After the Rain (11th May 2023)
After six days of rain , my part of the world, finally got a break on Friday 5th May, with a beautiful sunny day.
It was too late to prevent some of the tracks cancelling due to wet grounds, but it was all systems go for the Can Am Speedway at Lafargeville, NY.
I set off from my home in Cornwall, after lunch and was at the track before 5-00pm .
It was good to see Jonnathan Ferguson in attendance, his first time back at Can Am for a couple of years.
The previous days of rain had taken its toll, and plenty of track prep was needed through out the night.
The program consisted of Modifieds, Sportsman , Limited Sportsman, ThunderCars and Sprint Cars.
I took my usual heat races pictures from turn three and four.
A lot more track prep was need before the feature races.
The first features were for the Limited Sportsman and Thunder Cars.
Brady Howard took the Limited Sportsman race while Remmington Hamm was the Thunder Car winner.
The 25 lap Modified feature was next , which got off to a scary start when Ryan Bartlett’s car began smoking and then caught fire.
Luckily he got out uninjured.
After the reds, the race resumed, with Nick Webb taking the lead.
With five laps to go Matt Caprara , charged by to take the checkers and his first ever Modified Feature win.
Matt is the son of Charlie Caprara, the former track promoter.
The delays due to necessary track prep, meant the time was getting a bit late for me, so I made my exit.
In my absence, Brennan Moore 35B took the Sportsman feature.
Josh Verne Jr was the Sprint Car winner.
I was back home in Cornwall for 1-00am.
On Saturday , it was the season opener at the Airborne Speedway , Plattsburgh, NY and it was another day of dry and sunny weather.
Airborne is about the same distance from my place as Can Am and it takes about a 1 hour 45 minute to drive there. Don Simpson joined me for this trip and we were there in good time to wander the pits.
They were full and had a good turn out of 26 modifieds.
Like everywhere else in the area , Plattsburgh had suffered from six days of rain, but Mike Perrotte and his team had worked wonders to provide a track that was raceable.
The program consisted of Modifieds , Sportsman, Limited Sportsman ,StreetStocks and Rengades (4 cyl).
One of the many good things I like about Airborne, is they ‘don’t mess around’ .
The show starts earlier than most places, they have a Post Time of 6-00pm, followed by the heats and a shorter intermission.
They know what the fans want , i.e , to see the racing and get home at a sensible time.
As an added bonus (for me), the headline feature were up first .
The Sportsman feature was won by Chris Cayea.
The was followed by the Modified feature .
It was Lance Willix who took this one.
David Hebert 3rd and Chris Raabe 2nd completed the podium.
The Victory Lane pictures were all done by 9-30 pm and it wasn’t long before Don and I were heading out the gates.
Perfect ! I’d seen what I came to watch , and was back home in my house before 11-30 pm.
The weather was still nice and sunny on Sunday , so instead of staying indoors to watch the F1 Grand Prix from Miami on TV , I went for a cruise to Ottawa in the T.Bird.
It was Verstappen once again in the Red Bull that got the win in Miami .
On Tuesday the 9th of May it was Practice Day at my local Cornwall Motor Speedway
I was there early, and they had a big turnout of cars.
It was nice to see some new additions to the Modified ranks.
Sandy and Gavin McFarland, Chris Fergusson, and Gilles Godard have moved up from Sportsman . Gilles was having fuel problems , but hopes to get everything sorted before race day.
There were plenty of Sportsman too, and Delbert Legrow even managed to flip over.
The other divisions were also well represented.
It turned out to be a good night and with the ‘Long Holiday Weekend’ rapidly approaching and the Mohawk International Raceway and the Brockville Ontario Speedway about to have their season openers, the race season will soon be in full swing.