Another Can Am Win for Tim Fuller (12th August 2026 BLOG)
The last BLOG ended on Thursday the 6th of August.
The usual Thursday night races were off the schedule this week, and a Saturday show was taking place instead.
On Friday the 7th of August the Mohawk International Raceway, my usual home that night, was also taking a night off. Autodrome Granby , another Friday option was doing like wise.
The other ‘do-able’ options were the Can Am Speedway, Lafargeville NY , Brewerton Speedway NY and Albany-Saratoga Speedway , Malta, NY .
Anyone who knows me, will be aware of my ‘great love’ for the North Eastern winged Sprint Cars ( I say that sarcastically LOL).
Everyone is entitled to their favorite division , and they are not one of mine.
I try to avoid them if possible, and the coming weekend in my area was ‘over-dosing’ with them .
(Saturday and Sundays races at Brockville and Cornwall had them, but minus the Modifieds).
Let me add , I don’t mind the World Of Outlaw sprints , because the better quality of drivers , and my favorite Sprint Cars are the wingless USAC variety . Actually , I wish we had them locally , as I definitely wouldn’t avoid them .
So getting back to this weekend Can Am and Malta , both had touring Sprint Cars added to their program , so Brewerton’s regular show of Modifieds and Sportsman looked the best bet for me.
That was my plan until I checked the weather forecast . Brewerton looked a bit iffy, so Can Am , which is a lot nearer home became the ‘winner’ .
It’s such a nice leisurely drive going down to Lafargeville , beside the St Lawrence, and it only takes 1 hour 45 minutes .
The weather was warm and sunny , but even so , I encountered a few spots of rain near Ogdensburg .
I arrived at the speedway at about 5-00pm and the pits were quite full, obviously boosted by the visiting sprint car tour.
My ‘Tog’ buddy Quinten Young (no relation) had also made the visit , after Utica Rome Speedway, where he’s the track photographer got rained out.
After the pre race drivers meeting , I took my Hot Lap pics from the outside of turn four, beside the staging lane.
Then I moved to the middle to turn one after hot laps , and spent the rest of the night.
The nights program consisted of the regular 358 Modifieds, Sportsman, Limited Sportsman , Thundercars as well as the visiting CSRA Sprint Tour.
Luckily for me , the Modifieds were the second of the nights features.
First up was the Limited Sportsman .
This was won by Mike Durham
The Modified feature was up next .
Tyler Meeks was the early leader of the 25 lapper , with Preston Forbes and Cameron Black chasing .
Ten laps in to the race , Forbes came to a halt with smoke coming from his car. so the yellows came out . On the restart there was a big wreck involving Meeks and Billy Dunn.
After the carnage was removed there was another restart, with Black starting on the front.
Tim Fuller was just behind him, so it was just a matter of time before he made the pass for the lead.
Fuller dominated the remaining laps and and went on to take the checkers. Black stayed with him for second, and Shaun Shaw was third,
By the time Victory Lane pics were done, it was nearly 10-00 pm.
There were three more features left to run, and the next one was for the Sprint Cars . The Sportsman were to follow them .
I didn’t want a late night so made my exit. I didn’t mind missing the Sprint Cars , but it was a shame to have to pass on the Sportsman.
In my absence , The wins went to Spencer Burley in the Sprints
and Carl Comfort in the Sportsman
By getting on the road at that time, I was home just before mid night.
(I found out later that Albany-Saratoga got rained out, so was glad I never headed down there)
Saturday was another race day of decision making.
My usual Brockville Ontario Speedway had a program that didn’t include the Modifieds, and instead they had the addition of the touring Empire Super Sprints .
So my other choices were either Autodrome Drummond in Quebec . They did have Modifieds and Sportsman, but it was their Top Less night. (where the roof panels are removed) . I’ve never liked those kind of shows, because as a photographer , it makes the cars look silly.
The Fulton Speedway was a good option, as Modifieds and Sportsman were on the program, but that was a three hours plus, drive back in the direction I was the previous night .
Again the weather was a major factor , so in the end, I decided to stay local and go to my nearby Airborne Park Speedway for the Saturday show mentioned earlier.
There were no Modifieds or Sprint Cars, but the Sportsman and Vintage Mods looked appealing. It takes about 1 hour 45 minutes to get there (the same time as Can Am) and the weather forecast didn’t look too bad
It had an earlier than normal start time , so I planned my trip accordingly.
I was on my way down the Military Turnpike , about 30 minutes from the track when the heavens opened . It rained so heavily that many drivers, including me pulled off the road , it was just too dangerous to drive .
I stayed parked up for about half an hour until it stopped.
Then I continued to the track, and it was obvious by the puddles that they’d had some rain too.
There were plenty of cars in the pits and they were currently on a holding pattern , waiting to see if more rain was to come.
I chatted with my good friend Bucko Branham and his family .
He’s one of the local Sportsman drivers and has been racing various divisions there for over 40 years. As we were talking , another brief shower of rain came along and we sheltered in his trailer.
Once the rain stopped everything remained in a holding pattern until 5-30 when Promoter Mike Bruno called a drivers meeting.
It was then announced that racing was the cancelled as more rain was in the forecast.
That was it , it was time to return home . After stopping to get some food, I was back home in Cornwall by 8-00pm.
I later discovered that Brockville, also had to cancel , due to a down pour before start-time .
With no pictures to edit from the night before , I had a nice relaxing Sunday, before the races at my local Cornwall Motor Speedway .
My Sprint Car overdose continued , as the Empire Super Sprints were paying a visit .
There were no Modifieds on the program , but there was an ambitious line up of Sportsman, Rookie Sportsman , Pro Stocks and Mini Stocks were on the agenda .
I was there early as I knew the pits and infield would soon fill up.
Just because I’m not the biggest fan of winged Sprint Cars , doesn’t mean I can’t have a good friend that’s connected to them.
Nice to meet up again with a friend of many years, John Tiff President of the Empire Super Sprints who was in attendance .
After my pit wander I stationed my self on the pit tower for the hot laps
I then moved to the infield for the rest of the night .
As you can imagine , with such a full program, it took longer to get through all the heat races.
The first of the features, were for the Limited Sportsman and Mini Stocks that were run before a shorter than normal intermission.
Their Victory Lane presentations had to be combined as time was running out. .
The Limited Sportsman winner was Kobe Hernandez .
In the Mini Stocks, the win went to Antoine Dumouchel
After the break it was Vintage Feature .
As usual there were two winners in the Vintage division , Josh Powers in the 70’s class and Greg Hale in the 60’s .
Then it was time for a 25 lap ‘Wreck Fest’ or should I say the Sprint Car Feature.
During the course of this multi-stoppage race, I counted at least three of them that ‘fell over’ .
Early leader Alex Bergeron did a flip in turn one, and landed in the spruce trees , a feat that’s never before done at the Cornwall Motor Speedway. (a fact I had confirmed by former promoter Ron Morin)
Bergerons car had to be left parked in the trees until the end of the night before being recovered.
There were numerous other wrecks.
As the attrition brought the numbers down to a manageable size , we eventually got a good race as the laps ran down.
Jordan Thompson, from Pennsylvania took the checkers
By this time it had gone 10-00 pm , when the 35 lap Pro Stock began.
I’ve said it before in my BLOGS , this division can either be very good , or really bad . On this occasion it was the latter and as expected there were a lot of cautions .
35 laps is usually too many for them , and I was right.
With an 11-00 pm curfew at the track , the laps were reduced to 25 laps .
Dakota Sharp was declared the winner .
More drama was to follow later . In post race tech he was DQ’d and the race awarded to Bastien Caron
All the cautions and stoppages in the Sprints and Pro Stocks , resulted in the Sportsman feature being cancelled .
So that was the end of the night, and the finish to my weekend.
Monday the 10th was a quiet day, but I was kept busy doing plenty of editing,
Tuesday was much the same , so I headed across town for my second consecutive visit for the weekly Kart races on the small oval at the Cornwall Motor Speedway .It was a nice night and I got plenty of pics
There was some sad breaking news coming from New Jersey this week regarding the New Egypt Speedway.
According to news reports the land has been sold for ‘non racing use’ .
I only made it down there three times. First time was in 2003 for the Super Dirt Series,
Alan Johnson was the winner that day.
The second time was in 2023 for the Short Track Super Series
Matt Sheppard was the winner .
Then just last year I was there for the Super DirtCar Series when Stewart Friesen got the win.
They were all good times and I have great memories .
There was more bad news coming from the UK .
I was sorry to hear this week that Stock Car Racing at the Arlington Stadium , near Eastbourne , in England had come to an end . I don’t know the full details, no doubt I will find out later.
It was one of the countries longest running stock car tracks.