Road Trip To Sauble Beach (27/28/29 July 2021)
If I have to find one positive thing about the border closure between Canada and the USA , it’s that it has allowed me to visit some of the Ontario tracks I’ve missed out on , over the years.
A few weeks ago , I managed to get to the Southern Ontario Motor Speedway (South Buxton) and the Delaware Speedway near London.
This week the Sauble Speedway was my target.
They had a midweek special on Wednesday the 28th of July , which was ideal for a road trip.
I passed by this track last year when I was returning from a visit to Manitoulin Island.
On that occasion there was no racing taking place, but I managed to meet up with fellow local media man Sylvain Lauwers and his wife Lyse, who like me, were there just to take a look.
It’s about a seven hour drive from my place in Cornwall , so I left home on Tuesday and based myself at Orangeville, just north of Brampton.
As it’s the height of summer , it meant hotel rates were at silly prices the nearer you got to the Sauble Beach, so I decided to distance myself and not get ripped off.
I got to the Orangeville Motel about 6-00 pm and was able to relax in the room for the rest of the night.
Sauble Beach is about a 1 hour 45 minute drive away, so there was no big rush in the morning , to get to the evening races.
I took off from the motel around 11-00 am and by mid day I was sitting at the beach enjoying an ice cream.
It was a scorching hot day and the place was full of holiday makers.
I killed a couple of hours at the beach while I waited until the 3-00 pm opening of the pit gate. The track, is located just a few miles out of town.
The Speedway is a paved oval and the headline division were Late Models who had a 50 lap Feature . Also on the program , there were Four Cylinders, Junior Late Models and Mini Trucks.
Once inside , it didn’t take me long to meet up with the tracks promoter Joe Chisholm,
I found him to be a down to earth friendly guy, who runs a well organized facility . He even gets awarded extra points in my book, for having Pepsi Products in the concessions.
While wandering around the pits I came across some really cool looking cars that were from the OSCAR Hot Rod Series.
They would be racing along side the Late Models.
I had a good chat with Steve Book and his crew , who were there with their Studebaker Hawk.
Hot Laps stated around 4-30 and continued for two hours.
I went out to the middle in the hot afternoon sun to get a few shots.
It wasn’t long before I was joined Dave Franks , a familiar paved track photographer in the Toronto area.
I’ve met 80 year old Dave on my previous sorties to this territory, and it was great to see him again .
We spent a lot of time chatting during the course of the night as we worked along side each other.
He kindly put a Rick @ the Races sticker on his golf cart.
The heat races got under way at 7-00 pm and it was time to get back on the middle again taking pictures.
One of the OSCAR Hot Rods, a lovely Oldsmobile Cutlass appeared to have some steering failure, as it shot across the grass out of control.
It had to be taken off by the flat bed.
After a short intermission it was Feature time.
First up was the Junior Late Models. This was won by Kyle Parker.
Next came the Four Cylinders (or Mini-Stocks as I prefer to call them)
Karl Sault # 81 took the checkers in this one.
The Mini Pickups followed this, and I have to say these were a ‘first’ for me. These small trucks fitted with lawn mower engines , like the Junior Late Models were something I’ve never seen before.
Haydon Sim was the winner.
The final race of the night , was the 50 lapper for Late Models.
After a few cautions , the race settled down to a dog fight between Jason Parker # 8 and the # 36 car of Lane Zardo
They battled throughout until the final lap where Parker claimed the win.
The show was all over by about 10-45, and after saying a few good byes, I was on my way out the gate , and heading back to Orangeville.
I was back at the Motel soon after 12-30, and ready for bed.
I spent my Thursday , taking a leisurely drive back to Cornwall up the 401.
The Sauble Speedway became TRACK # 242 on my TRACKCHASING totals