RICK @ the RACES

(Easter Road Trip 6/7/8 April 2012)

6 April      Glen Ridge Motor Sports Park, Fultonville NY

7 April       Fonda Speedway NY

The Easter Holiday weekend usually heralds the first road trip of my new racing season, and this past weekend was no exception.

Regular readers will recall, that I’ve mentioned in the past, that as a European, I’m used to a lot bigger choice of racing action when it comes to Easter. Across the Atlantic, it’s not unusual for fans to be at the races, on four consecutive days, Good Friday, Saturday , Easter Sunday and the ‘holiday’ Monday. Things are different now I’m in North America, and my Easter racing opportunities are much less. You can quite easily find a race on Good Friday and Saturday, but Easter Sunday always seems to prove difficult. ( the only one I could find in the North East was the Big Diamond Speedway in PA) . As for the Monday, it’s a normal working day for most people, so that’s also a ‘no go’.

As soon as the track schedules become available , I draw up a short list and make my plans. This year, with the sky rocketing gas prices to contend with, logistics played a major role. With this in mind, I decided to head for the Albany area of New York. The Glen Ridge Motorsports Park were running on Good Friday, and just a few miles away, the Fonda Speedway were having their annual ‘Ice Jam’ on Easter Saturday.

On this years Easter road trip I was being joined by my good friends Chantal Lesage and her son Tyrek. Chanty’s boyfriend happens to be my Dirt Pro Stock racing buddy, Rob Yetman, and he was going to be our host for the weekend.

On Good Friday Chanty drove to my place in Cornwall , Ontario where she parked her car for the weekend. At about 1-00 pm the three of us,  set off in my HHR and crossed into the USA at my local border point, to pick up the 187 at Plattsburgh. It was a beautiful sunny day as we drove over the Adirondack mountains to Albany, where we met up with Rob. From Albany we drove down to the Fultonville exit of 190 where the Glen Ridge and Fonda Speedways are located.

We pulled into Glen Ridge just before 7-00pm just as the warm up laps were starting. I visited this track for the first time on Good Friday of last year and this was only my second visit to the place. (I slept in the car on that occasion and awoke the next morning to a thin layer of snow, only to find nearby Fonda was cancelled)

This year the weather was a lot more favorable and the forecast for the weekend was good. Once on the center at Glen Ridge I joined my photographer friends, George Smith, Mike Petrucci , Derek Covey and Dave Dalesandro. It’s great when you can travel miles from home and meet up all your buddies like this.

On my first visit, I’d really enjoyed the racing on offer, and once more the small ‘quarter’ mile dirt oval delivered the goods. There were many big names in attendance , including, Billy Decker, Matt Sheppard, Pat Ward, Bobby Varin and Larry Wight, but none of them could match the hot pace set by feature winning , Stewart Friesen of Ontario ,Canada.

When the racing was over, we all went back to Rob’s place at Castleton on Hudson, just outside Albany. Saturday morning turned out warm and sunny so we took advantage of the conditions for a photo session.

Rob’s race car was wheeled out of the garage, for some pics while Chanty donned his racing suit for a future ‘Pretty Face’ addition to the website.

In the afternoon, I took off for the Fonda Speedway and got there around 3-00pm. Once more, I reunited with my photographer buddies while capturing the action. Unfortunately a SUPER DIRT SERIES event at Canandaigua was being staged the same day, so this years ICE JAM lacked some of the big names.

It didn’t make any difference to me though, as Fonda is one of my favorite tracks.

Regardless of the clashing events, there were still plenty of class acts in attendance and the 40 lap feature race was superb.

For most of it, the fans were treated to side by side action between Elmo Reckner and Mike Mahaney, with Fonda’s top guys

Matt Delorenzo , Ronnie Johnson and Bobby Varin not making an impression. Mahaney eventually got the better of Richner, as Delorenzo started to creep up.

As the checkers fell , it was Mahaney , from Delorenzo, who was followed by Jim Davis in third. The racing was all over by 7-00pm and it was time to head back to Rob’s place at Castleton on Hudson.

The next morning was Easter Sunday and time for Chanty, Tyrek and myself to head back to Canada. Just like the trip down, we had another enjoyable return ride across the Adirondacks, and after a quick stop in the Plattsburgh Walmart, we were back in Cornwall, Ontario about 4-00 pm.