WEEKLY REPORT (4 July to 9 July 2017)

 

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Weekly Report (4 July to 9 July 2017)

My week started on Tuesday 4 July with my monthly visit to the Cornwall Hospital for two days of I.V.I.G transfusions, which are all part of the treatment for my MYASTHENIA GRAVIS.

They were all put behind me  by Wednesday afternoon, and I could look forward to some racing action.

Thursday 6 July was a date I had been looking forward to all year, with the staging of the SUPER DIRT SERIES at the newly ‘dirt surfaced’ Airborne Speedway at Plattsbugh, New York.

I’ve  been going to this track for many years during the time it was paved and have a lot of memories .

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My late friend and mentor, Mike Watts was the track photographer there, and it was through him, I got to know Mike Perrotte, who was the promoter there for a while.

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Mike (Perrotte) has since gone from top driver, to promoter then on to Director of the SUPER DIRT SERIES.  

On one of my earlier visits when Mike  was promoting, (2005)  he asked me to take part in a ‘Media Race’

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I borrowed the # 24 Ford Mustang of Perry Wynch.

So, as you can see Airborne, is a place I have great affection for, and was really pleased when it changed from asphalt to dirt this year, with the high light , being a SUPER DIRT SERIES race added to the schedule.

I was in Plattsburgh nice and early on Thursday and had my lunch in the Panera Bread eatery.

I was at the track by mid afternoon, and in good time to relax in my car, which I’d been allowed to park inside, behind the Tech building. In between snoozing in my lawn chair I watched as everybody arrived. The first people I met were my friends Kathy Caldwell and Chris Craft who are officials at the track.

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Kathy takes care of Victory Lane, while Chris is in charge of the pits,  among his other duties.

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Chris (far left)  seen here at the drivers meeting. As usual, I like to attend the drivers meetings at SDS races, to find out what’s going on.  

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The grandstands were packed on this warm and sunny mid week show.

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After that I took position on the outside of turn four to get some hot lap pics.

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There weren’t as many ‘togs’ as usual , but the ones I chatted to were Dan Mailhot, Dave Delasandro, Jeff Karabin and track photographer Dave Brown.

Once Hot Laps were over I took my spot on the middle to take the heat race action.

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Joining the Big Block Mods were the Sportsman and MiniMods.

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During Intermission , I wandered over to the start stretch for the redraw, where Matt Woodruff picked pole position.

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It was at this point I met up with my friend Randy Lewis, the Worlds No 1 TRACKCHASER ( I’ve lost count, but it’s over 2500 tracks World Wide) Randy was at Airborne to add ‘the dirt track’ to his totals. He’d traveled from San Clemente , California to be there.

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Like many other TRACKCHASERS he’d  seen it as paved track before, but this year he was able to add it as a ‘dirt track’.

It was at this point I also met up with another old friend “Racing Russ” from Port Jervis , New Jersey .

DSC_0353 He was there relaxing, and going through his mass of ‘stats’ he carries around with him in a bundle. No computer for Russ.

Straight after intermission it was Feature time with the Mini Mods up first, followed by the Sportsman.

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It was great to see Bucko Branham , Airborne Veteran, and winner of many ‘paved’ features, get his first dirt win.

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The Big Race was up next , the 100 lap SuperDirtSeries.

Early leader was Keith Flach but he was eventually overhauled by Larry Wight.

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Larry stayed there until the checkers, but had Mad Max Mcloughlin hot on his tail as the race concluded.

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19832775_10211288716752203_573964959_nWith Victory Lane pictures done, I realized I had something missing. I’d lost my car keys. To cut a long story short, after a lot of worrying , one of the guys in the garage located in the Tech building, made a ‘make do’ tool to unlock my doors, where luckily I had a spare set hidden inside.

Phew !  thanks buddy.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve done this at the races , I’m embarrassed to say. Just have a look in the archives and read the report for 18/19/20 October 2013 .

FLASHBACK to October 2013
FLASHBACK to October 2013

Friday 7 July was another wet one, and the Mohawk International Raceway were once again unlucky and had to cancel the show.

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Just as the cars were coming out for warm ups , a massive thunderstorm occurred , ending the night. With so many rain outs affecting the M.I.R this year, management have decided to run this event on the coming Wednesday (12 July)

On Saturday 8 July, once again rain affected most of the north east’s racing calendar, with plenty of cancellations.  We got lucky in our area, and the sun kept shining over my local  Brockville Ontario Speedway.

It was just a regular show, with the addition of the Vintage Mods.

With Airborne Speedway and Autodrome Drummond cancelling early in the day, and M.I.R’s show going the same way, the night before , I expected to see a few invaders.  Sure enough this did happen and we were treated to  extra cars in the Mods and Sportsman.

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Top Quebec driver , Mario Clair was one of these.

My buddy and racing photographer Dan Mailhot drove Mario’s race car transporter down for him and planned on staying overnight in the readiness for the Cornwall Motor Speedway, the next day.

Once the racing started we both took up positions on the middle.

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I tried a few shots from turn three and four, before moving to my regular place on turn one and two.  

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It was good to see my old friend ‘Dent Man’ Dave Watchorn, the former Capital City Speedway racer making one of his rare appearances in his # 97 Mini Stock .

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A usual , once I’d taken pictures of the heat races I joined my friend Taya Heldens, the Victory Lane hostess up in one of the booths to watch the features. I thought it about time I took a nice picture of her up on the top deck, and we also  did a ‘Selfie’.

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I bet you are all starting to think, what a lucky old so and so ,  I am, getting to meet all these pretty ladies .

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I must also mention the presence of the Junior Mr Starter, Troyer Sipple, from the Syracuse NY area , who was visiting Brockville with his parents.

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He was invited to join Gary Vandermeer up on the flag stand for the Modified race. 

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The first Feature was for the Street Stocks and was won by Nicolas Geavreau.

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This was followed by the Modifieds which was won by Kyle Dingwall.

DSC_0352 The Vintage Modifieds were up next and this was won by the young Gavin Riddell.

Before heading for home I watched the Sportsman race which provided a victory for Shane Pecore.

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I was home in Cornwall at a sensible time and, wasn’t too late for bed.

The alarm clock was set for 7-30 am so I could watch the live TV coverage of the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday morning. This turned out to be a pretty boring affair, with Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes getting a first, Sebastien Vettel in the Ferrari second and Daniel Riciardo in the Red Bull coming home third.

It had been a warm and humid day, and I was looking forward to the evenings SUPER DIRT SERIES race at the nearby Cornwall Motor Speedway.

I left my home on the east side of the city about 3-00 pm so I could be there early and take in the build up to the great evening ahead. As I entered Brookdale Ave, I spotted the Brett Hearn hauler coming over from the USA side, and not far behind him was that of Stewart Friesen.  At the same time, a few spots of rain came down, but nothing serious.

I then went the few miles down the road to the track. Once parked I joined my buddy Ron Morin on his golf kart for a  tour around the speedway.

With the rain still sprinkling down , Ron decided to go out on track for some packing. I then had the use of the golf kart to wander round.

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The Dirtcar staff and race teams were still coming through the gate as I chatted to friends with it still spitting with rain.

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Another lovely lady added to this weeks report is my friend , the former Modified driver Susie Langlois. She recently got married and I wanted to give her my congratulations,  

After a while the drivers meeting for the Super Dirt Series took place at the DirtCar trailer, which I attended. As the notices were given out, the drivers stood listening with umbrellas  and hoodies.

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At this stage there was still optimism that the show would  go on, but shortly after the meeting, the heavens opened, and the sky was full of dark clouds.

Not long after this the inevitable news was relayed, and the night was over. Yet another rain-out to add to the totals this year.