Weedsport Speedway NY (23/24/25 2015)
Fri 23 Oct Weedsport Speedway NY ( 358 SDS)
Sat 24 Oct Rolling Wheels Raceway Park, Elbridge NY
Sat 24 Oct Watkins Glenn Racing Circuit , NY
Sat 24 Oct Black Rock Speedway, Dundee NY
Sat 24 Oct Weedsport Speedway NY
On this past weekend in late October, like most race fans in the North East I would of normally been at the traditional Eastern States Weekend at the Orange County Fair Speedway , Middletown NY. For some reason, a DIRTCAR Series weekend at the Weedsport Speedway , NY was scheduled to clash with it this year. Weedsport had a 358 Modified Super Dirt Series event on Friday, and a Big Block and Sportsman Series race scheduled for Saturday .
In the world of Dirt Modified racing, the Eastern States Weekend, is considered by most , to be second only to Super Dirt Week ( some fans even regard it higher ! )
So this left fans and drivers to decide which event they would attend. For me, the decision was made easier, by my recent health issues, so I ended up opting for Weedsport which is located three hours nearer to my home in Cornwall, Ontario than Middletown.
For some people it was a more difficult decision, and even planned to try and make it to both. The Big Block Modified race at Weedsport was Scheduled for Saturday where as the Big Block Modified’s were qualifying Friday at Middletown with the big race, as tradition, on the Sunday.
I traveled from Cornwall , to the Friday evening show at Weedsport with my buddy Ron Morin in his luxurious Lincoln. We booked into the Thomas Motel at nearby , Cammilus and were at the track in good time for the racing. It was great to be back with my photographer friends of Central New York again.
It was a bitterly cold night, sitting out on the middle taking pictures, but the racing was good, and so was the company.
Support division for the 358 SDS race , were the Go Nuclear Late Models, and once again my friend Adam Turner was there with his ‘Tribute to Craig Revelle’ car
Ron and I had more interest in the 358 race, as his grandson Gage Morin was taking part in the Cliff Merpaw owned # 3 .
As well Gage, there were other Canadians taking part and there were few teams, where the 2015 Championship was at stake. A good place by Chris Raabe # 01 would clinch the title, whereas a trailing, Steve Bernard # 54 still had a chance,
The early leader for many laps was #21 Kenny Wills, who I must admit, was a driver I was unfamiliar with, with Larry Wight , Jimmy Phelps and Chris Raabe in hot pursuit.
As Wills started to drop back, Raabe got some kind of mechanical problem ( looked like rear end) and had to make trips back to the pits. It was obvious he had a problem that wasn’t a quick fix, and had to be content with limping to the end of 125 lapper from the back of the field. 
As the race got closer to the checkers , Jimmy Phelps and Larry Wight were dueling , with Jimmy being the first to cross the line.
358 Championship contender, Steve Bernard had been consistent , and came home in eighth place, which was good enough to clinch the title from Raabe.
There have been lots of improvements and changes at Weedsport over the past couple of years, and one of which is the Victory Lane. Instead of taking pics of the winner on the track at the start/finish line , we now do it with the car and driver parked on an impressive ‘Victory Mound’ on the grass.
FLASHBACK to 2008
Like I said earlier , it had been a really cold night, so once the presentations were done, Ron and I chose to miss the Late Model feature, so made our exit and went back to Cammilus.
We had plenty of time to kill on Saturday before the evening show, so took off for a joy ride in the Lincoln
First we stopped in at the nearby Rolling Wheels Raceway at Elbridge NY, where there was some kind of work taking place to the perimeter fence.
From there we traveled down through the Finger Lakes wine growing region to the Watkins Glenn Racing Circuit.
We spotted some RV’s in the pit area , and it looked like there was something going on , but after making enquiries at the main gate, found it to be , nothing but a beer festival, so never bothered stopping.
By now it was time to head back towards Weedsport, but not before passing by the nearby Black Rock Speedway, at Dundee NY. 
They did have a show taking place , and a few cars were already taking warm up laps. 
The Go Nuclear Late Models had moved on from the previous night at Weedsport and we spotted our friend Adam Turner out on track with the Craig Revelle Tribute car.
We then got on our way again in the direction of Weedsport, and during the drive, we encountered some heavy rain. Things didn’t look good but , as we got nearer to the track, the rain stopped and we were driving on dry roads.
Racing had already started when we arrived, and so we began watching from media tent on turn three/four.
Well the rain we’d gone through , on our way, must have followed us, because before the show reached the intermission, it started to fall, with the wet track forcing cars back to the pits.
After a while the inevitable postponement announcement came, saying the show would continue the next day at 1-30 pm.
After chatting and socializing with friends, we returned to our motel in Cammilus.
We hadn’t planned on an extra day , and both of us guessed , that Sunday’s show would also ‘not happen’, so in the morning , we returned back to Canada.
Sure enough, by the time I got home and checked my e-mail, I had the media release saying Sunday’s Big Block and Sportsman Super Dirt Series races had been canceled .
I also got news , about the Eastern States results from Midletown. Things went a lot better down there and the winner was local hero Tommy Meirer. Thanks to my buddy Boris Rudzinski for the picture