RICK @ the RACES ( 27 Oct 2012)
27 Oct Five Mile Point Speedway, NY
As the racing season winds down, the remaining events on my agenda involve traveling south. I had two basic choices this past weekend, either the ‘Brawl in the Fall’ at the Hagerstown Speedway, Maryland or the ROC Dirt Finale at the Five Mile Point Speedway in New York. Five Mile Point takes between four and five hours to get to from my place , where as Hagerstown is almost ten hours. The choice was easy ! especially when I consider the bad ‘track record’ of cancellations I’ve encountered on my previous visits to the latter.
The Five Mile Point Speedway was staging a two day event, but a doctors appointment on Friday meant that the Saturday show would be the only one for me. Actually I had another ‘Doctors Appointment’ on Saturday night, but more of that later !
The Saturday sector of the show included, Sling Shots, Street Stocks, and IMCA Modifieds with the 358 Modifieds topping the bill with the final round of the ROC DIRT SERIES.
The weather forecast wasn’t perfect, and there was a strong chance of rain , but with fingers crossed , I left my place in Cornwall, Ontario at around 10-00 am on Saturday morning. Start time was at 3-45 pm and I arrived at the track with 15 minutes to spare.
Since my last visit to Five Mile Point back in 2009, the location of the pits had changed. I now parked my car where the pits used to be, and the new place for the race cars was high in the bush beyond the back straight.
Once I’d figured out how to get there, the first people I bumped in to were Danny Johnson and his car owner Mike Payne. After a brief chat with them , I wandered further , and came across my friends, the Martin family. Christine Martin was racing her 358 Mod and dad Wayne and mum (also) Christine were there with her.
They were excited about a deal they had struck for next year, where for the 2013 season they will be racing at the Penn Cann Speedway in PA each Friday night. Beside the Martins I found Kevin Bates , who was being interviewed by my fellow media buddy , Doug Elkins of www.dougsdirtdiary.com
I ended up chatting in the pits for quite a while, and missed my chance to get out on the middle for the opening heats, so took the opportunity of taking some pics from the outside by the exit of turn four. I was quite pleased with the results, and I got some unique shots from a different angle.
For the Features, I crossed onto the middle to a position I’m accustomed to. The show had moved along quite swiftly and I’d high hopes of getting away nice and early, but a ‘painful’ 40 lap Street Stock race put and end to that theory !
I lost count of the cautions , and was relieved when it was over. Apart from that one little ‘downer’ the rest of the racing was excellent.
The 100 lap Modified Feature had enough lead changes between Danny Johnson and Rick Laubach to make it interesting .
As Laubach slipped back , Jimmy Phelps and Stewart Friesen moved up to make the challenge,
but when the checkers fell, it was the ‘Doctor’ for my Victory Lane ‘appointment’.
Even with that Street Stocks race delay, the main event was over by 10-00pm and after getting my Victory pics, I was on my way home 15 minutes later.
With the minimum of stops, I was back home in Cornwall just after 3-00 am Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, down in Hagerstown MD , the Saturday night rain had beaten them, and they had high hopes to run the show on Sunday. Continued wet weather caused this idea to be shelved, and the event has now been postponed to Sunday 11 November.