23 | May | 2018 | Rick at the Races

Weekly Report (23 May 2018)

This past week was quite eventful in more ways than one !

My first bit of action of the week was on Tuesday 15 May when my local Cornwall Motor Speedway, were holding a practice session. I went a long for an hour or so to chat with friends and take a few pics.

There was a healthy turn out from all the various divisions.

On Friday 18 May , I did something a little bit different, to coincide with the plans I had made for Saturday.

It’s been common knowledge that Ryan Harrison, a BriSCA F1 driver from the UK, was going to try his hand at Sprint Car Racing. The Harrison Team had acquired the use of a car, and were about to commence a mini tour with the ESS.

His first race was at the Thunder Mountain Speedway, at Center Lisle NY on Saturday, and that would be my destination. Many years ago, when I was doing BriSCA F1 , I raced along side his father , Murray Harrison.

Ryan would be hot-lapping at Malta, (Albany-Saratoga Speedway) on Friday, but my destination would be the Brewerton Speedway NY for the season opener .

That way, by stopping overnight in Syracuse, I would be in a good position to carry on south to Thunder Mountain the next day.

So, I set off from my home in Cornwall for Brewerton around lunchtime, having to miss out on my local Mohawk International Raceway for this week.

After booking into my Hotel, the Welcome Inn in Syracuse, I was at the track for about 5-00 pm. I had my usual pit walk about and chat.

One of the drivers I chatted to, was Chris Hile.

When the cars took to the track I set myself up, in my usual position on turn 1 and 2.

Once there I met John Clifford , John Meloling , and the rest of my CNY Tog Buddies.

There was a good field of Big Block Modifieds, Sportsman,ModLites and the 4 Cyls.

The main event of the night, the feature for the Big Blocks was won by Larry Wight.

One of the nice things they do at Brewerton, that I really like is the two Feature races for Sportsman, instead of having Consis.

They were won by Dave Macuccilli And Corey Barker.

These were over before 10-00 pm and I made my exit in the direction of the Quality Inn.

The weather forecast for much of the North East, had not looked good, and sure enough, it was pouring with rain when I woke up.

Before I’d had breakfast, I found out that my destination of Thunder Mountain had been canceled.

My Plan B was the Fulton Speedway, but judging by the rain that was coming down, it was no surprise, when I heard they had also canceled. The management at the Airborne Speedway at Plattsburgh obviously had faith in the weather forecasters, because they called their show off , the day before. So that one was out.

With no word at this time about the Brockville Ontario Speedway, and not wanting to stray further afield, I thought I may as well head back to Canada and take my chance. Before reaching the border, I learned that the B.O.S had also succumbed to the elements.

I was back in Cornwall by mid afternoon, and set myself up for a night watching the TV. Saturday had been a special day around the world as Prince Harry married his USA born girlfriend, Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle.

Although I’ve been living in Canada for over 24 years, I’m still a proud Brit, and enjoyed watching the recorded TV highlights.

CONGRATULATIONS TO HARRY AND MEGHAN

On my visits back to the UK, I’ve visited Windsor Castle a few times.

It’s always worth a visit, and only a 20 minute drive from Heathrow Airport.

On Sunday 20 May it was day one of the Cornwall Motor Speedways season opener, the Victoria Day weekender. It was raining a little in the morning, but the sun was out drying the track by lunch time.

The place was packed, with race cars and fans to welcome in the new season.

My friend Chanty Lesage joined me for my usual walk around for pit chats.

One of the first people we met was C.D Beauchamp who was there with his Pro Stock .

Once the racing started I took my heat race pictures from the Pit Tower.

When it was time for the Features I moved to the middle.

Starting on the front of the Headline event, the Canadian National race for the 358 Modifieds were the TwinLeaf team cars of Louie Jackson Jr and Carey Terrance. It turned out to be a good one with Quebecs Steve Bernard taking the checkers.

Shane Pecore won the Sportsman event and Jocelyn Roy was the Pro Stock winner.

It was a great night of racing and it was all over by 11-00 pm.

After chatting with friends , I was back home by 11-30 pm and as usual sat down behind my lap top to download the evenings pictures .

Once I’d put the newsworthy and interesting ones on social media it was time for bed. It was then, I looked out on to my driveway and saw that my car was missing. Yes, it had been stolen, so I called 911 and the police were at my house soon after.

In the early hours of the morning, my car was found damaged, not far from my house. It looked like it had been curbed, as it had a bent front wheel and flat tire, as well rear end damage where it had been backed into something.

I eventually got to bed at 5-00 am but had very little sleep.

With all this happening, I was going to give day two, of the Cornwall Motor Speedway a miss, but decided to go along later , to cheer myself up among friends.