RICK @ the RACES ( 2 April 2011)

2 April       Brockville Ontario Speedway Banquet

We’re now into April and it wont be long before the racing starts in my area. This past Friday was the first day of the month and I was feeling quite pleased with my self that I hadn’t been caught with any ‘April Fools Day ‘ jokes…… or so I thought !

On Saturday it was the Brockville Ontario Speedway Banquet, which was being held at the ‘Boston Pizza’ close to the exit of the Hwy 401.

This was a different venue from previous years, with the popular eatery reserved solely for the speedway and closed to the general public for the night.

The Boston Pizza is a sports bar , and the TV screens that surround the interior gave us plenty of entertainment during the evening. Some of the screens were showing video footage of racing at the BOS, one was switched to the SPEED Channel while another was showing the ‘Battle of Ontario’ NHL game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators. There were a lot of fans from both hockey teams in attendance so this proved quite interesting.

Regular readers will know that I’m a ‘Sens’ fan and sitting at my table was www.rickattheraces.com web master Craig Revelle, who is a long time fan of the ‘Leafs’.

As the excellent roast beef supper was being served I happened to glance up at the SPEED Channel , and was pleasantly surprised to see what they were showing. Each winter a team of BriSCA F1 stock car drivers travel to New Zealand to race, and the SPEED channel were covering the ‘English Lions verses the ‘Kiwis’. During the show, top UK driver Frankie Wainman was interviewed. It was great to see some of the guys from my homeland getting stuck in . You don’t see much stock car racing from other parts of the world featured on North American TV, so this was added bonus to my night.

On the down side, the ‘Leafs beat the ‘Sens’ so, while I ate ‘ humble pie’, Craig ate the souvenir ‘Senators’ match day donut (bought from Tim Hortons earlier that day) for the winner.

Once the meal was over BOS ‘man on the mike’ , Steve Young announced the awards. Track championship winners were as follows 

Jean Marc Larose (Rookie) ,

Kevein Fetterly JR (Street Stock),

Jason Power (Vintage) ,

Dylan Evoy (Sportsman)

and Pat O’Brien ( 358 Modified) .

Glen Gould was presented with a special award for services and devotion to the Speedway.

When  the presentations were over , it was time to socialize and chat amongst the drivers. I was looking forward to finding out what their plans were for the coming season.

Jean Marc Larose told me that he’d be racing at the Cornwall Motor Speedway again this year after taking a year off. During the night I chatted with many so many, I apologize to anyone I’ve missed out , but the list included Stephane Lafrance, Dylan Evoy, Kevin Fetterly Snr, Randy Earl, Chris Herbison, the O’Brien bothers Pat, Danny and Tim, Kyle and Cole Dingwall.

Finally , I have to mention Ralph Murphy, the father of Sportsman driver Tabatha.

He was someone I was eagerly waiting to talk to, after reading his Face Book post on Friday. He’d stated they were going up into the 358 Modified division for this year and the engine was about to be installed. This was exciting stuff and I wanted to know more about it . When I approached him on the subject, he had a big smile on his face , then went onto remind me of the date he posted that remark. Yes it was on April 1st…. damn it, I was fooled !