub to take back with me to the track.

On arrival at the pit gate I bumped into one of Cornwall Motor Speedways successful Semi-Pro drivers, Bruno Richard who was there to try his luck against the local 8 cylinder street stock guys.

In the past, the APPLEFEST weekend at Brighton has often coincided with damp and miserable weather, but just for a change, this year was bright and sunny. The late afternoon was still quite warm and it was nice to wander around the pits in a T shirt.

As well as the 358 Super Dirt Series race, the program also consisted of Pro Stock ( 8 Cyl Street Stocks), Late Models and Canadian Modifieds ( similar to IMCA Mods).

After listening to promoter Mark Rinaldi’s driver briefing in the pits, I took my spot on the middle with two of my friends, photographer Dale Calnan and Peterborough Speedway media man Jim Clarke.

With a possible rain shower forecast later in the evening, Mark had told the meeting that they intended to push on with the show, so it wasn’t long before the cars were out on track for Hot Laps.

The order of events was Pro Stocks first, then 358 Mods, followed by Late Models then the Canadian Mods. This suited me fine, and things looked good for an early departure once the 358’s were done.

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The heats went to Matt Williamson, Erick Rudolph and Chad Brachmann. At the redraw Danny O’Brien got the pole ( by picking the #1 apple ! ) while Lance Willix 11 got # 2.09242014i

The First Feature up, was the 50 lapper for the Pro Stocks which was won by Jason Fontaine.

The big race for the 358’s was a 100 lapper and as you’d expect, O’Brien led for the early stages until challenged by Rudolph. Carey Terrance and Mario Clair were also forging their way to the front, and once Rudolph had taken the lead, Terrance began dueling with O’Brien. After a few laps, he made the pass and started the move on Rudolph. He briefly got past him until a caution flag came out (can’t remember what for) that put them beside each other for the restart. At the green Rudolph came off best, and managed to keep Terrance at bay until the checkers. O’Brien came home third, with Clair in fourth.

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The Victory Lane presentations were over by 9 pm , and I was out of the gate soon after.

I made a quick stop at the Napanee McDonalds for a cup of tea and the use of the wi-fi to post the victory shot, and find out the BriSCA F1 World Final results from England. I’d requested friends to post the result on my Facebook page and have to thank Michelle Kiff and Keith Meekins for keeping me up to date.

The Big winner was third generation driver Craig Finnikin # 55, son of Bert # 55, and Grandson of the late Charlie # 55. When I first started following the BriSCA F1’s around the UK in the late 1960’s Charlie was one of the top drivers. His son Bert later took up the sport and he too became successful, winning the F1 World Final in 1990. The latest of the Finnikin dynasty is Bert’s son Craig who won the coveted gold roof of World Champ this Saturday. On my recent trip to the UK I met up with the # 55 team at Belle Vue where my buddy Andy Foxall is one of the crew members.

Congrats to Craig and # 55 Team!

After getting the results, I was soon back on the road again, and was home in Cornwall by 12:30 am.

There was no lay in for me on Sunday morning, as I was up quite early to watch the live TV coverage of the F1 Grand Prix from Singapore.

Lewis Hamilton was on pole in the Mercedes and came home first ahead of both of the Red Bulls. The first place finish and poor result of his Mercedes team mate and rival Niko Rosberg has put the English driver top of the World Championship points.

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