Weekly Report ( 25 June 2019)
All of a sudden, the weather got better, and we were back to normal service. This past week has felt more like summer, and just in time for the big influx of racing heading my way.
The week started with a short drive across town for the Tuesday night Kart Track races at the Cornwall Motor Speedway. I wasn’t there for long, but long enough to catch a few heat races for all the classes.
As usual there were Kids Karts, Lawn Tractors and Dirt Demons.
The good weather continued into the weekend where I had a lot of events on my agenda.
The first stop was my local Mohawk International Raceway at Hogansburg NY.
I met up with my ‘Tog’ buddy Don Simpson at ‘Timmys’ just before the track , for a cup of tea, before heading to the races.
A Series race for the Mod Lites, had been added to the regular program, so we feared a long night of delays. Don had to be away early, as his daughter Michelle was getting married the next day.
During my pit walk about I spotted Perry Francis, who was back in action after taking a long lay off. He was driving the spare Carey Terrance car.
I have a lot to cover in this report, so I will skip through each event as briefly as I can , and just concentrate on the major classes.
The big winners at the Mohawk International Raceway were, Mike Maresca in the Modifieds,
and Brianna Ladouceur in the Sportsman.
We were lucky and racing was all over reasonably early, so I was soon back over the bridge and home.
On Saturday 22 June, I was Brockville bound for a regular weekly show at the B.O.S. I had my usual wander around the pits and instantly recognized a familiar car among the Street Stocks .
It was the # 56 of Jessica Passinetti who used to be a regular Thunder Car competitor at the paved, and now defunct Capital City Speedway in Ottawa. She and her crew chief father Julio, would be there every week
When the track closed at the end of 2014, Jessica went to race at her nearest available paved track, the Peterborough Speedway.
I had a good chat with her and Julio, and they told me, that after three years at Peterborough they were going to give the dirt at the B.O.S a try. This was her first time ever on a dirt track.
They even had the original RICK at the RACES sticker still on the back of the car.
Back to the racing, and as normal I took most of my pics on turn one and two.
Johnathon Ferguson won the Sportsman feature, which made a bit of a change from Ryan Scott, who’s been occupying Victory Lane on a few occasions this year.
It was nice to see the RICK at the Races sticker displayed on his car as we took the presentation shots.
Ryan Arbuthnott once again stamped his authority in the Modified division , clinching his third feature win at Brockville this year.
On this occasion, he shared the Victory celebrations with his wife and baby daughter.
The show had moved on pretty swiftly and it was great to have the Modified feature all done by 10-00 pm. It meant , I was home soon after 11-00 pm.
Perfect when I still had two more days of racing to go, on my schedule.
I was out of bed before 9-00 am on Sunday morning so I could watch the French F1 Grand Prix live on TV , from the Paul Ricard Circuit.
I must say , I didn’t enjoy this one, I found the race uneventful and boring, which was made even worse by the huge blue and white stripes painted on the ground, marking the many run off areas. It was very hard on my eyes.
Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes led this one from start to finish.
In the afternoon my friend Chanty arrived at my place and at 5-00 pm we drove across town to the Cornwall Motor Speedway.
To celebrate the tracks 50 years of operation, the night was designated to have 50 lap feature races for all three DirtCar divisions.
The Modifieds were on first and this was won by Luke Whitteker. Yet another RICK at the RACES sticker made its way to Victory Lane.
The Sportsman were up next and this was yet another win for Shane Pecore. I think it’s his third Cornwall victory this year.
The Pro Stocks concluded the evening, and their feature gave C.d Beauchamp the win.
The racing finished around 11-00 pm and I drove straight home as I needed an early night.
On Monday I had to be at the Cornwall Hospital for an early morning appointment . I was done there by 10-00 am and once I was home, I got myself ready for the final racing event on my weekend calendar.
It was the St Jean Baptiste , Long Weekend, and holiday Monday in Quebec so the RPM Speedway , at Saint Marcel-de- Richelieu was holding a special race night.
Don Simpson picked me up from my place at 2-00 pm and off we went.
We got there about 5-00 pm and the first people we bumped into were our good friends, Kathy and Chris, who officiate and the Airborne Speedway.
After a quick chat, Don and I moved into the middle, for our picture taking.
The Modifieds had two 40 lap Features and the Sportsman had just one. They were joined on the program by a bunch of support divisions .
The first Modified feature was won by Steve Bernier , who was chased for much of the race by Steve Bernard.
The Sportsman feature was next, where they split the 40 laps into two 20 lap races .
At the end it was Moise Page who took the checkers.
At this point, with still one more Modified feature left to run, plus the other divisions, we decided to make our exit. We’d both had hectic weekends and didn’t want a late night.