Rick @ the Rain-Outs (5th of August 2024 BLOG)
My last BLOG finished , on Sunday 28th of July at the Cornwall Motor Speedway, after twelve consecutive days of racing.
Monday was a day spent catching up on things at home, with the chores that had been neglected .
On Tuesday the 30th of July , I was back on the road again and heading for Autodrome Granby in Quebec.
Following the success of last years inaugural visit of the Short Track Super Series , the tour was back again in 2024 for the second edition of the ‘Lumberjack Swing’.
Just like last year, Granby was to be day one, of a two day visit to Quebec. The R.P.M Speedway at St Marcel Sur Richelieu was scheduled for Wednesday.
The weather forecast for the first night was good, but things looked grim for R.P.M .
I traveled up to this one with my friend Chanty , and on our arrival, we based ourselves at the 124 teams of Mario Clair and Luke Whitteker.
All the tours top dogs had travelled up from the USA so I took a few pit pics before things got started.
While wandering, I met up and chatted with my friend, Anthony Macri , Mat Williamson’s tire man .
The support races that night were for Sportsman and Sport Compacts (Mini Stocks)
After STSS boss, Brett Deyo got things going with a mandatory drivers meeting, the action began.
I started off by taking pics from outside of turn four.
Then moved back to the middle for the rest of the night.
Even though the weather was supposed to be good, thunder clouds could be seen in the distance , so the show was moved along quickly.
The big race was for 60 laps and the early leader was Mat Williamson .
He held a strong lead until , he hit the wall on turn one.
Following this, Mike Mahaney looked good for a few laps with Matt Sheppard, Mario Clair and Stewart Friesen in hot pursuit .
While all this was going on up front , track expert David Hebert was working his way through the field, and after a few cautions he was up into fourth place.
He is the undisputed ‘King’ of Granby, and made easy work of passing the invaders.
When the checkers fell , it was David Hebert taking this historic win.
It was really nice to see him get this one, he’s a great guy, who I have known for many years.
Matt Sheppard was second with Stewart Friesen completing the podium.
After the races , I spent some time socializing in the pits, and it was at this time , word came from the officials, that R.P.M had been cancelled for the next day. Wet weather was imminent , and it would be a wash out.
So my Wednesday was spent at home.
Thursday the 1st of August was a regular night at the Airborne Park Speedway , at Plattsburgh NY .
It was a nice day , so I left home early to check out a few Flea Market stores in Plattsburgh.
I was in the city at 4-00 pm and the weather was still good, but the speedway, located a few miles out of town got hammered, by a heavy storm. When I arrived about 5-00 pm it was clearly evident by the large puddles on the ground.
Track staff were working hard to pack the track, but it was obvious it would take a while.
Well, the storm did enough damage to the track, that by 8-00 pm, after continuous, packing it was still not good enough for racing .
The night was cancelled.
My friend Jamy Begor (one of the Sportsman drivers) took this pic of me and Don Simpson making our exit.
On Friday the 2nd of August , my regular location , the Can Am Speedway at Lafargeville NY , had ESS sprint cars added to the program, so that was my cue for a change of scenery.
Regular readers will know , I’m not a big fan of Sprint Cars.
I decided to head down to the Brewerton Speedway NY, because I hadn’t visited there yet in 2024 .
I had a lovely drive down , with the sun roof open on the Impala as I looked forward to a great night of Big Block Modifieds.
Just as I pulled off the I81 at the Brewerton exit, I spotted a few drops of rain on my windshield, and by the time I got parked up at the track they were getting a bit more frequent.
Every now and then there would be a bit of drizzle as the race teams arrived in the pits.
At first it was nothing serious and the ground stayed relatively dry.
Things still looked good, until about 6-15 pm when the rain started coming down heavy.
The cancellation announcement followed shortly afterwards.
I was soon back in my car and heading back up I81.
The Can Am Speedway is on my way home , and I knew I had enough time to get there, without missing too much.
I arrived as the heat races were taking place and it wasn’t long before I had my chair placed in turn four.
Luckily for me , The regular divisions of 358 Modifieds , Sportsman and the Rookie Sportsman were joining the Sprint Cars on the program. (as well as the 4 cylinders Thunder Cars)
After taking the remaining heat race pics from turn three and four, I moved to turn one for the features.
The first feature was for the Limited Sportsman.
This gave another win to the young Brady Howard
The ESS Sprint Cars then followed.
This was won by Billy Vaninwegen from Port Jervis NY
The modifieds were up next .
After Andrew Howard # 21 took the early lead it wasn’t long before Tim Fuller was on his tail.
Howard held him off for a few laps , but it wasn’t long before Fuller, the track veteran found a way past.
At the checkers it was Tim Fuller to claim his 5th Can Am victory of the year.
The Sportsman feature then followed .
Justin Gadbaw dominated this from green to checkers , with no major challengers to deal with.
The time was only 10-00 pm , but I still chose to make my exit and miss the Thunder Cars (Mini Stocks).
I made good time and was back home in Cornwall by midnight.
I had a nice relaxing day on Saturday before heading across the bridge to my local Mohawk International Raceway.
The program consisted of Modifieds, Sportsman, Rookie Sportsman, Pro Stocks and Mini Stocks.
The night began by ‘playing catch up’ with the Pro Stock feature that got rained out two weeks ago.
This was won by Kevin Fetterley Jr.
After this , the heats for the regular nights racing began
The first of the features , was for the Mini Stocks .
CJ LaVair made it a hatrick with this one, after winning double features the previous week .
The Rookie Sportsman were up next
Winner of this one was Camdin Cook from Evans Mills NY
The Modified feature was up next and it proved to be a history making event.
After an early battle for the lead with Preston Forbes, Chris Raabe took control and led this race to the end.
By winning this race he became the ‘winningest’ Modified driver of all time at this track.
This victory surpassed Carey Terrance, the former title holder who has 33 wins. Not only that, Chris has 15 wins from his days there racing a Sportsman.
The next race was the Sportsman feature
This was won by Cory Castell from nearby Fort Covington
The last race of the night was the Pro Stock feature.
This was won by Gabriel Caouette after fending off Bastien Caron for most of the race.
The races were all done by 10-30 pm , and even after a 15 minute line up at the border , I was home before 11-00.
Sunday was another relaxing day at home as I prepared for the nights races at the Cornwall Motor Speedway.
My car was packed with camera stuff, and I sat chilling out on the front porch.
As I sat there at 3-30 pm, , the skies got darker and before long there was huge thunder and lightening storm. A lot of rain fell in a period of nearly 30 minutes. Things didn’t look good as more rain was expected later that night.
When it eased off , I drove across town to the Speedway to check things out.
I never actually got there .
As I was about to drive up Brookdale Ave ( the main drag to the Canada /USA, Customs ) , I spotted the race car haulers of Carey Terrance and Kristian Smoke heading back towards the border in the opposite direction to me .
After stopping to check my phone, the expected cancellation had been announced.
So it was another case of ‘Rick @ the Rain-Outs’ and my Sunday night was spent beside the barbecue with a couple of beers