RICK @ the RACES (SUPERDIRT WEEK 2011)

6/7/8/9 October        New York State Fairgrounds ,  Syracuse, Weedsport, and Rolling Wheels NY

This weeks report covers my trip to the 40th running of SUPER DIRT WEEK , an event that takes place annually on the ‘Moody Mile’ at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse and other tracks in the surrounding area. With my HHR packed and a few vacation days from work I set off from my home in Cornwall, Ontario at 10-00 am on Wednesday (6 Oct)  . I crossed in to the USA at Ogdensburg about an hour later, and was down at the Fairgrounds in Syracuse by mid afternoon.

My plan was to sign in at the ticket office before heading off to the evenings races. Wednesday’s big race was a SUPER DIRT SERIES event for 358 Modifieds which was taking place at the nearby Cayuga County Fairgrounds, at Weedsport. I got there in good time to wander around the pits and chat to friends before taking my position on the center.

As well the 75 lapper for Mods, there was a 30 lap SUPER DIRT SERIES race for Sportsman and an appearance by the New York based 600 Sprint Cars.

Dale Planck took the Modified checkers, but the one driver that caught most peoples attention was runner up Frankie Caprara #55X. After a lay off of nearly two years he was back out driving a loaned Perry Francis car. It was a real joy to watch as he carved his way through the pack to get a well deserved podium finish in front of a third placed Danny Johnson.

Dan Weisner won the Sportsman race while Daryll Ruggles took the 600 Sprint Car victory.

From Weedsport, I drove back to the Fairgrounds where I parked up the HHR for the night. With the front passenger seat moved forward and the back seats folded down there is plenty of room in my ‘mini RV’. Extra comfort is provided by two big cushions from an old couch. I’d parked close to one of the shower blocks, so once awake, I was able to clean my self up.

The media conference was at noon and I wanted to look respectable !

My afternoon was spent meeting friends and watching the hot laps before heading off to the evening’s races.

Normally , Thursday night at SUPER DIRT WEEK means a visit to the Brewerton Speedway, but this year ‘politics’ had intervened and the fans had to choose between going there, or the Rolling Wheels Raceway.  I would have proffered to have stuck to tradition, but decided on Rolling Wheels where there was a 358 SUPER DIRT SERIES race was going on and many of my friends were taking part.

Rolling Wheels is only about a 20 minute drive from the Fairgrounds and I was there in plenty of time to have a picnic in the sunshine before the racing got under way. Joining the 358 Mods on the program, were the World of Out Law Late Models.

Danny Johnson was the Modified winner,

while Rick Eckert won in the Late Models.

After the races were over, I returned to the Fairgrounds and parked up beside the Corey Wheeler and Joey Ladouceur Pro Stock camp for some late night reveling with a party of friends from the Cornwall area.

On Friday the whole day was centered on the ‘Moody Mile’ and with the aid of some large mobile floodlights, it allowed the racing to continue into the night.

  There was plenty taking place on the track that day and some of the memorable winners included Jimmy Blewett and Australian, Peter Britten in the 358 and Big Block Futures Races.

Rich Achzet was the Futures winner in the Pro Stocks . There were so many ‘newbies’ in the Sportsman division that two Futures races were held, with Cody McPherson taking one and Bobby Hackel IV taking the other.

As we went into the evening sector of the show, the traditional Twin 20’s for 358 Mods and the Triple 20’s for Big Blocks took place.

The 358 checkers went to Billy Decker and Andy Bachetti  while Decker, Pat Ward and Billy Dunn were the victors in the Big Blocks.

As you’d expect, once the racing was over, the partying began, with music and dancing at the infield bar and the Club Wago activities and live band on the outside, by the exit of the tunnel. I shared my time with friends at both functions, before retiring for the night at around 2-00am.

My ‘mini RV’ was parked up next to the Perry Francis Team camp of Chris Raabe and Dillon Sallows for the night. Earlier in the evening I’d watched as the Raabe car was repaired following an on track incident during the day.

Surprisingly enough, I was up nice and early on Saturday morning and was washed and showered in time to be stationed in the Media Center before 8-30 am. Digital cameras and the internet age means that electrical sockets are in big demand at events like this, so many of us teamed up to share power bars. In between taking racing pics , I used the media center (which had a live TV link of the outside action) as a base for most of the time spent at the Fairgrounds.

Around noon hour, I joined all the other eager male photographers at the Area Auto Racing News booth for the annual photo shoot opportunities with Ms Motor Sports.

This years beauty was Karin Heisey from Harrisburg PA who posed beside the Ronnie Johnson car

Saturday is always a tricky one for us media guys who want to cover all the big events in the tight scheduling.

The big event of the day was the 150 lap Nationwide Insurance 358 Modified race (won by Billy Decker) which was followed by a Big Block Shoot out (won by Billy Dunn) . The 30 lap Sportsman race, which in my opinion had more appeal than the ‘Shoot Out’ was scheduled as the last race of the day. This meant, that those of us who wanted to be at Rolling Wheels for the evenings World of Outlaw Sprint Car event, had to choose between missing the start of that, or missing the end of the Sportsman race.

It’s always very frustrating, and even more so this year as , Shane Pecore, one of my local Cornwall , drivers had qualified with a third fastest time. I tried to last out until the end of the Sportsman race, but with ‘caution after caution’ , I found myself heading for the exit before the checkers. In my absence Neal Williams of New Jersey was the winner with the Ontario duo of McPherson and Pecore in second and third.

The time trials at Rolling Wheels had already started when I arrived, but with the help of the tracks official photographer, (who happens to be my buddy) Bill Moore, I got a ride onto the center in his truck. Regular readers will know that I don’t have much time for the local Sprint Cars I get ‘served up’ in my area, but the Out Laws are different and always put on an amazing show. Driver ability and car quality make all the difference and in most cases you get flag to flag races without too many stoppages. Saying that, during the nights feature we did get a red flag situation following a spectacular crash involving two of the sports top drivers. Tony Stewart Racing team mates Steve Kinser and Donny Schatz came together on the opening lap .

Both cars recieved extensive damage after Kinser flipped over and the Schatz car suffered front axle breakages.

After the restart 2010 WoO Champion Jason Myers of California cruised to Victory.

Also on the program, were the Big Block Mods who were going for the ‘Win and your in’,  one of the last chance opportunities of getting through to Sundays SEF 200 at the mile.

This spot was won by Chad Brachmann.

I decided to stay at the ‘Wheels’ that night and first thing on Sunday morning returned to the Fairgrounds . Sunday was the big day, and the time for the years most prestigious Dirt Modified race.

As before, I based myself in the John Hill Media Centre and it was in there that I had the pleasure of meeting ‘Buzzie’ Reutimann again. As the first ever winner at Syracuse, 40 years ago, he was one of the guests of honour. ‘Buzzie’ happened to be my first hero of Dirt Modified racing even before I moved to North America. While living in England, during the 1970’s and in the days before e-mail, I had quite a few American pen-friends who were Dirt racing fans. I was sent books and photos from the Orange County Fair Speedway, and other New York tracks , where one car and driver stuck out from the rest. It was the immaculate blue and white coupe of ‘Buzzie’ Reutimann # 00 of Zephyr Hills, Florida.

I emigrated to Ontario , Canada in 1994 and you can imagine my surprise, a year later when I visited the Brockville Ontario Speedway for the first time and the # 00 ‘Buzzie’ Reutimann hauler pulled up at the pit gate. I remember going up to him and saying , hey, are you ‘the’ ‘Buzzie’ Reutimann I’d read about from the 1970’s ?

Of course by then he was no longer driving a coupe, but the colour scheme and numbers were still the same and he was still one of the top drivers. During 1995 and 1996 , he became my hero as he won features at my local Cornwall Motor Speedway. I met up with him again a couple of years ago while I was visiting the East Bay Speedway at Tampa and just like the first time we met, I found him very approachable and a genuine guy.

He was the same again this year at Syracuse and I had a very enjoyable chat with him. He is now 70 years old and is still winning races near to his Florida home. Only last Saturday , he won the Feature at his local Bubba Raceway Park at Ocala. One of the first things he mentioned once we got chatting, was that he’d heard that Ocala had ‘rained out’ this Saturday while he was at Syracuse, ( so that meant he wasn’t losing any points !).

He went on to say that he has no intentions of quitting yet, and that his son David ( the NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver) keeps offering to buy him new race cars. As for this years Syracuse, he was in attendance only as a spectator, but enthusiastically smiled and said that the track was in perfect condition, just like it was when he won back in 1972. I got the impression he would have liked to be out there that day !

As normal , the big race for Pro Stocks preceded the Modified 200 lapper, which is an event that never fails to be exciting. We weren’t disappointed and the 30 lapper turned out to be the best race of the week.

The battle at the front between the NY trio of Rob Yetman , Rocky Warner and Pete Stefanski kept fans on their toes throughout.

As they went into the final lap, it could of been any ones race, but when the checkers fell it was 2010 winner ,Warner who was there to claim his second big win at the ‘Mile’

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was then time for the climax of the week, the SEF 200 for Big Block Modifieds.

I have to admit, that even though this is the ‘big event’ , I’m not a great lover of long distance races, and very rarely watch the whole thing.

For the first 20 laps I stood in my usual spot taking pics on the exit of turn four before wandering around and moving back to the media center to follow the live coverage on TV.

For the last ten laps I took up position and watched from the home straight as the drama of the final laps unfolded. Could Billy Decker get past long time leader, and 2010 winner Stewart Friesen, or not ? was the question everyone was asking . In the last few laps Decker tried in vain to get within challenging distance of Friesen , who like Rocky Warner in the previous race, went on to get a second consecutive victory.

Once the Victory Lane pictures had been taken I returned to the media center to pack up my things for the journey home.

After stopping at the Pondorosa restaurant in Watertown NY , I was back at my house in Cornwall at about 11-30 pm.

This years SUPER DIRT WEEK will be remembered for the warm and sunny weather and the year we had duplicate winners on the big day. Coming up next week, it’s the North East Fall Nationals at the Brockville Ontario Speedway, so lets just hope Mother Nature is kind to us once more.