A Week at the Volusia Speedway Park (20th Feb 2025 BLOG)
My last BLOG ended on Sunday the 9th of February.
I’d just arrived at the Sundeck Motel in Ormand Beach , the base for the final week of my 2025 drive south to the DirtCar Nationals being held at the Volusia Park Speedway.
That Sunday happened to be Super Bowl night, so there was not much local racing going on .
I had no time to waste watching the Super Bowl on TV, so went into town and treated myself at the OUTBACK Steak House.
I planned to be at Volusia for the next six nights.
On Monday the 10th and Tuesday the 11th , the USAC Sprint Cars shared the program with the Late Models.
The track is a about a 30 minute drive from the Sundeck , and I was there around 3-30pm to sign in and pick up my photographers vest from DirtCar’s Nick Graziano in the media tent.
At this time I bumped into my long time friend, Mike Perrotte, ex driver, former Airborne Park Speedway promoter, and a previous SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES director . He’s been out of the picture for a while , but had been called back into service as the Pace Car driver.
Picture ops at Volusia are not the best, so I always take a ladder to shoot over the infield fence. I parked my equipment cart on the inside of the exit of turn one and set up my ladder there.
For the first two nights I’d be concentrating on the USAC’s , my preferential division on those nights.
Once again . I’d be taking pics of fellow Brit, Tom Harris , the current BriSCA F1 World Champion who was there with his USAC Sprint Car team.
While I was in Tom’s pit area , his dad, Mick , introduced me to another familiar face from the UK .
Over 30 years ago , when I was still living in the UK, Richard Ainsworth from Cumbria, was one of the top drivers .
Back then he was sponsored by ACE Plant, a heavy equipment company based in Stony Stratford (Bucks) where I once lived.
Richard (# 354) was a regular participant at the Long Track Final at Baarlo ,in the Netherlands that was a place I loved attending.
The big winners on Monday night were Kyle Cummins (USAC) and Nick Hoffman (Late Models).
On Tuesday it was Logan Seavey who won in the USAC’S while Ricky Thornton Jr got the checkers in the Late Models .
While I’d been shooting pictures of the Late Models, racing legend Kenny Schrader pulled up beside me on his motor-cycle to check out the action.
Wednesday the 12th of February was the big day, the day I’d been waiting for , the arrival of the North East’s Big Block Modifieds to contest four days of SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES races.
Over forty teams had made the long haul down to Florida. I was there a bit earlier that day , so I could take a wander around the Modified pit area and chat to friends. As usual they were parked around the Gater Pond.
Last year I spotted three Gaters but this year I only saw one .
On my wander I headed for the Canadian teams.
As I chatted with Charlie Millar (C0rbin Millar’s father #66 from Perth , Ontario) , Richard Bourassa, one of the Cornwall Motor Speedway officials came over and joined us.
Once the cars took to the track I moved to my regular shooting spot on the middle.
Once again the Late Models were joining the Modifieds, for their third consecutive night .
Actually they were scheduled to be there up until Saturdays final night. On this occasion , they had three feature races, with grid positions determined by time trials.
I was starting to ‘overdose’ on all the Late Model racing taking place that was taking place , so ‘eased off’ on their picture taking and ‘passed’ on some of their Victory Lane ceremonies . After all, my reason for being there , were the Big Block Mods
The Modified Feature had quite an exciting end, as Matt Sheppard and Alex Yankowski duked it out for the lead , in the closing laps.
At the checkers it was Sheppard from Yankowski. Early leader Justin Haers completed the podium .
Thursday was the next day, and I was in no hurry to get to the track, so spent some time on the beach.
The ocean is just a 100 yard walk from my room.
A bit of rain was forecast for the late afternoon , and sure enough , on my arrival at the track at about 4-00 pm there was a short sharp shower. It was nothing serious but it was enough to delay the start of the night.
I wasn’t sure whether or not the rain would return , so took just the bare minimum of equipment out on the middle .
Once things got underway , it was Alex Yankowski’s turn to take the checkers.
Erick Rudolph chased him across the line with Mat Williamson not far behind.
Time was now getting close to 11-45 pm, so I decided to miss the Late Model feature and head back to the Sundeck .
It was a bit overcast on Friday , and not the ideal day to be on the beach, so I took off for the Daytona Flea Market.
As usual there was a lot of stuff there, but I was only interested in the diecasts. I headed straight for the same guy , I’d bought stuff from in previous years. .
The result was a 1/43rd scale Franklin Mint, Chevrolet Corvette being added to my collection.
By now it was lunch time , so figured it was time to visit Twin Peaks.
I had a really excellent Philly Cheesesteak in there.
It was then time to head to the track for a third night of Super DirtCar racing.
I was there in good time to get my equipment cart set up in the usual spot .
Then surprise, surprise ! I was told by the security guy that , this particular section of the infield, where I happened to be located , was now out of bounds . No one, not even the race teams on their support ATV’s and official photographers were allowed to be there anymore.
I’m not sure of the reason, I don’t think it was safety, but guessing it was because the sponsors advertising banners were getting blocked, which of course, they don’t want happening when it’s going out on live Dirt TV.
So, I moved to the start of turn one where there were no banners and ‘arguably’ a less safe position.
So, the photo ‘ops’ were reduced even more, but I like a challenge and my pics didn’t turn out too bad.
I stood in my new found spot, and a familiar face walked up.
Quebec photographer, Sherilane-Avard-Beaudry was there shooting for Le Gars Ce Course.
Once again the Late Models shared the program , but on this occasion the Modified feature was last race of the evening.
The Late Model feature was up first and was won by Devan Moran
The Modified feature was up next.
This time it was ‘Aussi’ driver, Peter Britten’s time to shine, as he fought off a strong challenge from young Alex Paine.
Paine Followed him across the line and Erick Rudolph took third spot.
I then made my exit and headed back to the Motel.
Saturday was my last full day in Florida, so made the most of it with a morning on the beach.
Before heading off to the races , I loaded most of the non essential stuff into my car , as I planned an early start on Sunday morning , The less packing to do then, the better .
The Grandstands were full for the final night.
So far , we’d had three different winners in three different nights.
Could we be lucky and get a fourth face holding the checkers tonight ?
Also the DirtCar Nationals Series was to be decided, and the ‘Gater’ Trophy could go to any one of the top contending drivers .
Erick Rudolph had been running good all week so it was no surprise to see him get the feature win. We ended up getting what many people like to see, a different winner every night.
The top three were , 1st Rudolph, 2nd Mat Williamson and 3rd Matt Sheppard.
DirtCar official, Jeff Hachmann then presented the Gater Trophy to the winning DirtCar Nationals Series Champion, Alex Yankowski .
Another notable bonus about this years event was the absence of a ‘rain out’ . Most years I’ve attended, at least one night gets lost to rain.
The last race of the night was the Late Model feature, but I decided to get out and beat the traffic jams . With the planned early start in the morning, I didn’t need a late night.
Well that was it for another Volusia trip.
I said goodbye to the sunshine of Ormond Beach at 7-00 am on Sunday morning and started the long trek north.
My overnight stop would be at my daughter , Carla’s place in Willow Springs, North Carolina and I arrived there in the afternoon .
I had no plans on how many nights I’d bee there , or when I would return to Canada , so was playing it all by ear, while monitoring the weather .
My home city of Cornwall , Ontario was getting hammered by lots of snow, and there were ‘Lake Effect’ storm warnings in New York State from early Tuesday to Wednesday.
My Monday morning began by taking the grandkids Sophia and Benji out to Breakfast at the Waffle House in Fuquay Varina, followed by a function at one their schools.
After returning to the house, I decided to say my good-byes and head for home.
My original plan was to drive to Binghamton NY , get a room , and do the final four hours of driving in the morning.
I have to be flexible on my travels when the weather is a factor. There were plenty of warnings about the forthcoming Lake Effect storm, so my plans changed. I got to Binghamton at 10-30 pm , but decided to keep going and try to beat the storm.
The roads were all good up to Syracuse NY. (a Southbound driver had told me)
I continued on up I81, and passed Brewerton. Then things started getting bad, and before long I was experiencing heavy snow and the occasional ‘White Out’ all the way up to Palaski.
I’ve experienced these kind of conditions in the area before , so knew what to expect. Luckily I only encountered a couple of other cars on the road, so it made things easier. I just took it real slow with the four way flashers on, until out of the ‘White Out’ .
Once passed Pulaski, things eased off , and by the time I reached Watertown, I was up to normal speed again .
I crossed the 1000 Island border at 12-45 am, then once in Canada , my first stop was the 24 Hour Tim Hortons at the ‘On Route Services’ Mallorytown.
By 2-15 am on Tuesday morning I was back home.
It’s times like this you appreciate good neighbors.
My drive way had been cleared and I was able to go straight in.
And so to end another adventure