STAYING LOCAL (Weekly Blog 26th April 2023)
When this web site was launched back in 2008, it was intended to be a personal record of my life and times around the race tracks. A kind of diary , if you prefer to call it that.
It’s never been about attracting followers, just a way for me to record things , for future reference. I have no idea how many people read it , or the ‘traffic’ I get.
So on occasions, when I get contacted by a reader , it’s quite neat, especially when its a celebrity .
This week , I was contacted by former F1 Grand Prix driver , and Lemans 24 hour Race winner, Derek Warwick. He’d read some stuff on ‘Rick at the Races’ about stock car racing in the UK and needed some help for a book he is writing .
Back in the early 70’s before he rose through the ranks of motor racing, he was a UK stock car driver on the short ovals. His father Derry was a driver during the 1960’s and when Derek became a teenager he joined him on the tracks. They were from New Arlesford in Hampshire (England) where their family business, ‘Warwick Trailers’ was located.
In 1973 young Derek won the Superstox World Championship at the sadly defunct Wimbledon Stadium , in South London.
After a few years in Superstox he moved into single seater racing on the big circuits. He went from Formula Ford, F3 and F2 , until he made his F1 debut for the Toleman Team in 1981.
He raced for various F1 teams during his career as well as Sports Car racing where he won the 1992 Lemans 24 hour race in a Peugeot.
Some of his fondest memories are from his stock car days and he was looking for old photos to include in his book.
At that time of my life , I was busy building my own stock car, so didn’t have many opportunities to get pics , but I did manage to source some, from friends in the UK.
Back to the present , .
On Thursday the 20th of April it was a nice sunny day so , I took my T Bird , on a cruise down to Brockville.
After stopping off in Prescott at the King Edward Auto Parts for a chat with my buddy Ralph Murphy , I continued along Hwy 2 that goes beside the St Lawrence.
By lunchtime I was parked up on BlockHouse Island , in downtown Brockville .
It’s a bit of a tourist spot and one of the attractions is the old railway tunnel.
From here I drove up to the Brockville Ontario Speedway.
Promoters , Paul and Cheryl Kirkland were there so I stopped to chat.
On Friday (21st April) I took a drive to the Cornwall Motor Speedway to check things out.
With my buddy Ron Morin, still recovering from his surgery , maintenance man Jay Thomas was taking care of track prep.
Like many other places in the area, the speedway had suffered fallen trees in the recent ice storm.
I didn’t want to stray too far away at the weekend as my daughter Carla would be heading towards my place on Sunday for a few days.
So for Saturday (22nd of April) , I decided to head for one of the practice days taking place at my local tracks.
I had two that are nearby to choose from , the Can Am Speedway , Lafargeville NY or the Airborne Speedway at Plattsburgh NY.
Both tracks are a 1 hour 45 minute drive from Cornwall, so it was a difficult decision. The weather forecast for Airborne looked better (with no chance of rain) so that’s where I went.
I got there about about 2-00 pm and already there was a large line of cars for the mandatory pre practice tech.
After the long winter it was great to meet up and chat with old friends.
Jamy and Beth Begor were there.
The Branham family were also there . Sportsman driver , Bucko was embarking on his 40th year of racing.
One of the newest recruits to the Modified division in my area, is Darryl Mitchell from Akwesasne.
He was there to put in some laps.
After the cars had gone through tech, Mike Perrotte hosted the drivers meeting prior to the practice laps.
I then joined , track photographer David Brown on the middle.
All the Airborne divisions were represented.
Practice was scheduled to end at 7-00 pm.
By 5-30pm I’d got enough pictures, so made my exit, and after a supper at the Twin Leaf Diner , I was back over the bridge, and home in Canada by 8-00.
As mentioned earlier, my daughter Carla was coming to stay with me for a few days. She was at an event in Ohio on Sunday and the plan was for her to drive from there to my place in Cornwall, Ontario.
We were playing it by ear, as to when she would arrive. She left there in her AUDI around lunch time, and after spending the night in Niagara Falls, she got to my place at supper time on Monday.
By Tuesday we were out and about in my T-Bird.
The plan is to stay until the weekend , before she drives back to her home in North Carolina