Easter Road Trip to North Carolina
I’ve mentioned it many times over the years, but since moving to North America, I’ve had to get used to the lack of racing available over the Easter period . If I turn the clock back to my times in the UK , It wouldn’t be unusual for me to be at the races four days in a row over Easter. Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Sunday , then again on the Holiday Monday.
These days I have to get by on one or two.
It didn’t matter this year as I was heading down to see my daughter Carla and her family in North Carolina.
On Tuesday 12th of April , at around 10-00 am , I left home in Cornwall Ontario bound for Willow Springs , North Carolina,
By 7-30 pm I was in Winchester , Virginia where I booked in to the Red Roof Inn.
Following an early start on Wednesday morning, I was pulling in to Carla’s drive way at 11-00 am.
Time to put my feet up and relax.
The next day I drove into Fuquay Varina, which is about a ten minute drive from their house and is the nearest town .
It’s quite picturesque little town with terrace bars and restaurants, that are adjacent to the rail line.
On Thursday night, Carla treated me and the kids to an evening at the NHL game between the local Carolina Hurricanes and the Detroit Red Wings.
Benji and Sophia even made it on to the Video Tron.
The result was a 3-0 win to the Red Wings ,
Coincidentally, the first time Carla treated me to an NHL Hockey game was back in 2005 when she was living in Los Angeles.
We went to see her local team, the Anaheim Ducks who were also playing against the Red Wings.
On Good Friday Carla and Sophie were at the riding school , so I tagged along to watch.
Saturday morning was spent , taking Carla’s AUDI to the dealership for a tire issue , then after lunch I took off for the races.
I was heading to the Fayetteville Speedway , which is just an hours drive from the house.
I got there in plenty of time to explore the area , watch the teams arrive, and meet the promoter Shay Martin.
She’s a very friendly and helpful lady.
There were five divisions taking part, The Late Models, Super Late Models , Legends, Crate Modifieds and Street Stocks. The main event was the CAROLINA CLASH for the Super Late Models
I started off by taking some hot lap pictures high in the stands of turn four before moving on to the middle.
I was surprised to find there were no heat races.
After Hot Laps , the cars did timed qualifying laps that determined grid positions for the features . This was a new one for me.
The first of the features was for the Late Models , which was won by Timmy Mills # 52. It was a 25 lap race which was spoiled (in my opinion) by the abundance of cautions.
Next up was the headline event, the 40 lap Carolina Clash for the Super Late Models.
Again there were a lot more cautions than I would of liked , but the racing was very good. Some great side by side action between Johnny Pursley #09 and Michael Rouse # 23 , until a tangle with a back marker took out Rouse of contention.
At the Checkers it was Pursley who took the win.
It was now about 10-00 pm so I decided to head back to Carla’s .
In my absence # 11 Eric Bentley won in the Crate Modifieds, Ryan Shabram # 15 in the Legends and Mike Manes #55 the Street Stocks .
The next day was Easter Sunday and I joined the family for a church service in Raleigh, followed by a Chinese Buffett lunch.
In the afternoon the kids had their Easter Chocolates, and around 5-00 pm I began my homeward bound journey.
My plan was to get a few hours of driving in the books , before getting my head down. I’d pre-booked a room at the Super 8 in Fredricksburg V.A and got there about 10-00 pm.
I left Fredricksburg at 5-00 am and was soon getting some miles under my belt.
As I passed through the mountains between Scranton PA and Binghamton NY there were plenty of warning signs giving motorists advance notification of Severe Winter Weather coming later that day. They were advising against unnecessary travel. The roads were good at this stage , so there were no worries for me.
I crossed the border in to Canada at Cornwall about 4-00 pm and was soon back at home.
After waking up the next morning from a good nights sleep it was obvious what all the warning signs were about. I had over 4 inches of snow on my car , and the I’m pretty sure the areas in PA were getting more. Guess I got back just in time.