Weekly Report ( 14 Aug to 21 Aug 2017)

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Weekly Report (14 Aug to 21 Aug 2017)

This weeks report begins with more medical appointments for me, starting with a trip on Monday (14 Aug) morning to the radiology clinic, located beside the Cornwall Hospital. It meant fasting from midnight until the procedure took place at 8-00 am .

This was all part of  the treatment for my ongoing MYASTHENIA GRAVIS condition. This was followed by another doctors appointment on Wednesday (16 Aug) .

Thursday (17 Aug) was Race Day.

My local Cornwall Motor Speedway were staging the $10,000 to win , ‘Oh CANADA’  150 lap race for 358 Modifieds.

Everyone in Canada knows that this year is the country’s 150th Birthday, yes that’s right, it’s 150 years since Canada became a country. This special race , was Cornwall Motor Speedway’s way of celebrating the occasion.

In the past 20 years that I’ve been attending the track, this was the first mid week race that I can remember. I was there early, and by start time there was a large crowd in the grandstand .

There were 42 Modifieds and about 35 Sportsman, plus a few Mini Stocks.  Apart from the expected influx of Quebec drivers, there were visitors , from the USA , including  Tim Fuller, Jordon McCreadie and Brett Hearn  in attendance.

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Brett was driving the spare Michel Parent # 25 H car.  

Our local talent was boosted by Lee Ladouceur standing in for Tim O’Brien in the  # 88 Jim Primrose car.  

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A surprise addition was my old friend Laurent Ladouceur, who was driving the spare car of Gage Morin.  Gage’s Team have been having some problems with the handling of the ‘yellow’ car and Laurent had offered to drive it, with the hope of finding the trouble, and giving them some input. 

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Laurent had retired from racing two years ago and it was cool to see him back behind the wheel. I’ve known Laurent for many years and , back in 2001 , I was the ‘middle man’ in arranging his trip to England to compete as the Canadian Rep, in the BriSCA F1 World Final at Hednesford.

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As usual, I took my early evening pictures from the Pit Tower before moving to the center for the Features.

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Following the intermission, the 150 lap Modified Feature was up first.

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After the driver intro’s the traditional 4 wide parade lap was done.

Early leader was Kayle Robidoux, until Chris Raabe took control.  All the time this was going on at the front, Tim Fuller was working his way through the field , and as the 150 laps got nearer to completion, he was on Raabe’s back bumper.

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Once passed, he stayed there to the checkers , with Raabe and Steve Bernard not far behind.

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The 50 lap Sportsman race was up next.

By now it was about 10.00 pm , and a few  spots of rain began to fall.  They were not too serious at first, but by the time 14 laps were in the books,  it had become too heavy.

After waiting a while to see if the rain would relent, the decision was made to cancel.

The rain continued into the night and on Friday (18 Aug) there was an early cancellation, due to wet grounds,  at my other local track, the Mohawk International Raceway.  Autodrome Granby was also cancelled, so it turned out to be a night of no racing for me.

On Saturday  (19 Aug) , instead of my usual Brockville Ontario Speedway, location, I joined my buddy Don Simpson on a trip to the Fulton Speedway NY.

Although Fulton is only a three hour drive, we left in the morning so we could  meet up with my good friend Dawn Kampff for lunch in Adams, NY.  

After this,  and a bit of Walmart shopping in Central Square we arrived at the track around 4-00pm. Just right for a snooze in my lawn chair before the gates opened.

It’s always great to shoot pictures at  the Central New York tracks and hang out with the gang of “togs’ down there.

Don Romeo and Douane Van Gelder
Don Romeo and Douane Van Gelder

We soon met up with our old buddies, John Meloling, Joe Johnson, Don Romeo, Chris Marks and Douane Van Gelder.

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As usual I chose to park my lawn chair on turn three and four to get my pictures. The headline division of the night were the Big Block Modifieds, with support from Sportsman and Late Models.

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As normal, some of the top Super Dirt Series drivers were racing, and included Jimmy Phelps, Mad Max Mclaughlin, Pat Ward, Larry Wight and Billy Whitteker.

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First of the Features,  were the two for the limited Sportsman (Rookies) , which were won by Corey Barker and Alan Fink.

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These were followed by the Late Models and their feature was won by Dale Caswell.

One great new addition to the  Fulton Speedway is the shuttle service they operate, to ferry the pit crews (and photographers) back to their regular locations, following the Victory Lane presentations . It not only quickens things up, it helps us aging ‘togs’ .

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John Meloling and Don Simpson aboard the 'fun bus'

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Here’s John Meloling and Don Simpson aboard the fun bus !

The Modified feature was next and was dominated by Tim Sears , who was driving a loaned Larry Wight car.

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The # 99 on the side had been doctored into # 83 X with the help of a bit of duct tape,

It was now about 9-45 pm, so Don and I decided to miss the last race of the night, the Sportsman Feature, and make our exit.

After a couple of stops along the way for cups of tea, we were soon back home in Canada.

While I had been at Fulton, my goof friends Mike Perrotte won at the Airborne Speedway Plattsburgh , Mike Maresca got his first career Big Block win at Fonda NY and Kyle Dingwall won at Brockville.

BRUCE JARVIS PHOTO
BRUCE JARVIS PHOTO

Sunday (20 Aug) was spent relaxing at home before making a late afternoon drive across town to the Cornwall Motor Speedway.

There was a lot on the program and the races were due to start early.  Joining the regular program of Modifieds, Sportsman , Pro Stocks and Ministocks , were the visiting STR Speedsters, Sling Shots and Mini Mods . To top this all, the Sportsman were doing there 100 lap Race for the Cure , cancer fund raiser.  

It was going to be a long night, so I had no intention of staying to the end . I  would make my exit once I’d seen the Modified Feature.

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I spent the heat races sitting on top of the Pit Tower  taking my pictures, before moving to the middle for the Features.

The STR Speedster Feature was first and followed by the 100 lap Sportsman race.

DSC_0027 (2) (Medium) DSC_0036 (Medium) DSC_0039 (Medium)After Johnathan Fergusson had dominated the first half of the race Fred Gamache fought past him to get the lead. Gamache held the lead to the checkers, with David Rogers not far behind them.

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The Modified Feature was next, and it was local hero Brian McDonald that captured this one.

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By now it was 10-30 pm, so as planned I made my exit, missing the final race, which happened to be the Pro Stock Feature.

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In my absence it was won by Dave Bissonnette.

I was back home and rested, nice and early. with a clear week ahead, and only one medical appointment in my diary.

 

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