RICK @ the RACES (24/25 March 2012)

24 March         Frontenac Mall Show, Kingston, Ont

24 March         St Lawrence Motorsports Park, Morristown, NY

24 March         Lebrun Race Team Benefit (and wedding), Gatineau,Qu

Unlike last weeks report, which was short and sweet, due a the lack of events on my agenda, this week turned out to be just the opposite. My original plans for Saturday ( 24 March) were to take in two car shows and a race team’s benefit night. The shows were in Kingston and Ottawa, Ontario during the day, and the Lebrun Race Team benefit and wedding ! were taking place in Gatineau, Quebec in the evening.

My agenda got rapidly rescheduled on Saturday morning !

The original plan was to leave my home in Cornwall, Ontario at about 9-00 am so I could be in Kingston before 11-30 am. but after checking my e-mail soon after waking , I knew I had to make some adjustments. I had a message from my TRACKCHASER friend, and Area Auto Racing News columnist Guy Smith in Pennsylvania, with the heading in bold letters saying ‘READ AS SOON AS YOU SEE THIS’ . I quickly read his message, and the attached CNYIRA members release.

RICK!

WENT TO WILLIAMS GROVE LAST NIGHT AND BRUCE AND PAT ECKEL TOLD US ABOUT THIS RACE TODAY.  MIKE AND I GOT THREE HOURS SLEEP, AND WE ARE JUST ABOUT TO LEAVE.  IF YOU SEE THIS EARLY ENOUGH, MAYBE YOU CAN MAKE IT.  IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S PRETTY CLOSE FOR YOU.

GUY

The Central New York Ice Racing Association (CNYIRA.com) will be holding a race, on 3/24/12, at St Lawrence Motorsport Park (SLMP). SLMP is a ¾ of a mile, 11 turn paved kart track in Morristown, NY (across the river from Brockville, Ontario, Canada). Yes it is a kart track, but it is wide enough for passing and some of our members tested cars there last summer and had a blast.

Sorry for the short notice but since not enough of our members have signed up (14, they want to ice race not road race) we are opening it up to any car that meets the rules of CNYIRA (ie less then 3200 lbs, 3.6 liter 6 cylinder or less, see CNYIRA.com rules for more details).

This is a great way to test a car.

This is also great seat time.

The race fee will be $80 or less (depending on number cars). Forms can be found at CNYIRA.com.

CNYIRA frowns on contact and will also be black flagging 2 and 4 wheel off; We will keep this a safe/sane/car friendly event. Cars have to pass a tech inspection. We normal run two classes so two people can share a car. We are limiting it to the first 50 drivers.

The gate will open at ~8 am … registration will close ~10:30am … and we will stop once most people have had enough track time.

We have been doing holding car races for ~30 years, general on the hard frozen lake in and around Central New York, the event is insured.

The track wasn’t too far out of my way, and it was ‘do able’ ! , if I chose to miss the Ottawa show.  So Plan B went into action!

I was on Highway 401 soon after 9-00 am and after grabbing a cup of tea and a bagel from Tim Horton’s at Mallorytown, I was at the Frontenac Mall in Kingston at 11-15 am. This is always one of the best pre season Mall Shows and as usual there were plenty of cars to see from the nearby Brockville and Brighton Speedways . I wont list them all, but have to mention the one car I took most pictures of, the # 11 Sportsman of Dillon Sallows.

Pretty, Kerri Lee Griffin , a good friend of the Wolfe Island based, Sallows team had prearranged with me to do a photo shoot with their car. We got some great shots , that will no doubt be added to the ‘Pretty Faces’ section of www.rickattheraces.com in the near future.

It was also a time to chat with some of the other racers in attendance, Stock Car Steve Bilow was there, as was, Jessica Power and Luke Stewart. It was also good to bump into Brockville promoter Paul Kikland and Dale Calnan of www.ontariooval.com . After spending about an hour in Kingston, it was time to make my exit.

Soon I was back on Highway 401 heading for the Landsdown border crossing to the USA . I crossed into New York State at about 1-00pm and about 45 minutes later I pulled into the St Lawrence Motorsports Park at Morristown.

I’ve been past the entry road to the track plenty of times over the years, but never bothered to take a look.  I’d always been under the impression it was a small kart track for kids. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement !

After driving along the entry road and over the brow of a hill, a paved road course of a reasonable size was in sight. From the top of the hill, an excellent panoramic view of whole track could be seen, and there were cars circulating the course. These were the Central New York Ice Racing Association cars doing their thing on dry land. I saw these guys in action at Bernhards Bay, Oneida Lake NY  back in 2009 .

The lack of local frozen lakes in recent years, has meant them looking at land based venues, and have held RallyCross events at the Black Rock Speedway (Dundee NY). This was their first appearance at the St Lawrence Motor Sports Park, and they’d been racing since mid morning.

My 1-45 pm arrival meant I’d missed my Track Chasing pals, Guy Smith and Mike Knappenburger, and at first , I was also a bit concerned that I might be too late to catch any real racing. When I got there , just one or two cars were hot lapping.

Lucky for me, they had just taken a break for lunch, and this was just a lapping session prior to the afternoon racing. At around 2-00pm, seven cars took to the track and the green flag dropped for a 25 minute race.

This became track # 200 for me on my official TRACKCHASER totals, and for this one, I have to give a big thanks to Guy Smith for his very considerate early morning message.

I must just mention, at this point, that I actually passed the ‘magic’ # 200 of ‘tracks visited’ quite a long time ago. I have a ‘Personal List’ that differs from the TRACKCHASER list that includes , and I quote “ Any ‘wheeled’ Motor Sport event”

The TRACKCHASER rules are very complicated, and they exclude certain types of racing .

Their rules state, it has to be wheel to wheel racing, with at least three cars competing . This means that events where cars are racing each other against the clock cannot be included. ( for example, Rally Stages, Drag Racing, Trials Cars, Autocross, Off Road Racing and Hill Climbs) . The rules also exclude Motor Cycle Racing and certain types of Karting . As well as this, I’ve also had an Ice Racing track excluded, because it was considered to be located too close to another track. As you can see on my ‘Personal List’ below, I have many tracks that come under the ‘uncountable’ category.

It’s a real shame that the TRACKCHASER rules have to be so complicated and ‘picky’, because I’ve visited (and seen action at), at least three ‘world class’ tracks (Goodwood Circuit UK , Homestead Speedway USA, and Santa Pod Dragway UK) that cannot be counted.

Here are the tracks I’ve visited, that are not countable in the TRACKCHASER rules

Bancroft, Ont, Canada. (Rally Special Stage)

Brill, Oxfordshire, UK. (Motor Cycle Scramble)

Brockville Ontario Speedway, Canada (Kart Track)

Cornwall Motor Speedway, Ont. Canada (Kart Track)

Goodwood Circuit, Sussex. UK (Hill Climb)

Great Brickhill, Bucks, UK (Trials Cars)

Great Cornard, Suffolk, UK. (Motor Cycle Scramble)

Hackney Stadium, East London, UK (Motor Cycle Speedway)

Heath and Reach, Beds. UK (Off Road Racing)

Homestead Speedway, Miami, FL. USA (Motor Cycle Racing)

Maniwaki, Quebec, Canada (Rally Special Stage)

Beauharnois, Quebec, Canada (Ice Racing)

Groveway Stadium ,Milton Keynes, Bucks. UK (Motor Cycle Speedway)

North Bay Speedway, Ontario, Canada (Auto Racing)

Palafrugel Karting Club , Palafrugel, Spain, (Kart Track)

Santa Pod Raceway, Poddington, Beds. UK (Drag Strip)

Silverstone Circuit, Northants, UK (Rally Special Stage)

Stanbridge, Bedfordshire, UK . (Motor Cycle Grass Track)

Totternhoe (Lime Kilns) , Beds. UK (Motor Cycle Trials)

White City Stadium, West London, UK (Motor Cycle Speedway)

Woburn Park, Woburn, Beds, UK (Autocross)

Woburn Park, Woburn, Beds, UK (Hill Climb)

Now Back to this weeks report…

After obtaining Track # 200 at the St Lawrence Motor Sports Park, I traveled up to Ogdensburg NY where I crossed back in to Canada. From Johnstown , Ontario I took Highway 416 up into Ottawa, and once over the King Edward Bridge, I parked up in the Gatineau, Quebec Walmart. After buying new batteries for my camera and changing my clothes, I was off to my next engagement.

Once a year local Pro Stock driver Stephane Lebrun and his team hold a fund raiser benefit night, but this years event was going to be a bit ‘special ‘. It was also his marriage ceremony to the lady of his life, Carole Lavigne.  I’d been invited along by his crew chief, Ted Lasage to take some photo’s.

From Walmart, I drove on to Chanty Lasage’s  (Ted’s daughter) place where I joined up with friends, Dan Mountney and the Rob Yetman party from the Albany area of NY. We then followed each other in convoy to the function hall in Gatineau.

Once at the hall , Rob was reunited with one of his former race cars, at the halls entrance. The Stephane Lebrun # 6 car that was on show, used to belong to Rob. Ted was there to greet us in his dress suit ready to be part of the official wedding party.

The happy crowd at our table consisted of Chanty, her son Tyrek, Lisa Brennan, Dan, Lisa Dinelle, Rob, Lesley and Qwee (Yetman crew), fellow racers Kurtis McPhee and Alex Gagnon . After an excellent  buffet supper and some songs from a Garth Brookes ‘look a like’ , the wedding took place. A Justice of the Peace conducted the ceremony in Stephane and Carole’s native French language. It was a great night enjoyed by all and I was back home in Cornwall soon after mid night.

On Sunday night I was at the Cornwall Square Mall to watch as the race cars from the Cornwall Motor Speedway entered the Mall for a one week show. The show is currently taking place and a more details will follow in next weeks report. Get a long and take a look !