
RICK @ the RACES ( 5 to 9 June 2013)
5 June Capital City Speedway, Ottawa
8 June Brockville Ontario Speedway
9 June Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont
After a long list of rain outs, the Cornwall Motor Speedway and Capital City Speedway in Ottawa, both got their season openers in the books, this past weekend.
My report begins on Wednesday when the Capital City Speedway made its third attempt to start their year. It was a nice day at last, and an early finish from work allowed me to be there in good time for the first race.
Joining the regular divisions of Late Models,
Legends, Thunder Cars, Mini Stocks and Four For Fun, were the Vintage Mods and Go Karts.
Since the Vintage Mods recently started visiting the CCS, they have become my favorite division at this track, and a good turn out of cars gave us some entertaining racing.
With an early start at work the next day, I decided to ,only watch the heats, before making my way back home to Cornwall.
It had been a nice clear night on Wednesday, but once again, as the weekend approached, the weather changed for the worse. It rained through Thursday night and into Friday morning, and it wasn’t too long before a string of cancellations came through.
My destination, the Mohawk International Raceway was an early casualty , as well as my back up plans of Can Am or Granby. So, Friday night was spent at home.
It rained for most of Saturday in my home town of Cornwall , and it came as a bit of a surprise when I learned that the Brockville Ontario Speedway was still running.
I took my regular drive down Hwy 401 and arrived in a dry Brockville at about 4-30 pm . After grabbing a snack in Tim Hortons, I carried on towards the track, but by the time I’d reached Tincap, it had started to rain. It was still raining quite a bit when I arrived at the B.O.S , just as the race teams were sheltering in the haulers.
It was beginning to look like I’d made a wasted trip, but then the rain stopped.
Luckily there hadn’t been enough of it to ‘lose’ the surface, and after a bit of track packing the hot laps were able to take place.
Winners that night were Lee Gill (Modified)
Nicolas Gauvreau (Street Stocks) Quincy Roberts (Rookie) and Paul Klager (Mod Lites). The rain delay at the start meant a late finish, and it was about 1-00 am before I crawled into bed.
After all the wet weather we’d been having , I had my doubts about the Cornwall Motor Speedway’s chances of getting in it’s fourth attempt to start the season . I’d even figured out a ‘plan B’ if there was an early cancellation. The Canadian Grand Prix was being held Sunday afternoon in Montreal, and that would of been my target.
As things turned out, I had a lay in on Sunday morning, and once woken, I was greeted by a warm and sunny day. It was just what the Cornwall Motor Speedway needed !
I was there early and by 1.30 pm in the afternoon there was already a line up of race car haulers at the pit gate. After three consecutive rain outs, the starved race teams and fans began to invade the place, and before the first event got under way, a record breaking 156 cars had booked in.
The big influx of cars, meant pit parking became difficult, and there was a slight delay before the first race could take place. Of course, extra cars, means extra races and it became obvious it was going to be a long night.
I have to be at work very early on Monday mornings, so I knew I’d have to miss some of the show.
Directly following Stephane Lafrance’s Modified Feature win ( which was about mid night) I had to make my exit. At this stage there were three more Feature races to go !
I missed seeing Chris Herbison take a win in the Sportsman,
Dave Bissonnette in the Pro Stocks and Nicolas Gauvreau in the Semi Pro’s.
Prior to the Modified Feature, Joel Pilon won in the Ministocks and
The night was action packed and there were many spectacular wrecks, which also helped to make things run late. Once I was home, I got a bit of sleep before starting my work shift.
Sundays good weather did not last, and by Tuesday , rain had returned, to force a cancellation Cornwall’s Kart night.