An Overdose of Run What Ya Brung  the WEEKLY BLOG 12th July 2023

This weeks report begins on Wednesday the 6th of July .

We were going through a mini-heat wave in my area, so in order to cool myself down , I took the Thunderbird for a drive alongside the St Lawrence to the St Zotique beach,  that’s located just across the provincial border in Quebec.

It’s a beach where you have to pay to use, but it was well worth it in these  high temperatures.

In the evening , I attended the Cornwall Olde Car Club cruise night on Vincent Massey Drive.

On Thursday , a group of my local racers rented the Cornwall Motor Speedway for some testing, so I went along to take a look.

Sandy MacFarlane and his son Gavin were there.

Gavin blew his motor a couple of weeks ago , and with the previous weeks ‘rain-outs’,  needed track-time to try-out the new one.

Bob Ray was there helping out Pierre Picard who ‘s now switched from the Mini Stocks to Sportsman.

Dan Cook now has Pierre’s Mini-Stock , and was out in it doing some laps.

Friday the 7th of July was race day, and as usual I headed to my nearest track , the Mohawk International Raceway.

As always , I was there nice and early in good time to relax and take a snooze in my car.

Once in side , I took my pit walk-about and stopped by Madison Mulder. He’s the son of long time racer John Mulder from Spencerville, Ontario.

They had a new car to debut, with a change of color scheme. They’ve  reverted back to blue, one of Johns former colors.

Further down pit row, I found the Tarbell family.

Three generations of racers, Eugene, his daughter Claudia and her daughter Macey. It’s always a pleasure talking to the Tarbells.

The headline event for the evening , was the Run What Ya Brung race for Modifieds.

I’m not a big fan of these, but it is what it is, and the M.I.R is less than a 15 minute drive from my house. I’m getting too old to go chasing off to other tracks 🙂

The last time, I recall seeing them in action was about 15 Years ago.

Back then, Stephane Lafrance was the man to beat, and in 2023 he was at it again , doing it as  his retirement  swan song.

These were joined on the program , by the Sportsman, Rookie Sportsman, Pro Stocks and Mini Stocks. There were only three RWYB ‘specials’ that joined the regular Modifieds.

This was not surprising as there are many drivers, like me, don’t have any interest in this gimmick, and were only attend to maintain their points tally.

Carey Terrance  and Brian Mc Donald had ‘specials’ and of course Stephane.

First of the features was for the Mini-Stocks which was won by Antoine Dumouchel .

Next up was the Rookie Sportsman.

This was won by Dale Gonyo.

After a short intermission it was time for the 50 lap , main event, the Run What Ya Brung for Modifieds.

As expected, once Stephane Lafrance got in front, he pulled away to a big lead, before taking the checkers

The Sportsman feature was next and once again it was Cedric Gauvreau in Victory Lane.

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

Just like the previous week Zack Daniels took the Checkers.

The racing was all over at a sensible time and I was back home by 11-30 pm

It was still hot and humid on Saturday , but heavy rain was predicted in some area.

I had two local tracks to choose from , the Airborne Speedway at Plattsburgh NY who were running regular Modifieds or the Brockville Ontario Speedway for another ‘Run What Ya Brung’ .

It was an easy decision , so at around 2-15 pm , Don Simpson joined me on the drive to Plattsburgh.

We arrived about two hours later , and were soon parked in the pits, in my usual spot by the tech garage.

There was a good turn out of over 20 Modifieds , plus Sportsman and the domestic divisions.

For Hot Laps , I shot pictures on the outside of turn four,  a place I hadn’t been for a while.

The first race of the night was for the Novice Sportsman feature , which had been postponed from the previous weeks rain out.

This was won by Charlotte Morin.

The regular nights heat races then began.

First was the Sportsman

Followed by the Modifieds 

At this point dark clouds had started to approach .

The Renegades then took to the track for their heats.

Shortly after they got under way , One of them performed a flip, right in front of me.

While this was being cleaned up, we felt our first drops of rain.

Before long , we were putting the cameras back in our bags , and getting ready to scramble back to the car.

Once in the dry we waited , as the rain got heavier, until  the inevitable , cancelation was announced.

So, we only got half the show in, and we headed back to Canada.

Meanwhile, down in Brockville, they  got their RWYB in the books and Stephane Lafrance got another run away victory.

Once again, I was home before mid night.

Sunday morning the alarm clock was set , so I could watch the live coverage of the British Grand Prix from Silverstone.

This was another easy Victory for Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, but the big talk afterwards was the great drive in to second place by Lando Norris in the McLaren .

On Sunday night,  the Cornwall Motor Speedway had the final night of the Run What Ya Brung series of races. (This one should of taken place the previous week but it got rained out). 

Like the Mohawk International Raceway, the  CMS is my local track so, I was ready to endure them yet again.

This time, there were a couple of additions to the ‘specials’ , as well as some with using sail panels.

This made things a little bit more interesting.

As expected, some of the drivers were only there to do a few laps and pick up the ‘turn up’ points. 

Joining the RWYB Modifieds , were the Sportsman, Rookie Sportsman , Pro Stocks, and Mini Stocks.

Once again , the weather forecast wasn’t good,  so dramatic changes to the scheduling had to be made , in order to hurry thins up and try and get the show in.

The planned Autograph Night was postponed, in an attempt to beat the predicted rain.

I took hot lap and heat race pics from the pit tower , as I figured it would be a good spot to capture the RWYB cars

The  heat races for all divisions got in the books with no problems or delays..

Then the Mini Stocks took to the track for their feature.

This was when the first bit of rain started. Things came to a halt and the cars returned to the pits while the ‘packers’ did their thing. 

At this point , it was the ideal time for a short intermission.

The shower didn’t last long and once we were ready to go again, an amended feature race schedule came into effect.  Instead of the Mini Stocks continuing their race, the RWYB was brought forward.

Well this turned out to be a shocker.

We were all expecting Lafrance to make it look easy again, but he had difficulty getting through traffic , on this much tighter track.

Instead , Brian McDonald made the running, and he looked all set to take the win, until Gage Morin got passed in the closing laps.

Actually  it was quite an exciting race, but I’m still not a lover of these RWYB shows.

So , Gage Morin was the surprise winner. 

I’ve known Gage since he was a young kid in Go Karts , and his grandfather , Ron and family have been my closest friends since I moved to the area over 25 years ago.

Well, I had to get my buddy Don Simpson , get this pic, didn’t I ?

Following this, the Mini Stocks resumed their feature, that had began before the rain delay.

With fears of more rain to come, no Victory Lane ceremonies would take place for the remaining features until the end of the night.

Brandon McMillan won this one ,

The Rookie Sportsman were next and Pascal Dupuis got this one.

Next it was the Pro Stocks.

Marc Lalonde got another Victory to add to his tally.

The final race of the night was the Sportsman feature, where Justin Cyr took a convincing win.

I must say, this was real pleasure , to see one of Al Dickies race cars in Victory Lane . Al has been a race car owner for many years and I first got to know him when I was the  ‘Track Photographer’ at Ottawa’s CAPITAL CITY SPEEDWAY more than 15 years ago.

On this day, Sunday 9th of July 2023 , it was young Justin who steered Al’s # 88 Sportsman to the win.

Well we beat the rain, and the show was all over before 8-45 pm.

This must be an all-time record, and I was home nice and early.

So, I had a nice quiet day on Monday, then later that night I had a nice piece of news.

I had a message from Jane Cella, the wife of my New Jersey ‘tog’ friend Harry , saying that Harry and I ,  were both sharing ‘front cover’ pics on the Latest Edition of AREA AUTO RACING NEWS.

It’s been along time since I got a ‘front cover’ , and they don’t come easy.

They used one of my RWYB pics from Cornwall