RICK @ the RACES (21 MAR 2009)

Sat 21 Mar     Champlain Valley Car Show , Plattsburgh NY

March is always a bad month for racing in the North East, the ice racing season is over and it’s too early for the regular stuff to begin.

There was a big ROC Dirt race taking place down at the Selingsgrove Speedway in PA but I chose to stay local again.

My buddy Mike Watts and driver/promoter Mike Perrotte were staging the Champlain Valley Motor Sports Show in Plattsburg, New York so made that my destination.

I decided to take a drive there on Saturday (21 March) and arrived mid afternoon after another long delay at the border. (when I joined the line up , I was a parked at the center of the International Bridge, high above the St Lawrence Seaway)

I’ve visited this particular show for the past three years and once again it was a good one.

There were plenty of cars from all disciplines of racing and the ‘Street Rod’ fans were catered for too with good selection of them on show.

One thing that caught my eye was interesting new look for the Bomber division ( Mini Mods)at the local Airborne Speedway. The front fenders of the small modern day sedans had been removed and fitted with a ‘modified style’ of nose treatment. A sturdy looking nerf bar was visible too, so if a ‘little bit of contact’ is permitted, these could prove quite entertaining.

The Mohawk International Raceway was also represented ,

the Allen Peters Pro Stock was there as was Perry Francis was with his 358 Mod

As well as the new and current race cars on display, there were some examples from the past. I got chatting to John Rock who owns the # 11 Chevy Coupe that’s a replica of the car driven by Modified legend Ray Hendrick. John told me that Hendrick was the all time top winning Modified driver with over 712 race wins to his credit.

Making a guest appearance at the show and signing autographs was Sprint and Modified driver Jessica Zemken. I’ve been taking photos of ‘Jess’ and following her career for many years and was able to add another to the portfolio when she posed in the Hendrick car. Check out the ‘Pretty Faces’ section of www.rickattheraces.com

I spent a couple of hours at the show before making my exit. Instead of driving straight home, I made a slight detour to Malone NY, to check out the site of the towns former speedway. A few years back the Malone Speedway closed down and last year attempts were made to reopen it. They didn’t materialize but I’ve heard through ‘the grapevine’ that it could be happening this year. I easily found the track located on Route 11 , so parked the car and went to take a look.

I peered over the fence and could see for myself, that it looked ready for action. I never managed to visit the track when it operated in the past so hopefully before 2009 is out, I will have it added to my TRACKCHASING list.