A WIN FOR DAVID HEBERT (26th June 2026 BLOG)
After returning from my trip to visit the family in North Carolina, on Tuesday 17th June , I was all set to get myself back into racing mode.
First on the agenda was a Thursday at the Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY.
This plan fell through , when wet weather caused an early cancelation .
Next up was the Friday nights races at the Mohawk International Raceway. Another early cancellation , scrubbed this idea. Autodrome Granby in Quebec had also canceled. So for my Friday night fix , the next nearest tracks , that were still on were the Can Am Speedway at Lafargeville NY , Albany-Saratoga, Malta NY and Brewerton NY.
The weather forecast for Can-Am looked like they too , could be affected by rain, so I chose Brewerton where the weather looked quite good.
Although the these rain-outs were occurring all over, it was sunny and dry at my home in Cornwall.
I left home before lunch for a relaxing three hour drive.
I stopped off in Watertown on the way for a bit of shopping and a bite to eat at Panera Bread.
Once at the track , it wasn’t long before I met up with my Central New York ‘Tog’ buddies
Here’s me and John Meloling who I always connect with, when I’m down there.
The program consisted of the headlining Big Block Modifieds, Sportsman , Street Stocks and IMCA Mod Lites.
The first of the features was for the 4 cylinders which was won by Chris Bonoffski
This was quickly followed by the Street Stocks which was won by Danny Kerrick
The main event of the night was up next. The 35 lapper for the Big Block Modifieds.
Max Hill 160, was the early leader until Sean Beardsley made the pass.
As Hill dropped back Darren Smith came up into contention , but was unable to match Beardsley, who hung on to the checkers .
The Sportsman race was up next and won by Tony Finch II.
The final race of the night was for the IMCA Mod Lites .
With the long drive home ahead of me , and a busy weekend I made my exit.
Anthony Scott won the race in my absence.
I was back home by 1-00 am.
The weather forecast for Saturday, didn’t look good , but the Brockville Ontario Speedway announced they would make the attempt to get their big show in.
They were staging a round of the DirtCar Sportsman Series , 358 Modifieds , and Mini Stocks as well as the visiting ESS Sprint cars.
After driving through some torrential rain on the way, I arrived at a dry BOS track about an hour before start time.
This was short lived as a storm hit us, and for lengthy period of time, I sheltered in the parking lot.
Eventually the rained eased off and then the job of packing the track began .
The show got under way at about 9-00 pm so I knew it was going to be a long night.
Once the cars were on the track , things moved on as swiftly as possible .
The division of my choice , the 358 Modifieds were third in program order for races/features, so I knew I would have a long wait.
Due to the delayed start time, the first feature, for the Sprint Cars, got under way after midnight.
This was won by Quebec’s Alex Therrien.
It was now time for the Sportsman Series race
Gavin Eisele dominated this , once he got by early leader Jeff Lapalme.
As the race drew to a close Shane Pecore had moved into contention , but not close enough to catch the two leaders.
By 1-15 am the race had been completed .
First three Gavin Eisele, followed by Jeff Lapalme and Shane Pecore.
At this point it management decided to call it a night, leaving the the remaining two features, for Modified and Mini Stocks to be postponed to a future date.
So there wasn’t much sleep before Sundays races at the Cornwall Motor Speedway .
After four weeks where their program was affected by the rain we were optimistic.
The forecast was good.
The program consisted of the usual headlining 358 Modifieds , Pro Stocks , Mini Stocks and Steeet Stocks , and just like Brockville the night before, we were getting a visit by the visiting Empire Super Sprints.
Before the nights heat races , the first race of the day was the rain delayed Modified Feature from the 31st May.
The race was dominated and won by Louie Jackson Jr
The regular nights heat races then followed
After the heats and prior to the intermission, Travis Lamarche won the Mini Stock feature
Brock Gregory then took a win in the Street Stock feature.
It was now time for the ESS Sprint cars to do their thing
We had an early stoppage after Jordan Poirier did a flip on the pit turn. Once restarted , Davie Franek went on to win.
Next up , and what I’d been waiting for , the Modified Feature
David Hebert got the big win.
This was David’s first feature win since leaving the #ONE team and joining the #4 Jasmin Laveille team.
The final event of the night was for the Pro Stock feature.
Tommy Lizotte from northern Quebec took this one
That was it for the night, the show was all over and done soon after 10-30 , just perfect.
The next event on my schedule was on Tuesday the 23rd June at the RPM SPEEDWAY , St Marcel de Richeleu in Quebec.
This was on the night before Quebec’s provincial holiday, on what is called St Jean Baptiste Day.
It’s a big thing for Quebecers and the RPM were staging a 100 lap ‘Quebec Cup’ for 358 Modifieds.
Sportsman, Street Stocks and Mod Lites were also on the program, as well as the Slingshots that were using the inner oval.
My buddy, Don Simpson joined me on this trip.
I didn’t want a late night so I’d pre planned to make an exit once the Modified feature was over. The track isn’t the easiest places to get out of when everyone leaves at the end of the night.
One change at the track for this year was the addition of a slip road for cars to take for the Victory Lane presentations. It proved to have an unexpected bonus for photo ops.
Part of the front stretch jersey barriers have been removed to allow cars access back to the track .There is now a nice gap that’s ideal to get pictures of turn one action .
I tried it for the Modified Hot Laps and was pleased with the results. Then I was back on the middle in my usual spot on turn three and four to catch the Sportsman Hot Laps.
Before the heats began , the Slingshots did their thing on the inner oval
The heats then began for all four divisions
While the Sling Shots did their features on the inner oval the main track was prepped , during the intermission.
The big 100 lapper for the Modifieds was the first feature on the main track.
It turned out to be a good one .
Samuel Charland dominated for most of the race after he’d passed Donovan Lussier and Steve Bernier , but most eyes were on Chris Raabe who was moving rapidly up to front to challenge.
Once passed David Hebert , William Racine and Lussier , the final few laps became a cat and mouse race between them.
After a caution , Raabe did get passed for a short time, but Charland soon got it back .
It looked like Raabe’s tires were starting fade, as he started slipping back.
Then as the laps wound down, the gap decreased once again and was chasing closely leading up to the checkers .
So it was Charland taking the flag from Raabe and Lussier .
We then made our exit as planned and was home at a sensible time .
Wednesday was a lovely day , and perfect for a ride out in my Thunderbird , to the Cornwall Olde Car Club meet.
Held weekly in the summer at the Royal Canadian Air-Force Association club house beside the St Lawrence in Lamoureaux Park.
R.I.P. STEPHANE LAFRANCE
Thursday night’s races at the Airborne Park Speedway were also cancelled and while sitting at home, I heard the sad news that my long time friend Stephane Lafrance had passed away.
He was a former Dirt Modified racer and the genius behind his TRICK RACE PARTS business.
He was an innovator, who was constantly thinking of ways to make race cars go quicker.
I’d known him personally for about 30 years since, soon after I first got involved in Dirt Racing.
He was a second generation driver, and the son of ‘the Hammer’ the late Marcel Lafrance.
Back in the 1990’s I moved to the small town of Maxville , Ontario and soon became friends with the late Roger Aubin who lived in the town. Roger was Stephane’s uncle , as his wife Marie was the sister of Hugette , Stephane’s mother.
Roger and I travelled all over the North East attending races together, so I got to know ‘Steph’ and the family quite well.
He won lots of races over the years.
On track, he was known as ‘the little Hammer’ but in recent years he’d cut back on racing, to concentrate on his TRICK RACE PARTS company based in St Albert . Ontario that constructs parts for race cars .
He would still make rare appearances behind the wheel, and the last time that I recall , was in 2023 when he did a couple of ‘Run What Ya Brung’ races at the local Mohawk International Raceway and Cornwall Motor Speedway.
He was the winner at the M.I.R .
If I look through my photo files , I have so many memories of Stephane , he was a local legend .
He will be deeply missed by all of us in the racing fraternity .
My sympathies to all the family
REST IN PEACE , buddy