WEEKLY REPORT (15 to 23 Oct 2017)

This past weekend , one of my favorite racing events was taking place, The Eastern States  Weekend at the Orange County Fair Speedway, Middletown NY. 

I’ve attended many times over the years but this time I reluctantly had to decide against it. Two weeks ago, you may recall in my Super Dirt Week report, I wasn’t too well at Oswego, and nearly returned home early. Side effects of the MYASTHENIA GRAVIS condition I suffer from, were giving me problems.

Oswego is less than three hours away from my home where as Middletown is over six hours , and  a four day event. I decided not to take any chances, and give it miss this year.  I didn’t  want to risk being that far from home and things turning bad. I guess I have to be smart sometimes !

Therefore it was a quiet week for me, with no medical appointments on my schedule, and no racing planned for the weekend. 

I had to follow what was going on via social media.

The first of the Middletown races took place Thursday  (19 Oct) and was won by Stewart Friesen.  He followed this up by winning the 100 lap small block race on Saturday. 

My Saturday night was spent at home, watching the Ottawa Senators walk all over the Toronto Maple Leafs on TV. 

I guess that’s the next best thing to being at the races, but I do regret having to miss the famous New Years Eve Party at  Middletown.

 The Eastern States Weekend is one of the biggest social events in the Dirt racing calendar and the Saturday night party in the track bar (The 31st Lap) is all part of part of racing folk lore.

I’ve survived many of them over the years

The big race at Middletown is the 200 lap Big Block Modified race held on the Sunday afternoon and I was going to miss it.

My plan for Sunday 22 October was to sit behind my TV set once again and watch the F1 Grand Prix from Austin Texas.

Things all changed on Sunday morning when I got a phone call from my buddy Ron Morin. It was a lovely warm and sunny day, and he asked if I was interested in a little road trip.

A new track had opened in Maniwaki , Quebec, this year by a friend of mine, Beau Miller, and although the season had finished, Ron fancied a ride up there to take look.

So I joined him in his big Lincoln Town Car for the drive into the Laurentian Mountains.

Before heading too far north, we made a slight detour to take a look at the site of the old Autodrome Edelweiss in Cantley, Quebec.

 

For both ,  it was a track that meant a lot to us in the past , before it was sadly lost.

It’s now part of a quarry company and very little of the old track is still there.

From Cantley we continued up to Maniwaki and easily found the speedway which is located just south of the town on the Algonquin Native Reserve.

 

Once there, we met Beau’s mother who was very hospitable and kindly showed us around the track.

 

 

As our visit was  spontaneous and a last minute decision, I hadn’t mentioned it to Beau , that we were coming, so he was out for the day. After spending some time chatting, Ron and I made our departure, with the hope that we’d be able to return some day when the racing was on.

After a buffet supper at the Rideau Carleton  Raceway ( harness racing for horse and buggy’s) in Ottawa , we headed back to Cornwall.

On my return I found out that Lewis Hamilton had won the Grand Prix in Austin, and Brett Hearn had added to the tally of his many Eastern States  Victories.  I have to thank my long time ‘Tog’ buddy Boris Rudzinski for the Victory Lane pic.