This past week has been a sad one for me with the passing of my good friend Roger Aubin . His funeral was on Monday 31 January at the Moose Creek (Ontario) Catholic Church which I attended to pay my respects. Roger and I traveled a lot of ‘racing miles’ together and my road trips will never be the same.

On Saturday 29 Jan I made a wasted trip to the Capital City Speedway at Stittsville near Ottawa (Ont) when an ice race organized by the Motor Sport Club of Ottawa was canceled.

When I saw the schedule posted on their web site prior to the trip, I could see no point in getting there too early and watching the practice so planned to be there when the actual racing got started. The 1-5 hour race was supposed to start at 1-30 pm and it said that starting positions would be determined by the earlier time trials, so my plan was to get there around 11-30 am.

As I left home in Cornwall , it was still snowing after an overnight fall of about four inches , but I was optimistic things would be OK .

On arrival I found no sign of any racing taking place, just the marked out race track in the parking lot area. Obviously some time had been spent preparing the track, but I guess the overnight snow must have been a factor for the lack of racing.

Another race fan had arrived at the same time as me and I followed him through the snow and on to the track where we found one of the organizers collecting up the equipment. In fear of getting bogged down in the thick snow I never stopped to ask questions, but kept my foot on the throttle and got out as soon as I could. Once I’d escaped , I waited at the gate until the other fan emerged, to find out the verdict. As I expected, the event had been postponed.

According to the Clubs web site, the new date for the event is the 27th Feb. That’s also the date of the ice races at Autodrome St Eustache so I’ll have to decide which one to do.

On Sunday (Jan 30) I had the choice of at least three ice races to attend but chose to stay locaI and drove to Beauharnois , Quebec for the season opener of the Club Kilowatts Ice Racers. ( I decided to miss the AMEC races at Tupper Lake NY and the Can Am Speedway Enduro) .

The main attraction on the Frozen St Lawrence Seaway at Beauharnois  was the first time appearance of the Revstar (Tobias) Speedsters. In the past, I’ve seen these open wheeled mini sprint cars race on the dirt track at my local Cornwall Motor Speedway (Ont) and the paved Autodrome St Eustache (Que) but the first place I saw them was actually on the ice. A couple of years back they appeared in the races at Ste Sulpice , Que. ( again part of the St Lawrence) that I attended.

The man behind them in Canada is Revstar’s Martin Roy , (a Brett Hearn Modified crew member) based in Victoriaville, Quebec. Another connection to Dirt racing that day was Modified driver ( and Canadian Tire Series runner) Dexter Stacey. He was driving the # 55 car in the eight cylinder studded tire division. 

I’d driven my HHR out onto the ice to watch the races and soon bumped into another couple of friends, Clo Gibbs and Jean Bernier, the St Eulalie ice track organizers.

I didn’t stay for the full show, but long enough see each division and to get a few photos. I must have been standing in the wrong place ( exit of the corner) , as my photos, didn’t come out too good , which was probably due to the spraying ice. Clo however who was standing along the straight got some great ones so next time I’ll try from there !