RICK @ the RACES (11 Jan 2009)
Sun 11 Jan Stadiaume St Guillaume ( Quebec)
This past Sunday I got my ‘Rick @ the Races’ 2009 campaign off to a start at the ice racing season opener at the Stadiaume St Guillaume near to Drummondville in Quebec. The opener should have been last weekend ( Jan 4) but an insufficient supply of snow needed to construct the ‘banks’ caused a one week delay. The ‘big dump’ that arrived midweek rectified the situation !
It’s about a two and half hour journey from my place in Long Sault (Ont) and I arrived there 45 minutes before the 1-00pm start time.
The track, which is a traditional dirt oval during the summer months was now surrounded by newly formed snow banks and had a surface of slippery glazed ice. This wasn’t my first time visit, I’ve been there three or four times over the past few years.
On previous visits the program consisted of typical 4 and 8 cylinder Street Stocks, but this time the ‘big bangers’ were missing. In their place were the ‘traction avant’ ( front wheel drive) modifieds. They were not the type of ‘modified’ you’d expect, these were race prepared small cars with studded tires.( seamed like half inch bolts ! ) and they were very ‘quick’
I spent the first part of the show ‘freezing my butt off’ perched on some scaffolding where I took most of my photos.
The regular photographer Patrick Leclerc was doing double duty that day. He was not only snapping pictures, but making his racing debut in the 4 cylinder class ( Ford Escort # 44) . In the summer months Patlec can be seen taking photos at the Autodrome Drummond.
During the intermission I wandered in to the restaurant/bar located underneath the quaint old grandstand which seamed to be the place where most people congregated. In side I met up with a few friends from the dirt racing world, which included Rejean Ouellet and Josee Poisson.
They are both members of the former QUEBEC DIRT web site team. This past winter www.quebecdirt.com changed it’s name and became www.360nitro.com. so I asked Rejean the reason for the change . He told me it was to make it easier for them to cover a wider variety of racing. Instead of being devoted solely to Dirt Racing , www.360nitro.com will be coving the paved tracks, drag racing and of course ice racing.
When I go ice racing, I must admit, I rarely stay for the full program so soon after my ‘warm up’ I was heading for home. I was there long enough to get my ‘racing fix’ !