Three Trips to La Belle Province (Weekly Report 14 Sept 2020)

This past week was another one, where I was never sure of my plans until the last minute, and I ended up making three separate trips to Quebec.

As mentioned in last weeks report, long time Quebec Modified driver Dany Bilodeau # 23 sadly passed away after a lengthy fight with cancer. His funeral was on Wednesday the 9th of September at the Saint-Christophe d’Arthabaska Church , in Victoriaville, so I joined my buddy Ron Morin in his big Lincoln Town Car to pay our respects.

Also there representing the Cornwall Motor Speedway , was tech man Richard Bourassa . There were many others in attendance, too many to mention separately .

Dany’s coffin arrived at the church accompanied by his race car on a trailer, and was taken to his grave side, the same way.

On Friday the 11th of Sept, I was back in Quebec again.

Don Simpson joined me in my Chev Impala, for the final night at Autodrome Granby.

It’s a trip we have made together many times during this crazy year of COVID 19 

As usual , on arrival I did my pit walk about, and one of the first things I noticed was the nice new color scheme on the Yan Bussiere # 21 car. 

 

I then chatted with my good friend Luke Whitteker who was once again driving  the Pierre Dagenais owned #124 car.

Don and I then took our now mandatory group photo with Josee Fortier and her friend at the pit sign in.

Once the racing started, I took up my favorite shooting spot on turn one and two.

Luke Whitteker’s name went down in the stats book, after breaking the tracks lap record. Unfortunately he would be plagued by a mysterious mechanical failure later in the night.

The first of the feature races, was for the ‘Sport Compact’ (Ministocks) and was won by Danic Sylvestre. 

 

Alexis Charboneau clinched the 2020 points championship.

The 100 lap Modified Feature was next and was dominated by Francois Bernier from start to finish.  

 

The Bernier crew then got down to the ground to kiss the clay.

Yan Busierre and Mathieu Desjardins who had put up a strong challenge  completed the podium.

 

Next up was the Pro Stock Feature

Pascal Payeur  # 338 won this one , while Yves Hamel # 194 was crowned 2020 champion.

The final race of the night was the Sportsman feature.

Alex Lajoie was the winner and Even Racine clinched the track championship.

 

Don and I , had finished our Victory Lane pictures by 10-30 and after saying our goodbyes to friends, we were on our way back to Ontario.

In the past, I’ve been known to stay over night during a Quebec weekend, (Autodrome Drummond was the next day)  but I needed to be back home. as I had roofers arriving first thing Saturday morning to replace the shingles on my front porch.

Don was covering the Cornwall Motor Speedway Enduro,   so I would be heading up solo when the roofers were done.

I got away from Cornwall, Ontario , just after lunch and had plenty of time for a leisurely drive to Drummondville.

On arrival , my first port of call was the Dagenais/ Whitteker Team to find out if they’d sorted out the mysterious failure that had let them down the previous night.

 

Apparently , it was the distributor cap, that had come apart inside.

It was good to see two more of my local Cornwall area drivers in attendance , Brianna Ladouceur and Brian McDonald .

I then went on to the middle to join my photographer buddies Dan Mailhot and Eric Pivin.

 

The program consisted of Modifieds, Sportsman, STR Speedsters, and Mod-Lites.

The latter two divisions ran their features before the intermission. 

The program had been running smoothly with no major delays,  and after a short pause for track prep, the Modifieds were out on track for their feature.

The 50 lapper had not completed one lap, when the pole starter, Martin Pellettier # 92  car pulled off in a cloud of smoke.

On the restart, Luke Whitteker was joined at the front by David Hebert. It didn’t  take long for Hebert to get the better of Whitteker.

They continued in first and second , until a mishap in lapped traffic caused the # 124 car to hit the wall.

Hebert continued for the win with  Matheiu Desjardins and Steve Bernier following him home.

 

 

The 50 lap Sportsman Feature was the last race and it was still quite early in the night.

This turned out to be the best race of the show,  with three drivers battling it out at the front from start to finish.

First it was Alex Lajoie, being chased by Even Racine then Junior Mailhot joined the party.

The three of them duked it out for most of the race, until Mailhot got in front and stayed there. 

Victory Lane ceremonies were all done by 10-15, so I made my exit and headed back home.

My Sunday plan , was to take a few pictures of day two of the Cornwall Motor Speedway Enduro, but heavy rain caused an early cancellation.