RICK @ the RACES (13 to 17 Aug 2008)

13 AUG         CAPITAL CITY SPEEDWAY

16 AUG          CAN AM SPEEDWAY

17 AUG          CORNWALL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Following last Saturdays big TOROMONT CAT 100 lap ACT race, the Late Models took a night off from Capital City Speedway this past Wednesday (Aug 13) , giving the other divisions a chance to take the limelight.

I arrived late afternoon and to my amazement found an unfamiliar ‘yellow thing’  high in the sky above the track. After weeks of rainy weather, the sun was shining at last and the program went unhindered in front a good crowd for the Snap On tools sponsored event.

Highlight of the night for me was seeing ‘DentMan’ Dave Watchorn # 97 win the MiniStock feature.

I’ve been acquainted with Dave for a number of years, since I did a magazine article about him and his love of Toyotas. It was great see him take the checkers, and to be present in Victory Lane to do the shots.

A busy day at work on Friday meant that I missed a planned visit to Autodrome Granby so I was confined to my home that night.

On Saturday (Aug16) I traveled down to the Can Am Speedway at Lafargeville NY for the staging of the ADVANCE AUTOPARTS SUPER DIRT SERIES. At about 3-30 pm in the afternoon as I crossed the border at Ogdensburg, there was one heck of a thunder storm, with rain coming down in buckets. I followed the storm down to Theresa NY (20 minutes away from the track) where to my pleasure the rain ceased.

I arrived at Can Am to find it dry, which was how it stayed for the rest of the evening. It seams like Lady Luck was taking care of me that night ! Once inside, I met up with my friend Rebbeca Eiselle who is the track photographer. We always seam to have a good laugh when we’re ‘snapping’ together .

I also chatted with Doug Elkins who interviewed me at the start of the week. His web site has been going for a couple of years now, and has proved to be very successful, so any tips and advice he could give were gratefully accepted. www.dougsdirtdiary.com

The 100 lap Feature for Big Block Modifieds provided an unexpected winner with Clifton Springs New Yorker , Gary Tomkins. He won the Series a few years back when driving the Pilsbury sponsored car for the Elaine James team, but in recent times his victories have been scarce.

On Sunday (Aug 17) the Series moved across the border to the Cornwall Motor Speedway in Ontario. Cornwall is my local track , so I spent the morning at home relaxing… that was, until the phone rang !
I’ve had my house on the market for the past three months and it was my real estate guy calling, to say my house had been sold. He said he’d be at my place in about 15 minutes to give me some ‘paperwork’. If things go to plan, I will have to be out by the end of September, just one week after I return from my trip to the UK for the BriSCA F1 World Final. At the moment I have nothing lined up for a new home,so will probably be renting temporarily. There’s a good chance that my reports will be missing for a short time.

Following my unexpected visitor, I set off for the Irving Truck Stop in Cornwall. Craig , my web master, is a truck driver, like me, and had been delivering in Montreal Sunday morning. He didn’t want to park his rig at the Speedway, so we’d arranged for me to pick him up.

We arrived at the Speedway mid afternoon to find the place already filling up. When there’s a big race at Cornwall it’s always packed. There were also many ‘visiting’ photographers that I know from the ‘Series’. It was good to see my Scottish buddy Alex Bruce and his wife Helen from their home in the Niagara Region,  and making his first ever visit to Cornwall was Mike Petrucci from Connecticut. Mike runs the Race Pro Weekly website that I’ve contributed to for some time.

I also chatted to Jessica Zemken who was driving one of John Lazore’s cars with the # 19Z. She told me she’d raced it the night before at the Mohawk International Raceway.

The sun was shining and at last Mother Nature was giving us a break. The show which had Rookies, Pro Stocks and Sprint Cars as the support acts, moved along swiftly with no major delays. I had feared a late finish, but even the Sprint Cars behaved themselves and ran their 25 lap feature without anyone ‘falling over’.

I must mention one person who almost fell over ! ,  that was my buddy Alex. At the start of the race one of the Sprint Cars  ‘got it all wrong’ and spun round on the grass . Instead of returning straight to the track, the driver chose to race across the infield scattering the photographers. I didn’t realize Alex could run so fast !

Steve Poirier won the Sprint Car Feature,

Jean-Marc Larose won the Rookie race and Joey Ladouceur took the Pro Stock event.

In the SUPER DIRT SERIES race it was Dale Planck who made the early running with Billy Decker in hot pursuit , but like the previous night, Gary Tomkins was looking good as he worked his way through the pack. On lap 62 Tomkins managed to edge past Planck and stayed there unchallenged to the checkers.

Gary looks like he’s back on form, so I’m sure it wont be too long before I see him in Victory Lane again.

Finaly, before I go, I must mention a message I just recieved from another good freind of mine in Vancouver BC. David Kipling a former BriSCA F1 and F2 fan, now living in Canada, runs the www.oldstox.com website. He recently traveled down to the Skagit Speedway in Washington State with his daughter to see some Sprint Car Racing and sent me some of his pics. Here’s one