RICK @ the RACES (25/26/27 July 2014)
Friday 25 July Mohawk International Raceway NY
Saturday 26 July Brockville Ontario Speedway,
Sunday 27 July Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont (WORLD of OUTLAWS)
It was another weekend spent at my local tracks, and as usual the Mohawk International Raceway was my Friday night destination.
A nice 5-45 pm finish at work, allowed me time to drop by my house for a quick wash and change before heading over the bridge to the USA.
It was a big night at the M.I.R where the SEAWAY SPORTSMAN Series had attracted many travelling teams. My buddy Andy Watts, the resident photographer was a bit late arriving, due to work commitments in Boston , Mass, so I spent the heat races by myself on turn three and four.
The first Feature of the night was for the Bandits, and was won once again by Randy Whiting.
The intermission followed this while track prep took place.
Next feature up, was the Mod Lites and this also provided a repeat winner with young Jesse Hudson from Oxford Station, Ont. getting the checkers.
The Modified Feature was up next, and what a good one this was. It’s not often we get to see a first time winner, but we did on this occasion. Former Sportsman, driver Tom Conklin scored his first victory since moving up to Modifieds.
The forty lap Sportsman race, also provided ‘a first’, this time for Shane Pecore, with a first time Sportsman victory for him at the M.I.R track .
Once again the swift running of the program, got me out of there, soon after 10-30 pm and back at home before 11-00 pm.
This weekend, the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars were visiting my area, with back to back shows at Autodrome Drummond on Saturday and the Cornwall Motor Speedway on Sunday.
I knew it was going to be a long day on Sunday, so opted to miss out on the Drummond show, in favor of staying nearer to home, at the Brockville Ontario Speedway. I figured it would be late finish at Drummond, and of course the journey up there takes twice as long.
I took off from Cornwall late in the afternoon and was at the B.O.S by 6-00pm. I had my usual wander around the pits chatting with friends before taking my place on the middle for the heat races. I was joined out there by my photographer buddy Don Simpson, and must take this opportunity to mention his new web site. www.girlsonwheelsphoto.com check it out !
I watched the Feature races from up in the media booth, and the first one to run was for the Rookie Sportsman. The winner was no surprise, to those of us, who have seen the young Brianna Ladouceur in action before, in other divisions. 
She was very successful in the kids Karts at Cornwall before moving on to the Dirt Demons. Since then, she’s moved into the Sportsman division this season, and with Dale Planck as her coach, it was only a matter of time before she got to Victory Lane.
There was a 25 lap Feature for the regular Rookies (Mini Stocks) up next which was won by Tyson Slinger.
The Sportsman and Modified Features followed this, with two familiar faces taking the number one spots.
Dylan Evoy won in the Sportsman, while Danny O’Brien overhauled long time leader, Jordon McCreadie on the last lap to take the Modified win.
I took off in the direction of home once the Mods were done, missing the final Feature for the Street Stocks which was won in my absence by Nick Geauvreau.
I left the B.O.S at 9-45 pm and was back at my place in Cornwall by 11-00 pm. I went through plenty of rain on the journey and it was still pouring down when I got home. After doing a bit of picture editing, I was in bed before 1-00 am, but was woken at around 4-00am by the deafening noise of a thunderstorm. After getting back to sleep for a few more hours, my alarm clock went off just before 8-00 am, and was pleased to see the rain had stopped.
The reason I was up so early, was for the live TV coverage of the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix from Budapest.
What a race that turned out to be ! One of the best this year with a great win for Australian, Daniel Ricardo in the Red Bull, who passed second placed Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari in the closing laps . England’s Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes climbed up to an impressive third place finish, after having to start from the rear of the grid ( due to a mechanical disaster in qualifying). Hamilton came home in front of fellow Mercedes driver and championship leader Nico Rosberg, to narrow the points deficit a little.
After watching the Grand Prix, I got my stuff together, so I could make an early arrival at the Cornwall Motor Speedway. With the World of Outlaws paying a visit, it was important not to be there too late. I was there before noon and already people were starting to arrive.
I stationed myself up in the tower and was soon joined by Eloy Gutierrez , a scorer and ‘back room’ guy for the World of Outlaws. We’ve met a few times in the past, and I always enjoy chatting with him. Eloy from New Mexico, was later joined by Johnny Gibson, the ‘Voice of the Outlaws’.
The weather forecast wasn’t looking good, and Johnny was keeping an eye on the radar. At about 1-00 pm a dark cloud went over , and we had a short sharp down pour that lasted about ten minutes. It soon dried up, and although we ‘weren’t out of the woods’ yet, we all began to feel a bit more optimistic.
A short while later the pit gates opened and the big-rig sprint car haulers started arriving . Once a few of them had been parked , I wandered down to the pits, to take a look.
I had one goal that day, and that was to get a picture taken of myself and the great Steve Kinser. For many years Steve has been the undisputed ‘King’ of sprint car racing, and announced this year would be his last and after this farewell tour , would go into retirement. My camera was handed over to CMS official Hugh Primeau, to do the honours.
While in the pits , I also had a chat with Danny Schatz, father of Donny, current top dog of the sport, and winner at Cornwall when the WoO visited last. Several years back, when I was at a WoO show at the Rolling Wheels Raceway NY, I had a few beers after the races, with Danny, and it was good to meet up with him again.
Joining the World of Outlaws on the nights program, were the Modifieds, Sportsman and the visiting Lightening Sprints from Quebec.
Once the racing got under way I took up my position on the middle.
With the weather still a threatening issue, I’m pleased to say the show got under way OK and we had no major delays.
The first Feature race was for the Lightening Sprints and won by Guillaume Nedeirer. Local racer Shane Pecore then took the Sportsman 20 lapper before the headling ‘Outlaws’ came out for their 40 lap main event. Australian, Kerry Madsen took the early lead, but was passed by Donny Schatz on lap 10. Schatz then went on to collect his second Cornwall victory, while the up and coming Logan Schuhart, got an impressive third place.
The 30 lap Modified Feature ended the nights racing, and after keeping the late challenging Chris Raabe at bay, Carey Terrance ( who’s company TWINLEAF were sponsoring the evening) took a popular win. The program was all over by 10-30 pm and what a relief it was too, to beat Mother Nature !
Finally, before signing off for this week, I must mention, one of my friends and regular Media guys who was missing from Cornwall’s races this week. Sylvain Lauwers was absent for the big one, while taking his vacation on Prince Edward Island. While there, he managed to visit the Oyster Bed Speedway and sent me this report and some pics. Thanks Sylvain, I’ve added some of your pics to this report, and I’ll get Craig to put the rest of the pics in the Friends Foto’s section.
From Sylvain Lauwers:
My first visit to PEI was in 2009. A friend of mine from Eastern Ontario who arrived here a few days before me told me “Did you know that there’s a Speedway on the Island?”. No I didn’t but a few days later I found that small highly banked paved speedway. Since that day I was hoping to comeback to PEI and watch some racing action at Oyster Bed Speedway. Finally this year I had this opportunity as I came with my daughter and some friends out east.
We have arrived on Island saturday afternoon just on time to get our motel’s rooms, unpack our car and go to the track.
People we’re friendly (like most of the islanders) and cooperative. A young lady introduced me to Mike – the track manager. After a short explanation of the reason of my visit he kindly showed me where were the best places to take pictures around the speedway: the flagstand and the judges lookout located on the backstretch. ”What about the infield?” I asked. Mike look at me with surprised eyes and said “Euh, no! Here cars cross infield on a regular basis. It isn’t safe for someone to stand there.”
I understood what he meant during a Street Stock division heat race as a driver realized that he had a right rear flat tire and just went through the infield (from the backstretch to the flagstand) in order to enter the pits all this under the green flag !
People who know me, know that I am not a big fan of paved Speedway’s. BUT, the drivers of Oyster Bed Speedway impressed me!I would say that the guys here are racing on paved with a DIRT attitude. They aren’t afraid of going 3 wide at any point of the track. If you go too high in turns 1 & 2, there’s a 10 feet deep ditch to welcome you… with a wall of tires to “smoothen” your landing !
Rick had given me 2 Rick at the Races stickers and I bought a T-shirt from him to giveaway here. During the intermission I walked to the pits and spotted that fuchsia & black Dodge Neon with a lady besides it. It was Sarah Jay and her #30 Mini-Stock car. She was happy to accept a her Rick at the Races sticker. Next I went towards the Late Models cars and I met Byron Bartlett with his #7 machine. Nice man who has been racing for more than 2 decades. He accepted my second sticker. Him and his crew are from St-John, New Brunswick and we’re at Oyster Bed Speedway for an invitational 100-lap event. Now Rick at the Races is also represented in N-B!
I didn’t know yet what i was going to do with the T-shirt. But as the Mini-Stock feature finished , I knew to who I was going to give it to: 2nd place finish driver Charles Woolaver #10 car who battled literally “side-by-side, door to door and hub to hub” with feature’s winner Jason Baglole for at least 3 laps all the way to the checkered flag. Baglole won the feature by “a nose length” over Woolaver. So as a consolation prize and for his driving skills the T-shirt went to Charles Woolaver.
So, it is “Mission Accomplished” for me in PEI !
Thanks Rick Young for letting me share these words & pictures with your regular followers.