Mike Mahaney wins at the Fall Nationals (22nd October 2026 BLOG)
The last BLOG ended after a busy week, attending six racing events in nine days .
After being absent for a few years I made it back to one of Dirt racings premier shows, SUPER DIRT WEEK in Oswego , New York.
That finished on Saturday the 10th of October, and I was back at my local Cornwall Motor Speedway the next day for their final race of the year.
That meant I had a full four break before my next engagement , the annual Fall Nationals Weekend at the Brockville Ontario Speedway .
Actually , I ended up have five days off, as the heavy rain expected for Friday’s opening night , caused an early cancelation.
Unfortunately , the weekends headline event , the BIG BLOCK SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES was scheduled for Friday , that got completely cancelled and not postponed to the Saturday or Sunday as most people expected. That was a shame, I’m not really sure why that was the case.
The 358 DIRTcar Series was scheduled on Saturday and many of the teams/driver/officials would be there anyway . Maybe it was deemed impossible , to cram both races in on the time available .
So , sadly the Big Blocks were absent from this years Fall Nationals and the 358’s became the headline event.
The 358 Series race was also titled, ‘The Chico Dingwall Memorial Race’ .
Keith ‘Chico’ Dingwall # 96, a former local driver from nearby Morrisburg , sadly passed away in April this year.
Chico retired from racing a few years back to concentrate on his son Kyle’s racing efforts.
The race was to be run over 96 laps, the same as his racing number.
The canceling of opening night meant a few changes had to be made to the agenda of ‘day two’ (Saturday ).
Hot laps were got under way earlier at 2-15pm .
Regular Sportsman races were added , as they were scheduled to run on Friday with their own DirtCar Series race.
Joining the two premier divisions, were the Vintage Mods, Street Stocks and Mini Stocks .
So, shortly after breakfast on Saturday , I left home in Cornwall for the one hour drive down the 401 to Brockville.
I arrived at the track just before 10-00 am but decided to stay in the warmth of my car for while. It was bitterly cold with a severe wind chill and most people I saw were bundled up with warm clothes, and wearing toques .
Before things got under way I took a quick look around the pits.
Tristan Ladouceur was there in the # 92T , fresh from his Oswego, SUPER DIRT WEEK Sportsman win the previous week.
He’d been offered a seat in one of the REZ X team cars.
I then took up a shooting position on the outside of turn four , for the hot laps.
It was then time for the heat races and the Vintage and Mini Stocks were the first ones up
There were 37 Small Block 358’s in attendance and they had four heat races that came up next .
Then before , they had their last chance qualifier , The Sportsman and Street Stocks did their heat races.
It was then time for the intermission and track prep
The Vintage Mods were first to have their features.
There were two features for them, one for the 70’s class (won by Randy Gaudet) and one for the 60’s (won by Jens Mortensen )
The Mini Stocks feature followed the Vintage and this was won by Antoine Dumouchel.
The Headline Event of the day then followed this.
The Chico Dingwall Memorial , 96 lap DIRTcar 358 Modified Series race .
The four wide Fan Appreciation Lap was led by two ‘Chico’ Tribute cars.
When the race went green, it was Gary Lindberg and Chris Raabe that looked like early contenders,
As Raabe slipped back , Matt Williamson moved up to challenge Lindberg. with Mike Mahaney not far behind
Williamson managed to get in front of Lindberg as Mahaney followed.
Williamson held the lead for a few laps but Mahaney who preferred the top soon got the better of him and cruised the rest of the race to the checkers.
So it was Mike Mahaney who got his first ever Modified win at the B.O.S .
(I was told by my announcer friend Tim Baltz, that a few years back , he once got a Sprint Car win there )
This Modified win also happened to be a milestone in his racing career , It was his 100th win .
The first three were Mahaney, Williamson and Lindberg
The Sportsman were up next and this provided a new face to the B.O.S , Victory Lane .
Young , Chris Darling , who’d travelled up from Canandaigua , New York on his first ever visit to the track , dominated with a Green to Checkers win .
The final feature of the night was for the Street Stocks , which Dakota Sharp won with ease.
That was it , the 2026 edition of the Brockville Ontario Speedway’s Fall Nationals had been concluded .
It was over by 10-30pm , and before long I was heading back up the 401 , to Cornwall and home.
There was no local Sunday racing, so it was time to take it easy for a few days