RICK @ the RACES ( 28 Sept 2013)
28 Sept Cornwall Dirt Raceway Park, Ont
28 Sept Evans Mills Speedway, N.Y
After returning from my UK trip on Tuesday night ( 24 Sept) and having to be back at work for 5-00 am on Wednesday morning , I was happy that the past weekend was a quiet one. I had nothing planned for Friday night or Sunday , but Saturday was a full schedule.
While I was over in England, last weeks finale for Kart, Lawn Tractor and Dirt Demons at the Cornwall Dirt Raceway Park, was postponed because of rain. The new date was a week later, and the first race was scheduled for 1-00 pm. I’d already planned my agenda for Saturdays racing, but when I heard about this, it was easy enough to fit it in to my day.
So, at about mid day I took the short drive over to the Cornwall Dirt Raceway Park and already the teams were arriving in the pits. I had no intention of being there all afternoon for the full show, so following the heat races, I made my exit .
My evenings destination was the Evans Mills Speedway, New York, so after taking a short drive down Hwy 401, I crossed into the U.S.A at Ogdensburgh.
I don’t get to the paved Evans Mills track very often, so was quite looking forward to it. My first visit there, was back in April 2004 when it went under the name of Thunder Alley, after being transformed from ‘paved’ to ‘dirt’. The season opener was on April 22 and it was a round of the Big Block Modified SUPER DIRT SERIES. I remember the track being very bumpy, and the eventual winner that night was local driver Tim McCreadie. Also on that historic occasion, I met up with top Track Chasers Randy Lewis from California, and Will White from Pennsylvania.
Back to the present, and with the Evans Mills track now returned to ‘paved’ , a special end of season show had been planned with a big financial boost for the Modifieds.
It looked like a good field of cars would be attracted, but on arrival, the amount of Modifieds parked in the pits was a bit disappointing. Joining the regulars, there were just two visiting drivers from the Airborne Speedway at Plattsburgh NY , Craig Reyell and Montreal’s Pat McGrail .
As for the other divisions , it was good to see, some of my local Capital City Speedway (Ottawa) drivers in attendance. Chris Zieren and Dave Riopelle in the Legends and Todd Musker in Super Stocks (Late Models) .
Regardless of the poor turn out of Modifieds, I still had a great night, laughing and joking with my photographer friends Rebecca Eisele and Mike Johnson. It’s always a fun night when the three of us get together.
There were plenty of other divisions racing, but the two, I was most interested in were the Modifieds and Legends.
Zieren took an easy win in the Legends ,
while Jordon McCreadie ( brother of Tim and son of ‘Barefoot Bob’) got a well earned Modified win,
after long time leader McGrail got sidelined with a broken drive shaft. So, nearly nine years after my first visit, I got to see another McCreadie take the checkers, and this time, it was young Jordon. That was a real treat to witness, and after we’d taken the regular Victory Lane Pics, Rebecca got one of me and him too. Thanks Rebecca !
The evenings show ended with an Enduro, but I was out of the gates and heading back to Canada before that got under way.