RAIN RESULTS IN A QUIET WEEK (12th October 2023 BLOG)
After a few busy weeks of racing, the last seven days have been relatively quiet ones. This was not intentional, but just something that Mother Nature threw on me. This past weekend would normally of been a busy one , with it being SUPER DIRT WEEK in Oswego, New York.
Also, my local Cornwall Motor Speedway had their own version of Dirt Week scheduled, and there was a Short Track Super Series event planned for the Afton Speedway NY .
With plenty of rain in the forecast , and before we even got to the weekend, Cornwall and Afton had already called off their shows .
It was a good call from the Cornwall management , as it rained for most of the weekend in our area. It has now been rescheduled to the weekend of 20/21/22 of October (the same weekend as the annual Eastern States Weekend in Middletown NY)
Down in Oswego they were struggling against the wet weather , and had to cancel all their events for Sunday, and use the Holiday Monday rain date to complete the show.
Meanwhile , parts of Ontario weren’t getting hit so bad.
The paved Peterborough Speedway were having their annual ‘Autumn Colors ‘ weekend, and on Saturday it had been dry and sunny.
I’ve been to the track before , but never to their Autumn Colors as it always clashes with SUPER DIRT WEEK, After weighing up the weather situation, I headed there on Sunday.
My long-time buddy Jim Clarke is the media man there, who quickly arranged for my credentials. I set off from Cornwall at about 8-00 am and arrived at the speedway around 11-00 am.
I met up with Jim and he gave me a tour of the control tower.
My first and only other visit to this track was back in May 2007.
I remember it well, my late Mother and Father joined me that day. They used to come over from England and visit me every year, usually in May. This was one of their last visits to Canada , before poor health prevented their overseas travel.
Before racing got under way , I wandered the pits and took a few pics.
The cars that appealed to me the most were the ‘Hot Rods’, Big old cars from the same era as my Thunderbird. I was looking foreward to seeing them in action.
Racing action was scheduled to begin at 12-00, but you guessed it, just as the Anthems were being played, it started to sprinkle with rain.
Not much , but enough to delay things for a while.
The track drying began, in the usual way at paved tracks, with trucks dragging tires around. Sometime later the drizzle stopped and the track was ready for the first race.
It was for the ‘Bone Stocks’ ! I always smile when I hear this name that Peterborough gives to the basic Four Cylinder Mini Stock division. Winner was Tyler Weale.
The track photographer , can’t be missed, she dresses a bit different from the rest of us togs 🙂
After the Victory Lane Pics were over, the regular Mini Stocks took to the track . The qualifiers had been run the previous day and this was their Feature.
They did a few warm up laps then pulled to the staging lane to line up.
It was good to see my old friend and former Capital City Speedway racer ‘Dent Man’ Dave Watchhorn.
There were a few former CCS drivers racing there that day , including Nolan Gould and Kevin Foisey in the Legends.
While the MiniStocks were in the staging lane, the rain returned.
It was now getting near to 4-00pm and management announced they would be reviewing things once the rain had stopped and track drying had taken place. They would be up dating everyone on the status at 5-00 pm.
I looked at the current weather forecast and with my years of experience around the tracks, didn’t feel very confident that the racing would continue.
So I made my exit and headed for home.
I later discovered from Jim, that the racing didn’t recommence and the intention was to run the next day, on the Holiday Monday, the same as they were going to do at Oswego.
With the weather still iffy on Monday , I decided to stay put at home in Cornwall and watch the rain from my living room window.
The perseverance and ‘know how’ of the track prep crews at Oswego eventually managed to get the SUPER DIRT WEEK show in the books, with Mat Williamson making a sweep for Canada, with a win in the 358’s and the Big Block race. A message from Jim informed me that no racing took place at Peterborough on the Monday.
The happenings of this past weekend brought back memories of SUPER DIRT WEEK 2005 in Syracuse. It rained so much on the Sunday , race fans took to the track in their cars and trucks to try and pack it.
All in vane , and we all had to return in November to see Billy Decker win the Eckerd 200
The rest of my week was spent with I.V.I.G appointments at the hospital and catching up with jobs that I’d neglected at home .
By Thursday the rain had stopped and the sun was shining . A perfect day for a cruise in the T Bird , to enjoy the fall colors.
Coming up this weekend, it’s the Fall Nationals at the Brockville Ontario Speedway.
Let’s hope Mother Nature is going to be kind to us.