A ROAD TRIP TO MALTA WEEKLY BLOG 18th April 2023

A Road Trip to Malta

My original plan for this past weekend , was to attend the two day DIRTCAR SERIES show at the Can Am Speedway , Lafargeville NY . Flooding from the previous weeks Ice Storm had put the event in jeopardy and an early call to cancel was made by the management.

This left a gap in my agenda, so decided to head down to Malta NY for the Albany Saratoga Speedway season opener. Many race teams from Canada and the U.S. had the same idea

Towards the end of the week ,we’d been experiencing an abnormal mini-heatwave for April, with plenty of hot and sunny weather.

So I left home Friday morning (14th April) around 10-00 am.

It was a lovely drive from Cornwall to Plattsburgh NY where I joined the I87 to cross the Adirondack Mountains.

My shorts and T shirt were put on, and the sun roof of the Impala was opened up.

I arrived at my accommodation , the Super 8 Hotel in Lake George at 1-30 pm, so had plenty of time to relax before heading to the track.

Lake George is a three hour drive from my place in Cornwall and Malta is a further 30 minutes down the I87.

I arrived at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway , just after 4-00 pm and already the place was filling up.

It’s been 21 years since I first visited this track.

Back in 2002 , I drove a rusty old Honda Civic that was also used to sleep in overnight.

Malta is a place I’ve always enjoyed visiting, it has its own special kind of atmosphere , and wish I could get down there more often.

It was a really warm night and as it got nearer to start time, the large parking lot became full, and the lines to get in got very long.

The pits were also full , with over 120 race cars turning up.

The cancelation of the Can Am Speedway DIRTCAR weekend, had attracted many ‘invaders’ , including about six from Quebec.

Here’s Steve Bernard lining up for tech.

Mario Clair was with his son Gordon, who was racing in the Sportsman division.

Once the racing got under way I met up with fellow Togs , Quentin Young and Mark Brown on the middle, Mark is the long time official track photographer at Malta, as well as the nearby Lebanon Valley Speedway.

As mentioned, there were a lot of cars in the pits, over 40 Modifieds, over 50 Sportsman, plus Pro Stocks , Limited Sportsman and Street Stocks.

With so many Sportsman, it was decided to have two 20 lap Features for them. ( a lot better idea than a bunch of consis )

Daryl Nutting took the first one.

The second one, followed, and was won by Drew Cormie.

Next up was the 25 lap Pro Stock feature where Luke Horning got the win.

The big race of the night, the $5800 to win , 40 lapper for Modifieds came up next .

This was a good one.

Peter Britten was the early leader and had Demetrios Drellos chasing him hard.

After a restart, Drellos using the top groove managed get past Britten , and continued to stay ahead until the last lap.

Going into the third turn as they came to lap a back marker the ‘Aussie’, snuck by to take the checkers.

A nice win for Peter Britten, from Brisbane , Australia.

It was now after 10-30 pm and with the Limited Sportsman and Street Stocks features still to run, I made my exit.

With the jammed up parking lot, it took a while to get out, but by 11-30 pm I was back at Lake George.

On Saturday morning I left the SUPER 8 in the direction of home and by 9-00 am I was doing a bit of shopping in Plattsburgh.

I’ve taken the road between Plattsburgh and the Canadian border (Cornwall) on numerous occasions, so with plenty of time on my hands , it gave me some photo opps that had been well overdue.

I’ve been wanting to stop and take pictures of these two subjects on route 190 (between Plattsburgh and Ellenburg) , for a long time.

I was back home in Cornwall by 11-00 am, in good time to continue with the rest of my plans for the day.

As mentioned at the start of this weeks blog, my area suffered an ice storm the previous week. and one of those affected was my good friend Ron Morin. A lot of trees on his property had come down .

He’s still in recovery mode, from his recent surgery so his daughter Carol had organized a clean up day for the young and able bodied .

I don’t really come under the ‘young and able-bodied’ description (LOL) , so I sat and chatted with Ron as the hard work got underway.

It was still warm and sunny on Sunday so it was an ideal day for a cruise in the T Bird.

First stop was the Morisburg Flea Market

Where I netted two Dinky Toy diecasts for my collection. One of which was an 80 year old , (made in 1943 in Liverpool England) Petrol Tanker. The other was a nice condition Rolls Royce.

From here I drove to the Iroquois Locks, just in time to catch the Canadian Coastguard ship , The Griffen passing through.

Yes, it was the perfect day for a short road trip.

R.I.P Alan E Brown

At the Weekend , I learned the sad news that Alan E Brown had passed away . Alan from Comstock Park in Michigan was the man responsible for the National Speedway Directory , that for many years was the ‘must have’ book for all race fans wishing to travel and explore.

It was a handy paperback to keep in the car, and a lot easier than googling tracks on the internet. He stopped publishing quite a few years ago .

I’d known him for a long time and even had the honor of having one of my pictures on the front cover of the 2008 edition.

I met up with him on a number occasions, and as recent as as last year (July 2022) he and his wife Nancy were at my local Mohawk International Raceway.