RICK @ the RACES (16 to 21 May 2012)
16 May Capital City Speedway, Ottawa, Ont
18 May Mohawk International Raceway, Hogansburg NY
19 May Brockville Ontario Speedway,
20 May Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont
This weeks report starts on Wednesday 16 May when the Capital City Speedway , near Ottawa were holding their preseason Test & Tune.
For quite a few years now, Wednesday’s have been a regular day off on my weekly work schedule, so I was able to arrive in good time . ( My work schedule is about to change, so my racing visits to the Nations Capital will soon be limited)
All of the traditional weekly divisions were represented, including a couple of Brockville’s Vintage dirt Mods.
It’s hoped that if enough drivers are interested, a few dates will be added for them this year. They definitely looked good and would be a welcome addition.
It was good to meet up with my ‘Wednesday Night’ friends again and I’ll miss them in the coming months. As mentioned at the start of this report, my employers, are having a shift ‘shake up’ and next month I will no longer get Wednesdays off.
Looking on the bright side, my new work shift will be Monday’s to Thursdays and I will get Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. This should make it a lot easier for my Friday night racing, and I wont have the usual rush straight from work.
Last Friday I finished work too late to make it to the Mohawk International Raceway’s season opener, but this week I got lucky. I was done, before 5-30 pm which allowed me to make a leisurely trip across the International Bridge at Cornwall to the M.I.R located at Hogansburg NY. This was a nice surprise, considering it was the start of the busy Canadian Victoria Day Long Weekend
When I arrived , I found the pits full of cars, the track in good shape and there plenty of early evening light for picture taking. Just what I’d hoped for !
I joined my buddy, M.I.R track photographer, Andy Watts on the center to snap the action.
A good thing that Andy quickly drew to my attention, was the signs and numbers on my good friend Laurent Ladouceur’s car. For the past few years his cars have been lettered in a luminous paint, which plays havoc with night time flash photography. His car hasn’t been the only one on the track like this, and most of us photographers have a ‘black list’ of cars we avoid taking pictures of, after dark.
It’s a shame, because it’s the sponsors names on the side that suffer. I mentioned it to Laurent and I’m pleased to report, that the luminous lettering is no longer being used . Thank’s Laurent !
Once the action got under way, it was good to see Kevin Fetterly Snr back on track in a Modified after a long lay off
Dale Planck took the Modified Feature
while Dion Oakes got a long overdue win in the Pro Stocks. I was told that it had been two years since his last Feature win. Sportsman champion Dylan Evoy carried on where he left off last year with a win in that division. I didn’t stay for the Mod Lite and Bandit Features and was back home in Cornwall, Ontario before 11-30pm.
The weather forecast for the weekend , predicted warm and sunny weather and sure enough, that’s how it was on Saturday (19 May) when I took off from Cornwall on my way to the Brockville Ontario Speedway. I was there nice and early as usual, and enjoyed my usual pre-race wander around the pits chatting to my friends.
Tabatha Murphy was there with her Sportsman car, complete with new body and new sponsors. A new name on the side is RAXX, which is the name given to a local eatery, situated about ten minutes away from the track.
For the heat races , I stationed myself on the centre in my regular spot on turn one and two, before retiring to the media room to watch the Features.
As always, it was a pleasure to work along side my friend Rosie Estevez for the Victory presentations.
The Modified Feature was very exciting , where Dale Planck once again showed his class.
He was rear ended at the beginning of the race which brought out the cautions, but luckily suffered no serious damage. From the back of the pack he weaved his way to the front until he caught up with race leader Stephane Lafrance.
Steph’s car was using as much space on the track as it could, when ever the challenger made his move. As the last lap approached Planck quickly switched from an outside offensive, to an inside one, which took Lafrance by surprise. He managed to edge past and cruise to the checkers… Great entertaining stuff !
The Sportsman race was quite wild too, but for other reasons !
Last weeks runner up, Corey Wheeler was looking good until his car performed a scary flip on turn two. Corey was OK , then on the restart Chris Herbison went on to take his second Victory. One guy that did impress me was Quebec driver Martin Pelletier who came home a close second. Nick Gauvreau took the Street Stock race while Joe McNichols got his second Rookie Feature.
It was still scorching hot on Sunday (21 May) when I set off for the opener we’d all been waiting for. It was the turn of the Cornwall Motor Speedway with a full program including all the weekly divisions.
The headline event was a combined CANADIAN NATIONALS and 100 lap 358 Modified SUPER DIRT SERIES race so many of the tour favorites were in attendance.
There was a huge crowd packed into the stands, and many of them must have been wondering, whether Planck could make it three in a row ?
When he drew pole position it looked very possible !
With class acts like Danny Johnson and Brett Hearn in the line up , It wasn’t going to be a fore gone conclusion, and for most of the race, it could have been either one of the trio. As the laps wound down ‘the Doctor’ managed to keep some space between himself and the challenging Hearn, while Planck was never far behind.
That’s how they finished , Johnson, Hearn and Planck.
The next big race of the night was the Mohawk Race Parts Series for Pro Stocks.
My buddy Rob Yetman from Albany NY came up for this one, and after a good performance in his heat, looked like a contender for the Feature. At the flag it was Ryan Stabler in first, Ghislain Valade second with Marc Lalonde in third.
The Sportsman race was very exciting too as Corey Wheeler, brushed away his disappointments from the Brockville wreck the night before, to take a very popular win. Derek Cryderman took the Semi Pro Feature while Mathieu Aubin was the Mini Stock winner.
My busy day ended shortly before mid night, and it was just as well, I’d decided against a ‘holiday’ Monday racing trip. The 358 Modified SUPER DIRT SERIES was moving down to the Merrittville Speedway near to Niagara Falls (Ont) and I had reluctantly had to give it a miss. It’s over a six hour drive from Cornwall, and it would have meant, only about two hours of sleep before a Tuesday work start time of 7-30 am. Instead I spent my ‘holiday’ Monday editing pictures and waiting for the result to be known on the internet. By 11-00 pm I’d found out that Brett Hearn took the win, with Chad Brachmann second and Jimmy Phelps third.