The Dirt Outlaw Apparel FALL NATIONALS (Weekly Blog 19th October 2023)

The Dirt Outlaw Apparel Fall Nationals (weekly Blog 19th October 2023)

After the wash out that ruined last weeks racing, Mother Nature decided to be kind to me this past weekend.

On Friday 13th and Saturday 14th of October the Brockville Ontario Speedway were staging the Dirt Outlaw Apparel FALL NATIONALS.

It’s their annual end of the season show and has been going since 2009.

Mario Clair, was the winner in that inaugural year.

The weather forecast for the weekend was favorable so early Friday morning I left my home in Cornwall.

The reason for the early departure was for a routine appointment I had in the morning with my Myasthenia Gravis doctor at Ottawa’s Civic Hospital. The 10-00 am Appointment went well, and I was out of there before 11-00 . After attending to other things I had to do in the city, I took a leisurely drive to the B.O.S.

I was there nice and early and had plenty of time to relax in the parking lot.

I met up with Jim Clarke who gave me more info about the rain problems we had at the Peterborough Speedway, the previous week.

Their catch up day, was on Saturday 14th ( the following day) so Jim would only be at the B.O.S for that one night.

The program for Friday included Mini Stocks, Vintage Mods, STR’s, Sportsman and Pro Stocks.

The 358 Modifieds were there, but only for Hot Laps and a Dash For Cash.

Mario Clair the 2009 winner was there , who is now driving for Pierre Dagenais

It was also good to see William Racine out in a Modified # 54, after dominating the Sportsman division for the past couple of years.

The Dash for Cash was won by Johnathan Ferguson .

The big race of the weekend for the Modifieds was scheduled for Saturday.

The Headline events on Friday were for the Sportsman and Pro Stocks.

Brennan Moore was the Sportsman winner.

The Pro Stock Feature was the last race of the night, but I was on my way home when Jocelyn Roy took the checkers.

With such a lot of races on the program , things were running late and it had been a long day for me. I also missed Matt Barbour and Pete Stapper’s wins the Vintage Modifieds.

Earlier in the night, Yan Bussiere had been the winner of the STR Feature.

He also went out for a few Hot Laps in his Sportsman, but was not allowed to race , because of an obscure rule , that prevents drivers switching down in divisions.

The Mini Stocks feature gave Marc Dagenais a win.

It’s always a fun time when Marc’s in Victory Lane .

As mentioned earlier, I never stayed to the end of the night as I had to return to the track again the next day.

So, I made my exit at 11-00 after the Sportsman feature, and headed home to Cornwall.

A big turnout was expected for the DirtCar 358 Modified and Sportsman Series races on Saturday, so racing was brought forward slightly earlier.

A Short Track Super Series event had been called off at the Port Royal Speedway Pa. due to rain , so a few drivers scheduled to race there, were likely to turn up.

I was back at the B.O.S for lunch time and arranged to meet up with my friend Chanty . Her cousin Charles Marchand was making his racing debut in the Street Stocks.

I’ve known him since he was a kid, and his father Luc, was a an official at the now defunct Autodrome Edelweiss in Cantley, Quebec.

As Chanty and I continued our roam around the pits we bumped into my ‘tog’ buddy Alex Bruce and his wife Helen from St Cathrines.

All four of us were then invited to lunch in the back of the Mat Williamson hauler.

There was a lovely spread of food laid out, that was prepared that morning by crew members Shauna and Dave . Thanks Guys.

Mat was one of the drivers that had originally planned to be in Pennsylvania , at the Port Royal Speedway.

When hot laps and time trials began Alex, Don Simpson and myself did a bit of shooting from the outside of turn one.

While we were standing there freezing our butts off Shawn Hartin , the partner of Jessica Power , took this pic.

With it being a high profile event, there were a lot more ‘togs’ in attendance than Friday.

Joining the 358 Modifieds and Sportsman on the program were the Street Stocks, Vintage Modifieds and Sprint Cars

Justin Ramsey was the Street Stocks winner.

Josh Powers was the Vintage Winner.

and Jordan Poirier got the Sprint Car Victory.

The first of the headline events to take place was the 100 lap 358 DirtCar Series race,

This was a good one. Erick Rudolph led for most of the race with Mat Williamson trying to pass him for many laps.

They eventually got side by side in the last few laps , and as they jostled for the lead, they came together on the entrance to the first turn . Both of them lost a lot of ground with Rudolph losing the most.

Corey Wheeler who’d been following closely in third, took advantage of the situation and nipped by to take the lead.

Williamson recovered quicker than Rudolph and started chasing Wheeler, but Corey kept a good distance between them to keep the lead and take the checkers, for his first DirtCar Series Victory .

Ryan Arbuthnot took third place to complete the podium, while Rudolph had to be content with sixth.

It was also the night that the 2023 DirtCar Championship for the 358 Modified Series was decided.

This went to Mat Williamson.

The DirtCar Sportsman Series race followed .

Nicholas Root # 30 was the early dominator , but was eventually caught and passed by Zach Sabotka # 38 for the win.

Local hero and multi BOS feature winner, Bobby Herrington was third.

Just like the 358 race, this was also the night the 2023 DirtCar Sportsman Champion was crowned.

This went to Andrew Buff .

The 2023 Dirt OutLaw Apparel FALL NATIONALS were over, and in the books for another year.

Although it was a bit chilly, as you’d expect for this time of year, the rain stayed away and it will go down as one of the best yet.

It was over by 11-00 and before long I was heading back up the 401 to Cornwall.

My week was a quiet one .

My Chev Impala was booked into SEAWAY GM in Cornwall , where Corey Wheeler and his staff were getting a few jobs done before a forthcoming road trip to North Carolina.

I was running around town in my 1978 Ford Thunderbird for a few days while the work was being done.

Before the road trip , I have our local Cornwall Motor Speedway weekend coming up. This was postponed from a couple of weeks ago when rain put a stop to things.

I went along to the track on Wednesday and it looked in great shape.

The only problem was, the forecast was rain for the weekend.

Adjustments had to be made to the schedule , and instead of it being a three day event, it was condensed to just Friday , with just the the main divisions included.

Lets hope all goes well.

Finally , let me digress and move on to something completely different.

During the week I had a message from my old buddy Robin Shaw from the UK . He is probably the one responsible for getting me into racing media.

At the weekend he was at a BriSCA F1 race at Bradford in England and spotted this newcomer to the tracks. He jokingly commented , that he thought it was me back in action.