Weekly Report (29th Aug to 5th Sept)

Once again, during the past week,  I’ve had appointments to attend, with the medics, before my racing agenda could take place. This time it was the diabetes specialist. I mentioned in last weeks report how the drugs that are needed to treat my MYASTHENIA GRAVIS condition have bad side effects, like the weakening of body calcium ( brittle teeth). Well another effect was the weight gain, and the increase in sugar that gave me type 2 diabetes,

The appointment on Wednesday 31st Aug,  meant one of the events I wanted to attend on Tuesday  (30 Aug) , had to be missed. That was the ‘Blast at the Beach’ , a Short Track Super Series race at the Georgetown Speedway in Delaware. In my absence, it was won by Stewart Friesen.

Once the Wednesday appointment had been taken care of, it was time to concentrate on a busy weekend of racing.

On Thursday (1 Sept)  another Big Block Modified Super Dirt Series was on the schedule , and that’s where I would be heading. It was the turn of the Lebanon Valley Speedway ,NY , a track I hadn’t visited since August 2007. Back then I was accompanied by my buddies, Jim Clarke and the late Roger Aubin.

I was looking forward to making a return visit, and I set off around 10-00 am in the morning from my home in Cornwall, On.

I had a cheap hotel booked at East Greenbush  (Americas Best Value) , just a short drive from the track and arrived around 2-30pm  in good time to relax before the races.

After a detour , due to a road closure , I got into the track , just before 5-00 pm .

 

 

 

On my  previous visit to the ‘Valley’ all those years ago, I had met up with my media buddy, Mike Petrucci from Connecticut

 

and , once again Mike was there to, help out, giving me hints where the good spots were, to take pictures.  I met up with him in the pits  then later on at the redraw and other photo ops. While chatting in the pits, I bumped into some of my fellow Canadian photographers, Josee Fortier, Dan Mailot and Dave Paryzo

 

The ‘Valley’ is one of those unfortunate tracks that have to use the infield as the pit area, which always makes it challenging for photographers, as well as the obvious restriction to viewing. For most of the night I stationed myself , firstly on the exit of turn two, then the start of turn one.

 

Aswell as the Big Block Modifieds, Sportsman were also on the program.

After the heats, it was redraw time

Lebanon Valley favorite (and track expert) Kenny Tremont, drew pole position , which looked good for him, while another ‘Valley,  champion, Brett Hearn drew a spot on the second row.

The Sportsman Feature was up first and and it was Chis Curtis who took the checkers. I was told that following ‘tech’ , the race was awarded to Scott Duell.

The 100 lap SDS race was next and I chose the entrance of turn one, to take my shots.

Once the big race got under way, like most people, I had expected, Tremont and Hearn to set the pace.

Kenny took the early lead with Brett on his tail, while the usual SDS trailblazers, Matt Sheppard and Stewart Friesen moved up. Also up with the front runners was Valley regular, Keith Flack .

As the race passed the half way point Hearn dropped back and it was Friesen and Sheppard  that were moving in on Tremont.

Sheppard looked the quickest one out there, and sure enough , with just a few laps remaining, he clinched the lead and went on for the win . So it was another SDS win for Matt Sheppard.  A great result really, considering this was a brand new ‘out of the box’  car quickly put together following a bad multi roll-over wreck , the previous week at Canandaigua.

The racing was done around 11-00 pm and I was soon back at my Motel . I had originally planned to stay in the area and attend the Friday night races at the Albany Saratoga Speedway at Malta, but with a busy few days of racing still ahead of me, I decided to head back in the direction of  home to my local Mohawk International Raceway.

I took a nice relaxing drive from my motel located  east of Albany across the Adirondacks up I87 to Plattsburgh, where I stopped to do some shopping in Walmart, and have a late lunch at the Panera Bread shop. From Plattsburgh it was the familiar drive through the back roads to the M.I.R.

After meeting up with my photographer buddy Don Simpson for supper at Twinleaf we were at the track at our usual time. They were still playing ‘catch up’ from the recent rain outs, so we were treated to two Sportsman Features on this occaission.

Robert Delormier won the first one ,

The second one provided a first time win for Moise Page, which was quite remarkable considering he was involved in a big wreck earlier in the night , where he lost a wheel. I can verify all this because , I took care of it, after it came to rest close to me.

The Rookie Sportsman Feature  gave me a close shave too , when Junior Delormier’s car was pushed by another car up onto the grass towards me.

This race was won by Dudes Thompson, whereas the big race of the night , the Modified Feature , was won by Tim Fuller.

 

Another finish at around 11-00 pm , meant I was back home around 11-15, and a lot earlier to bed, than if I’d stayed down south and gone to Malta.

Saturday usually means a visit to my local Brockville Ontario Speedway, but there was another event taking place on Saturday (3 Sept)  that was on my mind. Back over in England, while I would be heading to the B.O.S , it would be the BriSCA F1 Stock Car World Final at the Coventry Stadium. I would have to wait until my return home to find out who won.

I got to Brockville around 5-30 pm and set my camping chair up on the center , on turn one and two, as normal. All the regular divisions were racing, on this final points night.

Instead of retiring to one of the booths to watch the features, like I normally do, I decided to stay out on the middle, and take a few night shots.

The first Feature of the night was for the Vintage Mods which was won by  Ryan Comeau.

Next up was the Sportsman , which provided fans with a ‘first time winner’ with Shane Stearns taking the checkers.

The Modified Feature followed this, and after Jason Riddell had led for most of the race, Dale Planck made the pass in the closing laps to get a win.

Dale was driving the Lasalle Motorsports car, and it’s been a long time since I’ve taken Victory pics of Dale, or this team in Victory Lane.

 

For this year he has been helping out as a consultant to Jeremy Lasalle and only driving at selected events, so this was a memorable occasion. I’ve considered Dale and his wife Lesley, to be my good friends for many years, along with the Lasalle’s too.

Back in 2008  Lori and Mike Lasalle, had Jessica Zemken (now Friesen) as their driver, and at that time a string of wins came their way .

It was like old times !

The Modified race was all over nice and early , so I made my exit , before the remaining features, and was home before mid-night.

I got home to find out that Frankie Wainman Jr  # 515 , had won the BriSCA F1 World Final at Coventry.

FLASH BACK to May of this year and picture I took of Frankie at Coventry.

Although, Sunday (4 Sept) was the final day of the regular racing season at my local Cornwall Motor Speedway, it was the next round in the F1 Grand Prix season over at the Monza Circuit in Italy.

I was up early to watch the live TV broadcast.

It turned out to be a really disappointing ( dare I say boring) race with Nico Rosberg , getting a run away victory after, his major opposition,  Lewis Hamilton made a bad start.

Early in the afternoon I met up with my good friend Chantal Lesage , before we both headed for the Cornwall Speedway.

Her Dad , Ted Lesage is the Tech man at the track.

It was a big show, consisting of all the divisions, which included Dirtcar Series events for 358 Mods and Sportsman . Racing was programmed to start at 6-00 pm.

After chatting with friends in the pits, I took up my position above the pit tower to take pics of the early action.

During the evening, I got talking with St Catherine’s Ontario driver, Tommy Flannigan,  and he put one of my stickers on his car.

After the front stretch redraw, where Jordon McCreadie got pole, I went to the center for the big race.

There were  125 laps for the 358 Modified Dirtcar Series race, with a mandatory front stretch pit stop after 75 laps. This is always a favorite with the fans, as they watch the teams in action.

Unfortunately, not long into the second half of the race, there was a big wreck on the front stretch involving Lance Willix, Tommy Flannigan and Michel Parent. The latter two, of the trio had plenty of damage to their cars, but thankfully, both drivers were OK.

Apart from an early lead by David Hebert,  nearly all of the race was a cat and mouse chase, with Gage Morin Leading and Chris Raabe chasing.

The ‘Mouse’ kept the ‘Cat’ at bay, and it was the # 16 car of Morin that took the checkers.

The show had been going on late into the night and by the time we were doing the Victory pictures it had gone past mid night.  There were much celebrations as our local guy took the big win.

Regular readers will know, I’m good friends with the Morin family, so as well as Grandfather Ron, getting involved in the Victory pictures, I was also asked to join in.

Like I said, it was now , well past midnight, so with still more racing ahead of me the next day, (the Labor Day Monday)  I chose to miss the Sportsman Dirtcar Series race that followed, and the Pro Stock Feature.

 

In my absence , Martin Pelettier got the Sportsman win (thanks Don for the picture) while Dave Bissonnette won in the Pro Stox.

The next day, was the Labor Day Monday , so the long week end was not over yet.

There was a SUPER DIRT SERIES and an ESS Sprint Car event taking place at the Weedsport Speedway , N Y and , Don Simpson and I had planned to be there. I met Don at 10-30 am , just before the Canadian / USA border at Johnstown and we traveled down together. My friend Dawn, a keen Sprint Car fan, and former worker with the ESS , would of liked to have joined us, but unfortunately she had to work that day.

Instead we met up with her for lunch at Adams, NY  on our way down.  I’ve known Dawn for many years and it had been a long time since we’d had a good picture taken of the both of us, so Don being an expert at doing portraits, willing obliged.

After saying good bye to Dawn, Don and I , continued on to Weedsport.

I always enjoy taking pictures down in Central New York, and I consider all the racing photographers around those tracks to be good friends of mine. Most of us have been shooting together for many years, and we always have a good laugh when we get together.

The Weedsport facility has really change dramatically over the past few years as a lot of investment has taken place. It used to be know as the Cayuga County Fair Speedway (yeah, a real mouthful)  which along with the slicker name, of Weedsport and much modernization, it has become one of the best appointed dirt speedways, in the North East.

 

I had the use of the media room which was nice place, to chill out , every so often on this hot and humid night, but most of the time, I was on the center , trying various vantage points for shooting.

Once the heats and Consis , had taken place it was the time for the re draw  where Eric Rudolph got pole .

 

After the anthems ,  it was ‘Show Time’

First was the Sprint Car Feature which was won by Chuck Hebing

 

Next up, was what everyone had been waiting for, the 100 lapper SUPER DIRT SERIES for Big Block Modifieds.

 

 

Tim Fuller took the early lead after a short battle with Rudolph, while fifth place starter Danny Johnson came up to the challenge. Once past Rudolph , he worked on Fuller, and eventually got past on lap 20.

While all this was going on, 9th place starter , Matt Sheppard was working his way through the pack, and it didn’t take long before he was knocking on Johnsons back bumper.  By lap 80, they were in lapped traffic, which allowed Sheppard to make the move.  It was then just a matter time before we saw the familiar # 9s of ‘Super Matt’ steamrolling to another victory.

 

So, it was another good night for Matt Sheppard , adding even more points to keep him leading the series.

 

The show was a good one, and the management team did a great job getting it done with the minimum of delays. Victory Lane pictures were all done before 9-45 pm and Don and I were soon making our exit.  With just a quick stop in Watertown, we were back in Canada at mid night.

By 1-30 am , I was home in Cornwall, ending a a great five day spell of racing.