WEEKLY REPORT (25 Sept to 1 Oct 2017)
The past seven days were a week where my diary was filled with a number of medical appointments. They were due to begin on Monday (25 Sept) with a visit to the doctors, but this was cancelled at the last minute. They now got under way on Tuesday. This was day one, of my monthly ‘two days’ of I.V.I.G transfusions at my local Cornwall Hospital.
Unlike, last month, things went well this time, and I was back there on Wednesday for day two. On Thursday (28 Sept) I had to make a trip to the Ottawa General Hospital to see my specialist MYASTHENIA GRAVIS doctor.
With all the medical stuff out of the way it was time to look forward to some rest before the weekend. The headline event in my area was the OUTLAW 200 Week End at the Fulton Speedway. This event at Fulton, and formerly known as the Victoria 200 has always been the lead in to Super Dirt Week, which follows in the next few days.
In past years I’ve usually attended the full week end of racing, but since health issues have caused me to “slow down’, my plan was to attend the final day only, for the big race.
The program was scheduled to have the Sportsman and support divisions on Friday (29 Sept) and the Out Law 200 for Big Block Modifieds on Saturday. So, my plan was to go on the Saturday only.
On Friday night the Fulton area suffered a big rain storm, so the whole program was shifted back one day. That meant a Friday and Saturday at home for yours truly, and a Sunday morning drive down to Central New York.
Even though, the Fulton track is only a short jouney from my home in Cornwall Ontario, I set off soon after breakfast for a leisurely drive down to Adams, NY where I could meet my racing friend Dawn Kampff for an ‘elevenses’ chat over a Jwreck Sub . After catching up on each others news I was back on the road to Fulton.
The revised schedule was for 1-30 pm hot laps with racing to begin at 2-30 pm. I was there in good time for all this and joined my Central NY ‘Tog’ buddies, sitting in my lawn chair on turn three and four.
It’s always a bonus when you get the chance to shoot in daylight hours, and Fulton is one of my favorite tracks for photo ‘ops’ .
Over the weekend, there had been a huge entry of Sportsman cars (110) which resulted in a lot of qualifying and consi, races.
Before the Sunday show could get under way there were five Sportsman Consis to get in the books, which had to be postponed from the night before.
These were followed by the Modified heats, and there were plenty of them too ! ( over 60) . Some of the big names , missing for various reasons were Matt Shepherd, Mad ‘Max’ Mclaughlin, and Jimmy Phelps. First up of the Features was the 50 lapper for Sportsman which was also a DirtCar series race.
The cream definitely rose to the top , and up at the front the main contenders were Rocky Warner, Ronnie Davis , Dave Marcuccillo and Brad Rouse. Early leader was Warner, but once Davis got passed, he stayed there until the checkers, with Marcuccillo following him across the line for second.
All the current top Sportsman were showing there presence.
The 200 lap major event for the big block Mods was up next, and it was still early evening. No late finish tonight .
With about 50 cars on the track ,the first 100 laps had quite a few cautions, but by half way the attrition rate had reduced the field.
After the mandatory half way pit stop (ten minutes) the race resumed with a lot more flow and less stoppages. Early contenders had included Danny Varin and Peter Britten.
At this stage Billy Decker was leading and the only one who looked like challenging was Billy Dunn, until he spun out of contention.
Mike Mahaney had worked his way to second spot and had Larry Wight on his tale as the checkers fell.
So it was Billy Decker getting the big win, with Mike Mahaney second and Larry Wight third.
The show was all over at a nice sensible time and once I’d got out of the jam packed parking lot, I was on course for an early night back at home.