RICK @ the RACES (5 March 2011)
5 March Pointe Du Lac, Trois Rivieres (Que)
As this past weekend approached I had no events on my agenda and it looked like I was in for a bit of relaxation behind the TV set. The month of March heralds the end of the ice racing season in the north east and it’s still too early for any regular racing to begin. There was an ice race taking place at Baie Comeau north of Quebec City , but I didn’t fancy driving that far.
Just in case there was something happening nearer to home that I was unaware of, I contacted my friend Clo Gibbs who is on the pulse of racing in the province of Quebec. BINGO ! On Friday night I got a message from her confirming that races were taking place at a track I’d never heard about. Apparently the DRIFT MANIAC club that puts on ice races each Sunday at Mont Carmel also run events each Saturday at Pointe Du Lac close to Trois Rivieres. I quickly signed up as a ‘Face Book Friend’ of the DRIFT MANIAC club and before going to bed on Friday night, I’d found out that the races began at 11-30 am Saturday morning.
The weather forecast had not been good, and sure enough when I left home in Cornwall, Ontario at 7-30 am it was pouring with rain. Even though the track at Pointe du Lac is land based, I was pretty certain that rain would cause a cancellation. Trois Rivieres is a long way from Cornwall , so being forever optimistic I took the gamble. Even so, I was thinking to my self , I must be crazy, and the chance of getting lucky would be very slim.
As I drove across the provincial border the rain turned to sleet and by the time I got to Montreal it was snowing. This cheered me up, because I knew that a bit of snow wouldn’t necessarily stop the racing. Clo had given me some good directions and I easily found the track located at exit 192 of Autoroute 40 . It’s close to the Autoroute exit, and situated on the grounds of a disused ‘Drive in Movie’ theater.
As I pulled off the highway it was still snowing heavily but I could see a bunch of race cars on trailers and straight away my adrenalin started pumping. It looked like I was going to see some action after all !
Not long after I arrived , the HHR was parked in the pits and I soon made friends with Michel Marcouiller, the DRIFT MANIAC organizer. Even though we had the inevitable language differences, we got along well and he invited me into the control office for a coffee with the rest of his friendly team. This was the first time I’d actually met Michel, although I’d seen him race on a couple of occasions at the Mont Carmel and Sainte Genevieve De Batiscan tracks in the past.
There were just over 20 cars in attendance and they were split into different divisions depending on the car size and studs used on the tires. The track is ‘D’ shaped and about three-eighths of a mile in length. Soon after the drivers meeting the racing got underway and I attempted to get some pictures. The snow was still coming down heavily as the racing took place so the quality of my images suffered ‘big time’.
After watching the first half of the program I made my departure and took off in the direction of home. Point Du Lac became # 193 on my TRACKCHASING totals.
I didn’t go straight home because there was another place I wanted to visit. About 30 minutes south of Trois Riviers at Berthierville, the Gilles Villeneuve Museum is located and I wanted to take a look. The museum is dedicated to the legendary Canadian F1 driver who tragically lost his life while qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix in 1982.
Of course, Gilles was the father of Jaques Villeneuve who I had the pleasure of meeting a few years back at the Canadian Motorports Expo in Toronto. Since his fathers death Jaques went on to become the most accomplished Canadian race car driver by winning the F1 World Championship, the highest level in auto racing.
I’d passed the Berthierville exit of Autoroute 40 many times in the past and had never had time to stop, so this was my golden opportunity.
It’s not a big museum , but there was plenty to interest me with cars on display of both Gilles and Jacques.
I spent about 30 minutes looking round before heading back to a rainy Cornwall.