BIG BLOCKS AND CAR SHOWS ( WEEKLY BLOG 19th JULY 2023)

This past week had the potential of being one of the busiest racing weeks I’ve had for a long time , with an agenda of five shows in five days .

Of course ‘Mother Nature’ came into play, and reduced it slightly.

Even so, it was quite eventful, and I had very little time to do this Blog.

Therefore I will be as concise as I can .

It started on Wednesday the 12th of July with a short drive across the bridge to the Mohawk International Raceway , in Hogansburg NY. 

They had a race for the CANADIAN BIG BLOCK SERIES.

The M.I.R is less than a mile from Canada, so it’s considered to be close enough to be part of the series.

The program consisted of Big Block Mods, Sportsman and Rookie Sportsman.

Ty David was the winner of the Rookie Sportsman.

The regular Sportsman race provided a win for Corey Castell.

Of course, the main event , was the Big Block Modified race.

Although Tim Fuller started on the front and dominated it right to the checkers, it was still a good race.

He was challenged throughout by both David Hebert and Jordan McCreadie.

At the finish it was Fuller first , McCreadie 2nd and Hebert third.

The next day, Thursday the 13th of July, it was day two of the ‘back to back’ CANADIAN BIG BLOCK SERIES, races, just a few miles away at the Cornwall Motor Speedway.

The weather forecast looked grim.

Plenty of rain was expected, and sure enough I woke in the morning to a lot of it . By mid day it had stopped, but more was heading our way about 4-00 pm.

The track management were determined to get this high profile show in the books , and as soon as the rain ceased,  packers and clean up equipment were out getting things dried out.

Some of my local drivers joined in the task.

Brian McDonald spent quite a long time on his front end loader, moving the sloppy mess from the pits, while Eric Gauvreau was out on the track with a back hoe.

Things eventually got under way , and with only three divisions on the program, the 11-00 pm curfew, wasn’t the usual issue.

Big Blocks, Sportsman and Mini Stocks

I took my hot lap pictures from the pit tower and then moved to the middle for the heat races.

During one of the Big Block heats , the unfortunate Brian McDonald , who’d  worked so hard earlier, to get the track ready, had a bit of a mis-hap on turn one/two.

His car ‘dug in’ too hard and caused it to flip. He ended up on his roof.

He was OK, but this was not the kind of thing he deserved .

Due to the weather issues, the Big Block Feature race was brought forward and took place after a brief intermission for track prep.

This turned out to be a good one.

Justin Lalancette, who normally runs in the Sportsman division, was driving the loaned # 59  Big Block and he surprised a lot of people.

After a battle at the front with Johnny Jackson # 18 he sped off for a dominating lead.

He looked all set to have it in the bag until the last lap, when young Felix Roy # 91 , who’d been gradually creeping up, came to challenge.

Lalancette and Roy crossed the line side by side, but it was youngster from Quebec , who clinched it by just fractions of a second. 

Carey Terrance came third to complete the podium.

The Sportsman feature was up next.

This was won by Shane Pecore.

To end the night it was the Mini Stocks Feature.

It was great to see Marc Dagenais, get the win in this one.

It’s been a while, and we always have a lot of fun when Marc gets to Victory Lane.

Well , the show got in the books, and Mother Nature was the loser this time.

On Friday, there was no racing taking place at my local Mohawk International Raceway because they ran on Wednesday , so I headed down to the Can Am Speedway at Lafargeville, NY.

They had a regular night of racing, with the 358 Modifieds and Sportsman topping the bill. Support divisions were Limited Sportsman, Sprint cars and Mini Stocks.

The nights winners were Billy Dunn in the Modifieds.

 

 

Tyler Corcoran was the Sportsman winner

Winner of the Limited Sportsman was Keegan Nier

Josh Verne Jr  won the Sprint Car race and Phil Desormeau took the one for Mini Stocks (they call them Thunderstocks at Can Am) .

A ‘Powder Puff’ race for the ladies ended the night, but I made my exit before this got under way.

On Saturday morning (15th July) , I drove my 1978 Ford Thunderbird to the Cornwall Township Lions Club Car Rally that was taking place at  Bonville just outside Cornwall.

This was one of the best shows I’ve attended since resuming my interest in old car rallies. All the cars that registered were given a nice ‘dash plaque’

There were plenty of nice cars on show and some good prizes to be won.

From one of the side shows, I came away with a nice 150 bucks voucher to be used at my local Ford dealer, and I got a McDonalds meal voucher as a door prize.

I stayed there until about 1-30 pm before heading back home to switch cars.

It was time to head down Highway 401 in my Chev Impala to the Brockville Ontario Speedway.

It was a regular show at the B.O.S , but once again the weather was a big issue.

The program consisted of 358 Modifieds, Sportsman , Rookie Sportsman , Sprint Cars and Street Stocks.

With rain expected at any time , the show pressed on as quickly as possible, the planned Autograph night was cancelled and all the Victory Lane pictures were taken at the end of the night.

First of the features was for the Rookie Sportsman.

Nathan Lambert got this one,.

Next up was the Modified feature.

Soon after the start we came under red flag status, after Chris Ferguson took a tumble. 

It’s never good when someone wrecks their car, but I always have to feel sorry when it happens to a low budget racer. 

He flipped his car , and picked up some substantial damage.

Lucky for Chris he walked away unharmed,  (after I spoke to him at the end of the night, he said ” I’ll be back next week”)

I’ve known Chris for a lot of years, since the days he was racing Late Models at Ottawa’s , Capital City Speedway.

 I know how dedicated he is and looking forward to seeing him back on track soon. 

Once the racing resumed , Jarrett Herbison  # 38 dominated the race and was the first to cross the checkers.

After post race checking on the scales, he was DQ’d and the win was given to the second across the line, Kalen Draper.

The Sportsman Feature was next.

This gave Xavier Andrews the win.

To end the night , it was the Sprint Cars and Street Stocks.

Lee Ladouceur and Tyler French got wins respectively .

Again, Mother Nature was beaten , just as a few sprinkles of rain began to fall.

Sunday the 16th of July, was supposed to be my local Cornwall Motor Speedway, but with bad weather in the forecast and many race teams , travelling long distances , an early morning call was made to cancel.

By lunch time , it had stopped raining so I decided to take the Thunderbird to the nearby Avonmore Fair where an old car display was taking place.

Unfortunately only a few cars turned up, due to the scare of rain, but there were other things to do.

On Monday it was another car show , when I went to the Monday night cruise at Morrisburg.

I was hoping to go to the Airborne Speedway at Plattsburgh on Tuesday night for the rescheduled races from a ‘rain out’ two weeks previous.

Alas,  rain once again, forced another postponement.

To end this weeks report, on Wednesday the 19th of July, yes you’ve guessed it, yet another car show.

It was the weekly Cornwall Olde Car Club gathering on Vincent Massey drive. 

It was nice to see my racing friend Kyle Bouvier there with his new catering business Boov’s Doghouse . 

Kyle’s been part of my local racing scene for many years and I remember when he won a Bandit feature at the M.I.R many years back .