Weekly Blog 21st of June 2022

Weekly Blog.  Tuesday 21 June 2022

In last weeks report  , I left off on Tuesday the 14th  June with my visit to the Cornwall Kart Track.

On Wednesday the 15th,  I was treated to a rare mid week show at the Airborne Speedway, at Plattsburgh , New York . 

Back on the 30th of April the DirtCar Sportsman Series was taking place and it had to be abandoned with only one lap in the books , after dusty track conditions  made things dangerous.

This was the make up date.

I took a relaxing drive over to Plattsburgh and had plenty of time for a Mac and  Cheese at the Panera Bread before the races.

With the field all set for the Series race , a regular night of heats and feature were also on the program , as well as Street Stocks and the postponed Renegade Feature.

On my pit walk about , it was good to see and chat to CV Elms once more, 

He’s been driving dirt cars for many years, and he’s also the promoter at the Bear Ridge Speedway , Bradford Vermont.

He also ran the, now defunct, Canaan Fair Speedway in New Hampshire.

I met him there when I visited the track in June 2005.

At that time, I was just starting off on my Racing Media career and was writing a story for the UK’s  SHORT CIRCUIT MAGAZINE.

As you can see , the appearance of his cars haven’t  changed much over the years.

Track prep for the evening was being taken care of by Jeremy Corcoran, who is now based at the O.C.F.S  at Middletown NY . He is generally excepted as one of the best track prep guys in the business, and we weren’t  going to be disappointed. 

The track was in great shape , with enough grooves to allow some three wide racing.

Once things got underway the 29 lap Series make up race,  was up first.

Shane Pecore made easy work of this one.

The regular nights feature took place after the various heats and was won by Dave Rogers.

It was all over by about 10-00 pm and I was back home in Cornwall before mid night.

Friday the 17th of June was just like the previous week, with a forecast of wet weather.

Once again my local Mohawk International Raceway , fell victim , as did Autodrome Granby in Quebec.

Things looked good once more at the Can Am Speedway ,  Lafargeville NY, so thats where I went.

The forecast wasn’t good there either , but it was still happening, so my plans were the same as last week. I’d head in that direction and if they canceled in the meantime, there was always the Brewerton Speedway, a ‘do-able’ distance away.

The weather was dry and sunny on arrival , albeit very windy.

One of the first people I bumped into was Louie Jackson, one of my locals, who back in 2006 was the Pro Stock winner at SUPER DIRT WEEK in Syracuse NY. 

He’s been long retired from racing, but was excited to tell me , that tonight he was returning to the tracks . He pointed over to his # 18 Pro Stock and said ‘take a look over there’ .

This came as a complete surprise to me as I’d heard no rumors. The funny thing is, I jokingly said to him, following the recent return of Denis Gauvreau , that he too should get another Pro Stock .

The Pro Stocks were an extra division to the previous week, so there  were more races to get in, against that serious threat of rain.

With this in mind , management decided to zip through the program as quickly as possible.

After the heat races the features were out , after a short 10 minute break for track prep,

No Victory Lane ceremonies , just non-stop racing.  I must admit I don’t like it when this happens, but in this case it was the right call.

Winners of the major divisions were, Ryan Bartlett (Modifieds) Jamie Brown (Sportsman) and Bruno Richard (Pro Stock) , Louie  got third place , which showed that “Action Jackson” as they call him, hasn’t lost his touch.

The show was in the books by 10-00 pm and we managed to miss the coming rain .

 Victory Lane presentations for all the winners were done at the end of the night, and luckily they all came on to the track, in their cars and race suits.

 

When this was done I headed for home, and within ten minutes of my drive, I was going through rain.

Another early finish , just what I like. I was back in Canada at mid night.

My original plan for Saturday was for a trip to Autodrome Drummond in Quebec, but by the time I got out of bed in the morning , the Rained Out message had already been posted,

It was bitterly cold and wet in Cornwall, and I thought my Plan B of the Brockville Ontario Speedway would be lost too.

I kept checking social media and things looked good there so off I went.

It’s about an hours drive down Highway 401, and by the time I got to the Brockville Exit, it was a different world. The sun was shining and the skies were blue. It was still cold and windy, but I’ll take that.

With the early cancelation of Drummond and Friday nights races also lost at Granby , it tempted a few Quebecers to make the trip.

It was regular show at the B.O.S , with Modifieds, Sportsman, Rookie Sportsman, Sprint Cars, Mini Stocks and Vintage.

The track was in pretty good shape and the program went along with few delays.

A few weeks back, there were no Victory Lane presentations due to a race against the rain, so these took place at intermission.

These were Chris Raabe, for the Modifieds, and Bobby Herrington in the Sportsman.

.My friend and Cornwall neighbor Sandy MacFarlane was there too, for his Rookie Sportsman win.

The first of the nights Features was for the Modifieds.

Lee Ladouceur led for most of the race, and looked all set for the win , until he was passed by Chris Raabe on the last lap. 

Next up was the Sprint Car Feature , and with just a handful of cars , it was over pretty quickly . I only had just enough time to buy my fries while it was on. 🙂

Ryan Poole was the winner,

The Sportsman Feature followed this.

We had a first time winner in this one , when former Mini Stock driver, Dominick Merkley took the checkers.

The Rookie Sportsman feature followed this, and it was another visit to Victory Lane for the MacFarlane family.

This time it was Sandy’s son Gavin.

It sure was an honor for me , when he asked me to join him for a Victory Lane shot.

The program had moved a long very well with out any major delays and the Mini Stock were the penultimate feature.

This  gave another win for young  Hayden Brown.

It was still only 10-00 pm , so I thought I’d take advantage of this , and get away early.

The Vintage feature was the only race yet to run, but I didn’t mind missing that.

I had the luxury of a lay in, on Sunday Morning , before sitting behind the TV to watch the 2-00 pm live screening of the Canadian Grand Prix , from the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in Montreal .

I was watching the pre race stuff from 12-30 pm .  SKY Sports do such an excellent job of F1 coverage. It was a sell out crowd there, and it really pleases me to see F1 growing in popularity this side of the Atlantic.

When I emigrated to Canada in 1994, some people used to give me funny looks when they heard I was an F1 fan,  as so many race fans here are into NASCAR .

Things have changed, as F1  gains ground in North America , at the time when the popularity of NASCAR seems to be declining. (In my opinion) 

I stopped following  the NASCAR Cup races years ago, and  these days I couldn’t even tell you who’s who . LOL 

Well the GP was a good one with Max Verstappen in the Red Bull  being chased over the line by Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari. The two Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell were not far behind in third and fourth.

The race was over by 3-45 pm, just right for me to drive across town to the Cornwall Motor Speedway.

It was  the Canadian Nationals and we also had a bunch of pavement drivers in attendance , getting some Modified and Sportsman experience in preparation for a street race in Trois Rivieres  (GP3) later this year.

It was the same guys I saw at the rained out Autodrome Drummond a few weeks ago. The one name that most dirt fans will of had heard of , is former Indy Car driver  Alex Tagliani.

He had been doing some media work at the GP in the afternoon and flew in to Cornwall by helicopter .

Promoter , Raymond Lavergne was ready to meet him and taxi him to his awaiting # 18T  Sportsman.

On my pit walk about , I was introduced to Chase Steven Jalbert, who was just 12 days old and the latest member of the Johnathan Fergusson (Modified # 44) and the Jalbert  (Sportsman #95 ) teams .

Johnathan’s sister Chelsea is  married to Corey Jalbert, the son of  Sportsman racers Tammy and Dan.

While in the pits I had a good chat with Francois Bernier. It was his  first time back at Corwall since Pre Covid days, over two years ago.

I also spent a bit of time chatting at the Pierre Dagenais / Luke Whitteker pits stall,  where they were fine tuning a brand new engine.

Once the action got going , I stationed myself on the pit tower for hot laps.

For the heat races I was back on the middle on turn one and two.

Before  intermission, it was the Ministock Feature which provided a second win of the year for Pierre Picard.

After the break and some Pizza Logs to eat from the pit concessions, I was back on the middle.

First feature to run was for the Rookie Sportsman and was won by long distance driver Oliviere Boiennault, all the way from Thetford Mines in Quebec.

The Modifieds were up next for their  60 lap Canadian Nationals.

Carey Terrance dominated all of the race, but near the end he was chased to the line by a fast charging Chris Raabe. 

 

 

Corey Wheeler completed the top three.

It was the 40 lap Sportsman feature next which was won by Ryan Stabler.

The final race of the night was for the Pro Stocks.

This was a good one, where fresh out of retirement Louie ‘Action’ Jackson pushed Marc Lalonde over the line, to grab a remarkable runner up spot.

It was nice to see Marc, back in Victory Lane at the Cornwall Motor Speedway, it’s been a while.

The night ended a bit later than I’d hoped for, but it was to be expected with such a busy schedule.

As I bring this weeks Blog to a close, it’s Tuesday night (21st June) , with no Cornwall Karts tonight due to heavy rain.