18 | September | 2024 | Rick at the Races

Airborne Park, Granby and Championship Night at the M.I.R (18th Sept 2024 BLOG)

As usual my BLOG begins with a Thursday night trip to the Airborne Park Speedway at Plattsburgh NY, with my buddy Don Simpson.

He picked me up, from my place in Cornwall in the afternoon, and were at the track before 5-00 pm, in good time to wander the pits .

It was a regular show for 358 Modifieds, Sportsman, Renegades and Mini Stocks.

There were twin features for the Sportsman and the first one was staged before the Intermission.

This was won by Beau Reeves.

After a short break the racing resumed , with the Modified feature.

Tanner Siemons dominated this race , up until a few of laps from the end when basically he got ‘robbed’ .

A late caution bunched up the field on the restart.

George Foley who had been chasing Siemons, some way back in second place grabbed the initial lead.

Then as the race got nearer to the checkers, Mike Mahaney stormed passed him to make for an exciting finish.

This gave Mahaney his second win of the year at Airborne Park.

The Renegade feature followed this, before the second Sportsman feature.

Don and I had already decided on an early get away, so made our exit.

In our absence, Donovan Lussier captured another win.

The early get away , meant I was home by 11-00 pm.

On Friday I had a relaxing day, before heading across International Bridge to the Mohawk International Raceway.

This week, they had reverted back to Friday night , for this end of season show.

On my arrival at 4-30 pm , the pits were already quite full and had a line of haulers at the gate.

It was pretty obvious it was going to be a busy night.

The change of race night , meant a few invaders from other tracks.

A few Brockville regulars were there including the Johnathon Ferguson team

My good friend Ralph Murphy was with them and I took this pic of him showing off the Rick at the Races sticker.

Another reason the pits were crowded, was the full program that consisted of Modifieds, Sportsman , Limited Sportsman, Pro Stocks, Mini Stocks and the visiting Vintage Modifieds.

It was Sail Panel night for the Modifieds, and also the ‘final points’ night for the domestic divisions.

Before the racing took place a presentation was made to Chris Raabe in recognition of his 200 Feature wins.

Here’s Chris pictured with Dave Thompson and Courtney King.

I took a few action shots from the pit lane before moving to the middle.

After the heat races the Limited Sportsman feature took place .

This was won by Keith Pelkey.

The Intermission then followed.

After the break, the rest of the features began, starting with the Vintage.

As usual with these guys they have two winners in their feature, depending on the cars age .

The older section was won by Greg Hale and the later ones by Gavin Riddle.

The Modified feature was next.

Early leader was Ryan Stabler but once Tim Fuller got passed, there was no stopping him.

Chris Raabe’s second place was enough to secure the 2024 track championship.

The Sportsman were up next.

This was dominated by Tristan Ladouceur, until Fire Smoke edged passed in the closing laps.

Ladouceur clinched the championship.

The Pro Stock feature then followed .

This turned out to be a fairy tale result , with this divisions, veteran Denis Gauvreau taking the lead in the early stages and staying up front until the checkers.

The Championship went to Dakota Sharp.

It was midnight by the time the Mini Stocks took to the track for the final feature

This was won by Emily Barber Massey, with CJ LaVair winning the Championship.

Victory Lane pictures were over by about 12-15 .

A bit late , but this was to be expected with the amount of cars in attendance.

On Saturday, I decided to make a trip up to Autodrome Granby in Quebec.

They had a two day event going on titled the Rebel Weekend , and this was day two.

While I’d been at the M.I.R on Friday night, Steve Bernier had won the Modified feature.

I was there at 4-00 pm and I soon met up with friends at the Luke Whitteker 124 team .

The program consisted of Modifieds, Sportsman , Pro Stocks and Mod Lites.

On the small central oval , the Sling Shots were racing

The first feature was for the Mod Lites and won by Antonin Lafleur

The Modified feature was up next , and in honor of Granby’s former Rebel Speedway the race began with a traditional pace car and a retro Modified.

This was dominated from start to finish by Francois Bernier, but because he was only testing the CT525 engine, his result would be void, and not count.