Money Mat wins the ‘OUTLAW 200’ (8th of Oct 2024 BLOG )
I ended my last Blog on Thursday the 3rd of October after returning from the Montreal Airport to drop off my friend Lynn , who was catching her return flight back to England.
One of my favorite annual events was coming up at the weekend , but before I could go there, I had to attend a doctors appointment in Ottawa .
It was a routine , twice a year meeting with the neurologist that takes care of my Myasthenia Gravis condition.
The big event taking place over the weekend that I always look forward to , is the OUTLAW 200 at the Fulton Speedway NY.
It was a two day show starting on Friday .
My appointment in Ottawa was in the morning so I decided to miss the opening night. Sprint Cars were part of the program on Friday , so no big deal for me to miss it. (not a fan of sprint cars)
I got home around lunch time from my Docs appointment and spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting my stuff ready for an early start on Saturday.
Meanwhile, down in Fulton they’d experienced rain, after the show got started, so decided to run the remainder of the program , the following morning , starting at 10-00am.
They hoped to be finished before 2-00pm , then reopen the gates at 4-00 pm for the scheduled Saturday show.
One of the divisions with their feature race still to run was the Pro Stocks so I hoped I’d make in time for that.
Well, I left home in Cornwall at 9-00 am and after a few stops along the way arrived at the track about 1-00 pm .
By the time I’d parked the car and entered , the Pro Stock feature was in it’s final laps .
I saw Luke Horning take the checkers from high up on the banking
Following this they had a hand full of Sportsman consi’s, left to run before concluding the ‘rain-delayed’ first day.
I then returned to the parking lot and took a snooze.
An hour or so later, the pit gates reopened and I entered the pits .
I had a wander around and chatted with my friends on the Mat Williamson crew.
I then set my stuff up in my usual spot on turn 3 and 4, and waited for the warm ups to begin.
There were plenty of my ‘Tog’ buddies there too.
The Saturday program consisted of the OUTLAW 200 for the 358 Modifieds and a 50 lapper for the Sportsman .
The qualifying for the Sportsman had been done the previous night, except for their Last Chance Qualifiers scheduled for Saturday
After all the qualifying was done the big races began.
First up was the 50 lapper for the Sportsman
Emmett Waldron was the Winner of this one was
Hunter Hollenbeck was second and Clayton Brewer III , completed the podium .
It was now time for the big one. The ‘OUTLAW 200’
This years race would turn out to be one of the best I’ve seen for a long time.
After passing Jimmy Phelps, Tim Fuller became the early leader, and as Mat Williamson homed in, we were treated to nearly 40 laps of ‘cat and mouse’ lead changing.
A caution closed the field , and as Fuller slipped back , Phelps , Stewart Friesen and Matt Sheppard moved up into striking distance of Williamson.
Phelps looked the best of the challengers and another bout of lead changing developed between the front runners . Friesen was up there too, with Sheppard challenging him.
It was developing into one hell of a good race when the yellow flag came out to signify the 100 lap half way pit stop.
Jimmy Phelps was leading at this stage.
Car problems prevented Matt Sheppard returning to the track.
Two drivers opted to stay on track for their 15 minute pit stop which allowed them to stay on the lead lap .
So David Marcuccillo and Brian Calabrese began part two of the race on the front of the grid, with Williamson and Phelps behind them on row two.
It didn’t take long before the front row guys were passed, and another Phelps and Williamson battle developed .
As the race progressed it looked very likely that one or the other would win, once the Stewart Friesen car got sidelined with mechanical issues.
All the time this was going on, Mike Mahaney had been working his way up to third , and was trying to pass Phelps on the top groove for second , when a caution came out on lap 191.
On the restart, Williamson regained his lead as the Mahaney car came into contact with Phelps, causing it to spin out.
The Phelps car had to be towed off , while Mahaney rejoined the race, after being docked a few position.
This put Matt Janczuk and Darren Smith behind Williamson for the restart.
During the final nine laps Smith passed Janczuk to follow Williamson to the checkers.
What a race ! , I wont forget that one,
By the time Victory Lane presentations were over, it was 12-45 (past midnight) , when I made my exit.
I hadn’t expected such a late finish and had no hotel booked, so decided to drive straight home. I pulled into my driveway in Cornwall at 4-20 am.
I managed to sleep until 10-00 am on Sunday morning before, taking off on my next engagement.
The Cornwall Motor Speedway also had a weekend show going on called RACE FEST . It mainly involved the divisions I have no interest in.
On day two, a few Modifieds and Sportsman were added to the program for two sessions of hot laps and a short ten lap race, as a qualifier for the following weeks big race at the track, during the “Canadian Dirt Week”.
Don Simpson covered for me in Victory Lane duties on Saturday while I was at Fulton.
Sunday’s portion began at 2-00pm .
There were, STR’s,
Lightening Sprints,
Street Stocks,
Vintage Mods
and Modlites
in addition to the aforementioned Sportsman and Mods .
Afternoon racing in the sunshine is never ideal, for dirt racing and as you’d expect the track got hard and ‘rubbered up’ .
When you have a show such as this , with so many diverse divisions , it’s difficult to determine which was the headline event.
It was definitely a big deal for the STR’s with Drummond promoter and Modified pilot Yan Bussierre taking the win and the 2024 season Champion ship.
Todd Raabe was the Streetstock winner.
Lightening Sprints winner was Keven Boucher Carrier
Pierre Olivier Trudel was the Mod-Lite winner
As usual there were two winners in the Vintage , depending on the year. Randy Gaudet won the 70/80’s and Shawn Hodge 50/60’s
The Modified and Sportsman 10 lap dashes ended the day with Carey Terrance taking the Modifieds
and Nick Merkely the Sportsman.
The show was all over, at around 6-00 pm , just what I needed after a busy weekend.
Monday morning, I had a dentist appointment to have four teeth taken out and a filling, so my afternoon was spent recuperating LOL.
The plan for Tuesday night was to attend the annual Hurricane Harvey at the Brewerton Speedway NY and I left home at 10-15 in the morning.
I only live five minutes from the Canadian/USA border and was in the process of grabbing my ‘Timmies to go’ from the drive thru when my phone ‘pinged’.
It was a message from my photographer buddy, John Meloling in Syracuse, informing me that Brewerton was canceled (expected rain).
Luckily I was only half a mile from home, so it saved me paying for toll bridge money and a lot of wasted time and gas.
Cheers John
So within minutes of leaving home, I was back again, I spent the rest of the day with more R & R.
In the afternoon I took the Thunderbird out for drive and dropped into the Cornwall Motor Speedway, to chat with staff getting ready for the big CANADIAN DIRT weekend ahead.