September | 2016 | Rick at the Races

Once again my Monday to Thursday week was a quiet one, as I prepared for a busy week end .

Like the previous week, North Eastern race fans had plenty of quality events to choose from, and that included me.

One of my favorite annual events, The Applefest Weekend , was taking a place at the Brighton Speedway , here in Ontario, but unfortunately it clashed with two other important races I wanted to attend.

On Friday (23 Sept), the first night at Brighton, was running against a 358 Modified DirtCar Series at the R.P.M Speedway (Quebec) , and on Saturday (24 Sept), the Fonda Speedway in NY were holding the SUPER DIRT SERIES.

So Unfortunately , I never got to AppleFest this year.

After lunch on Friday I was picked up from my place in Cornwall , by my buddy and fellow race track photographer, Don Simpson and we set off for R.P.M in his Suburu.

We were up at St Marcel in Quebec , where the track is located, in good time to get the car parked next to the pits.

As usual a pit walkabout was in order for me, while Don was busy, doing one of his ‘one on one’ portrait sessions with our friend Josee Fortier, the Mod Lite driver.

As well a DirtCar Series for the 358 Modified’s , there was also one for the Sportsman, plus all the other lower divisions, that are crammed into a regular night at this track.

After the drivers meeting I joined Don and the other photographers out on the middle.

Surprisingly, and considering it was 358 DirtCar Series, there were only a few long distance travelers, Chris Raabe, Joey Ladouceur, Tommy Flannigan and Lance Willix. The rest were locals.

There were only a few tour guys in the Sportsman division too.

On the positive side , less cars meant no consi’s , which was a good thing for me and Don. We both had set agendas for the next day and did not want to be there too late.

After the various feature races for the minor divisions, the race we had come to see, the 100 lapper for the 358’s , got underway about 10-30 pm.

Prior to this, winner of the kids race for the Slingshots was Felix Roy the son of former Dirt Modified and NASCAR (Canadian Series) driver Martin Roy.

Our friend Josee managed to flip her ModLite in their race, but was fortunately unhurt.

Once the Modified Feature did get going, fans were treated to a great race.

There was a great battle up front between top dogs David Hebert # One , and Mario Clair # 22 until the latter had car issues and needed to make a hand full of pit stops.

Once Clair faded the challenge to Hebert came from Dominic Duffault # 63 , who’d moved up to steal second place from Chris Raabe 01 .

This was the most impressive drive I’ve seen from Duffault , who just hadn’t got that little bit extra to get past Hebert.

That’s how they finished, Hebert, Duffault and Raabe.

By now the time was 11-15 pm, and with a long ride home, and the weekend only just starting, Don and I made our exit, giving the Sportsman Feature a miss. I was heading to Fonda the next day , while Don would be going to Brighton.

In our absence, the first three were Alex Lajoie # 33 , second Martin Hebert, and third Martin Pelettier

My DirtCar official friend, Kathy Caldwell took care of a Victory Lane picture for me.

Once I was home in Cornwall , I grabbed a few hours sleep before setting out on Saturday’s agenda.

Joining me on the drive down to the Fonda Speedway, was my friend Chanty Lesage from Gatineau , Que, who’s boyfriend Rob Yetman would be racing in the Pro Stock division, that were also having a DirtCar Series race.

Chanty and I would be sharing the driving.

Rob lives near Albany, and he would also be providing us with accommodation for the night.

We arrived at the track at 2-30 in the afternoon, as we had been warned to get there early. Fonda is one of the most famous dirt speedways in the USA and steeped with history. I always enjoy my rare visits there.

Saturday was day two, of a weekend event, and the Friday night show had got rained out. Instead of canceling or postponing Fridays events, the management were planning to run the two shows in one day. This obviously meant another late night for me.

We soon met up with Rob and the Yetman Team who had already found a good spot in the pits.

Chanty also met up with all her friends from down there, including Pro Stock driver, Nick Stone’s girlfriend Sabrina.

There were a lot of my photographer friends there too, and I spent much of the down time , before the races, chatting with them.

The pits were full and once it got nearer to start time, the various Drivers Meetings took place, and as usual, I attended the one for the SUPER DIRT SERIES guys. This gave us all the opportunity to meet and hear a few words from the new track owner , Pete Demitraszek.

Jay Fish managed to get this pic of me looking on.

Once the cars took to the track for warm ups, it was non stop action all the way in the endeavor to get the two programs of racing in to a one night show.

As you can imagine there were a lot of divisions taking part, many I have little interest in, so I had plenty of time to sit around and chat.

My main concern were the Big Block Modifieds and the Pro Stocks that were there for important series races.

I took pictures of the heat races and then retired to the pits until it was feature time.

As expected, things were running late, and it was after 11-00 pm before the 100 lap Big Block SUPER DIRT RACE got under way.

Jimmy Phelps dominated this one through out, after an early race challenge from Mike Mahaney had faded. As Mahaney dropped back, Tim Fuller and Brett Hearn moved up, but neither could catch the flying Phelps.

It was now time for the 50 lap Pro Stock feature , and it was just five minutes to go before the apparent ( so I was told) curfew of mid night.

This race came straight out, and as soon as the Mods had cleared the track, the green flag fell.

Like Phelps had done in the previous race, my buddy Rob Yetman did the same in this one, only getting seriously challenged in the last five laps by Robbie Speed.

Yetman hung on, as the two of them drag raced to the checkers.

By the time Rob’s car had gone through the mandatory post race tech it was close to 1-00 am , before I followed him back to his place at Castleton on Hudson.

Once back there, it was a quick down load of pictures for the media before heading to bed.

I checked out the results from Brighton on Face Book and discovered, Erick Rudolph had won the big money Modified race at the Brighton Apple Fest .