RICK @ the RACES (22 to 28 May 2013)
25 May Brockville Ontario Speedway
28 May Cornwall Dirt Raceway Park (Ont)
Last weeks report mentioned how Mother Nature had ruined things for the Cornwall Motor Speedway’s season opener, and this week, things were no better. In fact, it was a lot worse, and as the rain continued through the week, the racing calender was decimated.
I’ll begin on Wednesday when I’d planned to head out to Ottawa and attend the Capital City Speedway opener. I had a dentist appointment in Cornwall in the afternoon, and the plan was to take off for the races after my treatment. With more wet weather forecast for the Ottawa area , and an important Senators V Penguins NHL Stanley Cup play off game taking place that night, it was no surprise to learn of an early cancellation. So, just like many other people, I was confined to my living room watching the hockey game, instead of the race cars.
When Friday came around, it was still raining, and before I finished work at around 3-30 pm , I’d already learned of many rain outs. At that hour of the day, I had ample time to get to either, the Mohawk International Raceway , Can Am and Brewerton Speedways in New York, or Autodrome Granby in Quebec. They’d all fallen victim to the rain, so it was another night, of watching the Senators and Penguins on TV. This was a sudden death game for my trailing ‘Sens’, and they just couldn’t match the skillful and determined Penguins.
The weather forecast for the rest of the weekend was still looking bleak and sure enough, early on Saturday morning more cancellation news started filtering through. Autodrome Drummond in Quebec was one of the first, followed by others south of the border.
Lucky for me, the Brockville Ontario Speedway stayed dry, once again, while surrounding areas got soaked. At around 3.00 pm , I left home in Cornwall in the pouring rain, and by the time I’d reached Brockville I was driving on dry roads. It’s amazing how this track regularly escapes rain outs, while others seem to be prone .
I must admit, the skies looked threatening all night, but a swift turn around of the events, got the show in nice and early.
Winners were Lee Gill (Modifieds)
Shane Pecore (Sportsman) Aaron Pugh (Rookie Sportsman)
Pete Stapper (Vintage)John Gifford (Street Stocks).
Bob Ray (Rookie)
The early finish at the BOS meant , I was back home in Cornwall by 11-30 pm, where it was still raining ! Things didn’t look good !
When I awoke on Sunday , that damn wet stuff was still coming down, and it wasn’t until after 10-30 am that it stopped. Even though the skies started to clear, it was no surprise to hear that, for the second week running the races at the Cornwall Motor Speedway had been called off. After so much rain, the grounds were flooded. With my hockey team no longer in the Stanley Cup, my TV viewing concentrated on the auto sport on offer. There were big races taking place in the USA that day, but I chose to watch TSN who were covering one of the most famous races in the world, the Monaco Grand Prix from Monte Carlo. Nico Rosberg won for Mercedes while Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in the Red Bull Renaults were second and third.
I was back at work for a few days before Tuesday’s (28 May) second attempt for the season opener at the Cornwall Motor Speedway’s kart track ( now renamed the Cornwall Dirt Raceway Park).
This time, the rain stayed away and we witnessed a good night of racing .
As well as the regular karters and lawn tractors, the brand new V Twin DIRT DEMON’s were making their inaugural appearance. Winner of that historic ‘first ever ‘ race was Ron Bovin