End of April 2017 Report

The second half of April signaled the start of my North Eastern dirt racing season, but before that could get  under way ,  I had plenty of Ottawa Senators Stanley Cup playoff games to watch on TV. By Sunday April 23, they had eliminated the Boston Bruins  and would be advancing to the second round.

On Saturday April 22, the Brockville Ontario Speedway, held their annual fan fest, at Walmart which is a fund raiser for CHEO, (The Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario)

As usual there was a good turn out of race cars parked out side the Brockville store accompanied by a snack bar serving Hot Dogs and Pop.

Once again the popular local band AMBUSH were playing their great brand of music perched upon a trailer , as the make shift stage.

Of course the big bonus for me, was the quality time spent chatting to the many friends that were there.

I soon found my buddy and race car owner Ralph Murphy, who is teaming up with Luke Whittaker this year with a brand new 358 Modified campaign.

Here’s Luke after a Rick At The Races sticker was put on the car. 

 

After this, it was back home to watch more play off Hockey, but not the Sens this time. It was time to watch the Habs get knocked out by the New York Rangers, the team the Sens would end up playing in the second round.

The first game of round two was on Thursday April 27th, where the sens beat the Rangers.

At last Friday April 28 had come around and it was ‘race day’.

Actually it was day one of the two day ‘Highbank Holdup’ weekend at the Fulton Speedway , New York, 

A Dirtcar Series event for Sportsman, and the ESS Sprint Cars were planned for Friday . Saturdays big event  was the SUPER DIRT SERIES for Big Block Modifieds, with Late Models and Sportsman as support divisions.

I’d booked in for two nights at the Holbrook Motel  and  Hideway Restaurant at Phoenix . It is just a five minute drive from the track and I looked forward to a relaxing weekend with my racing friends. It’s a motel I’ve stopped at numerous times over the years.

I left home in Cornwall , Ontario in the mid morning sunshine, having a nice leisurely drive down south.

I broke the journey up, by meeting my racing friend Dawn Kamff for lunch in Pulaski.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had time for a couple of pictures before I got on my way,

By  4-00 pm I had booked into the motel and was ready to head to the track.

I got there not long before the drivers meeting took place. Soon after that, I met up with all my photographer buddies from the Central New York area and was ready to take up a shooting spot on turn three and four.

 

Winners of the nights big races were Chuck Hebing in the ESS Sprints while Todd Root won the Sportsman Dirtcar Series race.

Once the racing was over, I took the short drive back to the Motel.

Next Day, (Saturday 29th April), I relaxed around the Motel room and did a bit of shopping in Fulton until mid afternoon when it was time to return to the track.

This was the big day of the weekend, and the first SUPER DIRT SERIES race of the year in the North Country. ( The first took place at the Volusia Speedway , Florida in February)

Most of the big names were there, with the most notable exceptions being Danny Johnson, Vic Coffey and Frank Cozee.

Max McLaughlan and Mike Maresca posed for me in their nice new racing suits.

As usual , I attended the drivers meeting , then joined my photographer buddies in the usual spot.

The Ottawa Senators were also in action this night, for Game Two , with the New York Rangers so I was getting up dates via social media through out.

It was a lot chillier than the night before, and there was also a threat of rain, so management put on a slick show, with no unnecessary stoppages in the program. We even got lucky, and had the 100 lap Feature race run from Green to Checkers with only one caution. This was won by Billy Decker who was chased over the line by Matt Sheppard and Jimmy Phelps.

 

 

Not long after seeing Decker get his win, I heard the ‘Sens’ had also got a win.

The Late Model Feature had been run before the SDS race, and the two Sportsman Features were run directly afterwards.

Amazingly, the full show was over by 8-30, just what the ‘doctor ordered’ for a chilly night.

The night was still young !

The Motel I was staying at also has a good restaurant and bar, so my good friend and fellow photographer, John Meloling joined me for a beer and a late supper.

It seems many of our other friends, race fans, officials and drivers had the same idea and the place soon became packed with partying people. I tried a new beer for me, called Shock Top, which I quite enjoyed.

My friend Amy Walton was there with two of her friends Nicole and Krystal so she took a ‘selfie’ picture of us all.

Then no sooner had they left us , we were joined by two more pretty girls. Johns friends ,  Shannon and Dylanne. Oh dear, us old guys were having too much fun !

There were plenty of other well know faces from the dirt racing world in the bar, and even had the pleasure of meeting Harvey Fink, a former long time promoter in the area.

After a couple of beers and a late night snack I returned to my room for a good nights sleep.

I was up early in the morning, hoping to catch the 8-00 am (ET) start of the Russian Grand Prix on the TV, but alas after trying multiple channels, I could not find it.  later I found out that the winner was Valtteri Bottas who got his first win for Mercedes, followed by the two Ferraris of Sebastien Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Lewis Hamilton in the other Mercedes was fourth.

I relaxed around my .room until around 11-00 am before checking out and moving on to my next destination. I was heading to the Utica- Rome Speedway at Vernon, New York, just an hours drive away. After stopping for a cup of tea along the way , I was there before 12-30, so reclined the car seats for a few hours of snooze.

The big event taking place there that day was the first Pro Stock Dirtcar Tour race of the year. Many of my friends were racing and I’d been looking forward to this one. A lot of my local guys were making the trip down .

As well as the Pro Stocks, the Modifieds were on the program and a local Dirtcar Series race for Sportsman.  

There were plenty of friends to chat with before racing got under way, and as usual I attended the drivers meeting before joining my photographer buddies.

Just like the night before , it was a bit chilly and the management team did their best to get the show in, quickly.

I don’t get to the Utica-Rome track very often, but when I do, I tend to park myself on the first and second turn, to get my pictures.

The first of the Features was for the Sportsman where long time leader Dave Marcuccilli was passed by Rocky Warner on the last lap.

The Pro Stock Feature followed this.

Wow  ! what a race this turned out to be.  It went well until the last few laps, when things got a bit rough. Robbie Speed had got a good lead but some late cautions grouped the top four cars together for the restarts. They were all determined to get to the checkers, which resulted in a lot of banging and crashing. I won’t go into who did what to who, but it was a great race for the fans. As they crossed the line it was Robbie Speed from Rob Yetman, with the other contenders, ‘falling by the wayside’. Both Rob’s are good friends of mine.

Robbie Speed and his wife Chrissy.

The Modified Feature ended the night, where one of my local drivers, Mike Maresca put on a good show. He led for many laps before , Matt Sheppard finally passed him to grab the victory.

By now it was 10-15 and my first weekend fix of dirt racing for 2017 was over