Autodrome Granby, Quebec (Big & Small track)
September 26th & 27th 2014
As the days get nearer to Super Dirt Week at Syracuse, this past week has been a relatively quiet one, with just few events taking place.
On Friday night, the Devils Bowl Speedway at West Haven in Vermont was returning as a dirt track and they had a big race programmed for the Sportsman. After a few years of being asphalt, promoter Mike Bruno had re-laid a dirt surface inside the paved track. It’s been a long time since I visited the Devils Bowl Speedway (2005) and if I finished work early on Friday, that’s where I’d be heading. My car was fueled up on Thursday night and ready to go, if luck was on my side. I figured I’d need about three hours to get there from Cornwall, Ontario.
Well, Friday’s are rarely a good day when I’m hoping for an early finish, and just like the previous week ( when I was hoping to get down to the Brighton Speedway) my shift ended too late. A 4 pm finish would have given me enough time, but it wasn’t until 5 pm that I got done. So, it was another Friday night at home.
At this time, I was unaware there was another race I could’ve gone to, but it wasn’t until later that night, while online that I found out about it. The Stadiaume St Guillaume in Quebec, was running that weekend, for one of their rare dirt races. It’s a track I normally go to in the winter for ice racing. My Facebook feed suddenly had a posting from Justin Lalancette, one of my local Sportsman drivers saying that he’d won the feature there. If I’d have known the show was taking place, I could’ve done it!
My Saturday plans were to visit Autodrome Granby in Quebec and also gain a new track for my TRACKCHASING totals.I’ve been to Autodrome Granby many times in the past for the regular speedway, but at this week’s show, they were also going to use the new ‘inner oval’ for the Slingshots.
I was going to be joined for the trip by my photographer buddy, Don Simpson, from Russell, Ontario. He’s currently working on a photographic assignment where the subjects are ‘girls on wheels’ .He was heading that way for his latest subject, Josianne Plante who races a Sportsman.I arranged to meet Don, at the Boundary Rd, Cornwall Tim Horton’s at mid-day where he jumped into my HHR for the journey up into Quebec.
Racing was scheduled to start at 3 pm and we arrived at the track just after 2:15 pm. The program consisted of a 100 lap Sportsman race , which is what attracted me, plus races for Sport Compacts, Enduro ( 8 Cyl Street Stocks) ATV’s, Speedsters and the Slingshots.
The downer on the day’s program for me, was the Enduro car race, which was 200 laps! And scheduled before the Sportsman race. I feared it would be painful to watch, and sure enough it was! In my opinion, 200 laps on a large oval like Granby , is far too many for this type of car.
The first of the days qualifying races took place on the small inner oval for the Slingshots, and before they took to the track, I met up with my friend Stephane Meo Messier and his family, who compete in this division.
There were two qualifying races for the Slingshots, one for the juniors and one for the adults. Once the race for adults, consisting of five cars, had taken place, I was able to count the Autodrome Granby Inner Oval as a new track. This was TRACK # 217 on my TRACKCHASER totals.
From the inner oval the action then moved to the big track for the other divisions qualifiers.
Granby isn’t one of the best tracks, when it comes to good vantage points for photographers, so with the help of some nice day light of the late afternoon, I tried a few shots from high in the grandstand using a telephoto lens.
At intermission I met back up with Don, who introduced me to, his current photographic subject, Josianne Plante and her mother Sylvie.
The first of the features, were for Slingshots, so it was back to the inner oval.The kids had their big race, and then it was the turn of the seniors. After an action packed 15 laps, my friend Stephane got the checkers.
The ATV’s were the first Features on the big track, which were followed by the Speedsters. The winner of the 20 lap Speedster race was Carl Labonte.
Up next were the Sport Compacts for a 50 lapper, and once again I had a familiar face to photo in Victory Lane. Taking the checkers was my friend Marc Dagenais, a regular competitor at the Cornwall moto Speedway.
It was about 7:15 pm when the Victory Lane pics were over for the Sport Compacts and it was the 200 laps of Enduro (Street Stockers) up next.
When the Big Block Modifieds are racing on long haul events at Granby it can take over an hour to complete, so I figured it would take at least one and a half hours for these cars. Luckily there is a Tim Hortons a few miles up the road so I thought this was a good time to have supper.
After making the trip to Timmies, downloading and posting some pics, while enjoying my Steak Panini, I returned to the track, to find 90 of the 200 laps had been completed. It was not quite half way, so there was still plenty of time to kill, chatting with friends while the race continued.
I met up with my friends Catherine Brunelle and Jossee Poison, and spent time hanging out with them until the checkers got closer. The race was finally won by Stephane Lariviere and after the Victory Lane pics were over, the Sportsman came on to the track for their 100 lapper.
There were a few cautions as expected, to make things interesting, but plenty of green flag racing too. Dany Cagne was the winner, and the show was over by around 10pm.
Don and I were soon on the road, and were back in Cornwall, before 12:30 am.