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Motor Sports Expo Syracuse (13/14 March 2010)

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03172010bRICK @ the RACES (13 / 14 March 2010)

13  March       MOTOR SPORTS EXPO , SYRACUSE, NY

This past weekend I joined my buddies Roger Aubin and Craig Revelle for our annual trip to the Motor Sports Expo in Syracuse NY. This is a show organized by Gater Racing News and is a must for race fans in the North East. Not only are there new race cars on show, but it’s a place where the 2010 schedule cards can be picked up for the various race tracks. Once you have these , you can plan your racing agenda for the year.

We left our base in Eastern Ontario around mid morning for the three hour drive via the 1000 Island border crossing at Landsdown. After having lunch at the Ponderosa in Watertown we arrived at the New York State Fairgrounds, where the show was being held at 3-30pm in the afternoon. We purposely planned to arrive in the afternoon as we intended to stay late for the evening presentation of the Ms DIRTCAR Pageant.

As usual there was a good turnout from all disciplines of Auto Racing that’s seen in the North East. 03172010f 03172010g

Two of my local tracks ( Mohawk Int Raceway and the Can Am Speedway) had displays which were both worthy of praise.

03172010aMIR had track champion Roy Tarbell’s #007 Modified there along side the new Chris Raabe, Perry Francis owned DIRT Sportsman.

03172010dCan Am had the new Big Block Modified of Lance Willix and the smart ‘Best Appearing Car’ Sportsman of Katelyn Kane.03172010c

For me, the best thing about visiting this particular show is the social side, where I meet up with so many friends.

2010_0313Image0036 (Small) 2010_0313Image0006 (Small) 03172010eI won’t even attempt to list them all, because there were so many I chatted to.

2010_0313Image0150 (Small)The Ms DIRTCAR competition was hosted by my buddy, Doug Elkins and was scheduled for 7-30, but due to late arrivals it was delayed for a while. Winner was April Grey of Daytona Beach, FL with New Yorkers, Alysha Ruggles as runner up and Claire Spangler in third.
2010_0313Image0154 (Small)We left Syracuse at around 8-45 pm and about an hour later were sitting down in ‘Appleby’s’ in Watertown for a late night supper. I was back home in Cornwall, Ontario at 1-00 am.

There was no racing taking place on Sunday anywhere locally ( that I knew of), and even ‘armchair viewing’ was out of the question with NASCAR taking a week off.

This weekend happened to be the time when my part of Canada put the clocks forward one hour for summer, so I lost an hour of sleep before attending an 8-00 am mandatory safety meeting that was being held at my place of work. I made it there OK , it only lasted three hours , and I was soon back home relaxing.

In the late afternoon, I decided to phone my daughter Carla for a chat and had a bit of a surprise when she answered. Guess where I’ve been today, Dad ? she said. Of course I had no idea !

03172010j 03172010k 03172010lAt the beginning of the year she relocated to live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and this past Sunday, she and her boyfriend Alex spent the day at the Homestead Speedway in Miami. They were guests at a special Ferrari day that was taking place. As well as the normal hospitalities you’d expect they were also given high speed rides around the track. Carla accompanied a Ferrari test driver for a 150 mph dash around the oval. It must have been an awesome experience !