It doesn’t happen very often, but once in a while I get a free weekend with no events to attend. This past weekend was one of them. The month of March is very similar to November where there is very little going on. It’s either too damp or cold for regular racing and not cold enough for ice racing. The one event I’d hoped to attend was the ice racing season finale at St Guillaume, but warmer than normal temperatures caused it to be canceled.

My non-racing passion is hockey so I spent Saturday afternoon in Cornwall watching the Colts play the Nepean Raiders. In the evening it was ‘armchair’ hockey as I watched the Ottawa Senators versus the Toronto MapleLeafs, battle of Ontario on TV.

I was back in my armchair on Sunday afternoon watching the ‘Kobalt Tools 500’ NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Atlanta. I’m not a big fan of long haul races like this, so only planned to watch the last 50 laps. In most cases, the final sector seems to have the most excitement and this was no exception.

A late race incident involving Carl Edwards and Brad Kesolowski has had race fans talking all week. Edwards who was many laps down, decided it was pay-back time for a previous skirmish so blatantly spun out Keslowski while traveling at about 190 mph. The Keselowski car went sideways and instantly flipped end over end , before hitting the wall. The silly looking wings that are now attached to the trunks of Sprint Cup cars have an adverse effect when traveling backwards at high speeds.

Luckily Kesolowski walked away from the wreck unharmed, while Edwards was excluded from the rest of the race and ordered to visit the NASCAR officials trailer. After a couple of restarts the checkers finally went to Kurt Busch, but the main talking point was the Edwards/Kesolowski incident.

Edwards actions were criticized by fans, media and fellow drivers a like and we all eagerly awaited to hear what penalty NASCAR would issue.

To every ones amazement on Tuesday (9 Mar) the punishment ( or lack of it) was announced. All that was given was a ‘slap on the wrist’ and a three race ‘be a good boy’ probation. It’s hard to believe !

From next week onwards , I should be out of the armchair as my schedule gets busy. Coming up, I have the MOTORSPORTS EXPO in Syracuse , The Cornwall Motor Speedway and Brockville Ontario Speedway banquets then the Champlain Valley car show at Easter.